The upcoming space-faring title from Bethesda, Starfield, may bring back an infamous character from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Starfield is Bethesda Game Studio's first new original IP in over twenty years, and while it was recently delayed to 2023, the game is still shaping up to be one of Bethesda's most expansive titles. Despite the delay, Bethesda has managed to keep interest alive with sneak peeks into gameplay mechanics and teases of the game's considerable scope, with over 1000 planets for players to explore.
Starfield is looking to be Bethesda's most ambitious game yet. It promises players the opportunity to explore the vastness of space, customize their own spaceships, and even build planetary bases. On top of that, Starfield will include thousands more dialogue lines than Fallout 4 and Skyrim put together. This is particularly noteworthy because Starfield's protagonist is silent, unlike the protagonist of Fallout 4, which had 111,000 dialogue lines and featured a fully voiced protagonist.
During a sneak peek at Starfield's gameplay, a passage mentioning an "Adoring Fan" appeared on a list of character traits. During an interview with Todd Howard, shared by Bethesda Softworks, Howard discussed special traits that can be added and removed from the player's character. As noted by GamesRadar, one of the traits seen here is titled "Hero Worshipped," and has a description which states that “You've earned the attention of an annoying ‘Adoring Fan’ who will show up randomly and jabber at you incessantly.” Putting "Adoring Fan" in quotes seems to compare this NPC directly to a certain Oblivion character of the same name. Oblivion's Adoring Fan was a notorious NPC who filled a similar role, following the player character and ceaselessly fawning over them. This won't be the first instance of Starfield taking inspiration from Oblivion, as the game is seeking to provide a fresh take on the persuasion minigame from the Elder Scrolls game.
A Starfield Character Trait Might Bring Back Oblivion's Adoring Fan
The Adoring Fan is a talkative elf with yellow hair whom the player meets after becoming the champion of Cyrodiil's combat arena; he becomes obsessed with the champion, and asks to follow them around. However, while other followers aid the player in combat, the fan runs and hides whenever a fight breaks out. In the worst cases, he can even alert more enemies while fleeing, which then attack the player. The Fan can be killed by the player or enemies, but he respawns after three in-game days. Fortunately, Hero Worshipped is just one of Starfield's skills and traits for players to unlock. If players would rather not relive that specific part of Oblivion, they can simply leave that trait alone. Each trait on offer will have both a positive and negative impact on the player. For example, the Dream Home trait gives the player a large customizable house on a peaceful planet, but the player has to pay a weekly mortgage. The upside of Hero Worshipped is that the Adoring Fan will bring gifts to the player, but what those gifts will be is unspecified.
Howard seemed particularly excited about the trait list, and how it can dramatically affect a player's adventure. Between exploration, customization, and the game's stand-out realistic character models, Starfield is looking to be a serious upgrade from preceding Bethesda titles while still taking inspiration from what fans loved about them. Since it won't be released until 2023, players will have time to decide if getting gifts will be worth inviting the Adoring Fan back into their lives.
Source: Bethesda Softworks/YouTube (via GamesRadar)