Starfield romance
It's official, there are Starfield romance options if you're a spacefarer seeking love. Here's everything you need to know.
Todd Howard has confirmed that there will be Starfield romance options available for amorous players seeking love on behalf of their spacefarer. Bethesda Game Studios has flirted with romance systems over the years, with shallow offerings in Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 3. Fallout 4, however, offered a bit more depth and, according to Todd Howard, Starfield develops that even further.
Todd Howard reveals that there are four romance options in Starfield, but they are considerably deeper than anything we’ve seen in a Bethesda title before. We already know that companions are being fleshed out to the point they can take charge of selective interactions at your discretion, so we’re curious what kind of relationships you’ll be developing in the Settled Systems.
Are there Starfield romance options?
We know that we can expect Starfield romance options thanks to a statement from the developers. “[Romance] is one of the things we’ve pushed in Starfield. We have a number of companions, but four of them we go […] – I won’t say super complex romantic – but more complex relationships than we’ve had in terms of not just some state, like they like you or they don’t like you, but they can be in love with you and dislike something you did and be pissed at you temporarily, and then come back to loving you.”
“In our previous stuff, you just work your way up, they like you more and more and more and more, and [then] you’re in a relationship. When you make them upset, you drift out of the relationship like it never happened,” explains Howard in a discussion with Lex Fridman. “We wanted [a system] where you can be in a relationship, we’ve committed to each other in some way, but I just did something that really made you angry and as opposed to just drifting out of that status you’re in a temporary ‘I don’t like what you did’ state.”
Who are the Starfield romance options?
Unfortunately, we don’t know the list of followers or potential romantic partners, but at least we know for sure that there will be romance options. We expect that how you choose to interact with a specific Starfield NPC or the various Starfield factions will have a big impact on how your relationships evolve.
Vasco, despite being a robot Starfield companion, could be among your potential romance options. Lead Artist Istvan Pely said “Even early in the process, before we had the full suite of characters, people in the studio started gravitating toward Vasco. He’s your buddy, but he’s a robot. But all of the sudden everyone on the team decided ‘I want a relationship with Vasco. He’s so cool. He’s so much fun.’ He became a breakout character, and we were just getting started.”
It wouldn’t be the first robot character to see romance in a Bethesda title. Fallout 4’s Curie won the hearts of fans, and Vasco might be doing the same.
Is there sex in Starfield?
There will not be sex in Starfield. At least, not on screen. While Bethesda hasn’t officially confirmed the state of sex in Starfield, the Australian Classification board rated Starfield as R 18+ Interactive drug use. Notably, the table shows that Violence has a ‘Strong impact’, with Drug use having a ‘High impact’ but ‘Sex’ comes under ‘None’.
Nudity will have a ‘Very mild impact’ on Starfield, so Bethesda’s focus could be on the romantic side, though the ESRB’s own rating revealed some racy post-coupling dialogue:
- “Life is a sexually transmitted disease that’s a hundred percent fatal.”
- “I’m all for getting a little wild, but next time let’s try it without the jetpacks.”
- “Talk about seeing stars, whew… that was amazing.”
It’s unclear which companions deliver these lines.
For the moment, we can only speculate what romance options will be available and which candidates on our Starfield NPCs list can form closer bonds with the Spacefarer. Hopefully the Starfield showcase will reveal more on potential love interests and which Starfield locations and planets they can be found in!