Starfield romances and relationships will be part of the game, with an apparently more nuanced system for developing love with NPC characters. After being a recognised trope in past Bethesda games, as well as other spacefaring RPGs like Mass Effect, Starfield is bringing in romanceable NPCs that players can form relationships with. We'll cover everything we know about Starfield relationships and romance below, which reportedly will have more layers to it than Bethesda's previous attempts.
Starfield romances and relationship systems explained
Starfield romances and relationships are indeed part of the game, with the following information confirmed by Todd Howard:
- There will be multiple romanceable NPCs across the Starfield single player campaign.
- Relationships are "more complex(,) in terms of whether they like you or they don't like you".
- It's possible to upset romantic partners in temporary ways, rather than just having permanent changes or breaking the relationship off.
Bethesda's main goal with Starfield is seemingly to aim for complexity, rather than simple numbers of characters you can make doe-eyes at. The news that some Starfield relationships will be "more complex" than in other Bethesda games was highlighted in an interview Todd Howard gave regarding the game, with an apparent emphasis on emotional nuance over simple like/dislike feelings.
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Howard: "So we have a number of companions, but for them we go… I won't say super-complex-romantic, but more complex than we've had in terms of not just some, you know, state of 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(.) As opposed to just drifting out of that (romantic) status you're in a temporary "I don't like what you did" state."
It's not clear at time of writing how many romanceable characters there'll be in the final game or what limitations there will be on those romances, but clearly it's something that Bethesda has recognised the popularity of. It's also very likely we'll see this at least partly integrated with the Starfield dialogue system, which we've explained at the link attached.
