Dragon Age's lead writer defends Starfield's lack of romance options

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Starfield’s romance options are limited to four specific companions, but the former lead writer of the Dragon Age series thinks that’s good news, actually.

Starfield’s game director Todd Howard revealed the number of romanceable companions earlier this month, where he said: “the four main Constellation [NPCs] are the ones that support full questlines for them and for romance.” Lots of fans expressed disappointment at that figure considering the game will have around 1000 planets to explore, and presumably a lot of people to meet, but it’s not all bad news.

David Gaider, the creator of Dragon Age’s world, thinks the leaner amount of romance options could be good. “I’d say this is a good thing, and hopefully speaks of a ‘quality over quantity’ mindset, at least on the narrative side,” wrote Gaider in a tweet responding to the Starfield news. He continued to say: “Unless a meaningful romance arc is the kind of thing one imagines an AI could whip up… in which case, ew.”

That’s not a bad or surprising point from Gaider since the very first Dragon Age game also had four romance options, and is widely regarded as one of the best RPGs of its kind. For comparison, some other stellar games also have a leaner amount of romance options including Cyberpunk 2077 (with four), the first Mass Effect (with three), and The Witcher 3 (which only has two primary ones.)

Gaider had some other interesting thoughts on Bethesda’s upcoming game. One commenter wondered why Starfield had attracted so many negative online takes, and Gaider responded that “the scepticism probably comes from the promises of endless content but also meaningful content… things which haven’t really been compatible to date.” That’s a valid concern for a game that can be played for up to 500 hours.

Starfield is set to launch on September 6th for Xbox, PC, and Game Pass.

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.