Bethesda also says Starfield’s silent protag was partially inspired by fan reaction to Fallout 4
Starfield is a big game with hundreds of planets to explore and many sandwiches to collect. But while all the NPCs you’ll meet in Starfield have voices, the game’s main character doesn’t. Bethesda already confirmed this was the case last year, but has now shared more details about why it made this choice, revealing that originally Starfield had a talking protag and that ultimately cutting the main character’s voice helped the game grow in size.
Good, unless you’re writing is going to be top notch I don’t need my character having three word lines that make me a dick no matter what I pick.
“Welcome to our RPG, please select your dialogue options:
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Yes
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sarcastic yes
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funny yes
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yes but later
Enjoy your ‘role play’”
Fallout 4 was a nightmare from a character standpoint. I don’t have much faith in Bethesda writing, but at least we’ll be able to have more options than the above. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll even have skill checks back.
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I demand a dedicated button on the controller that makes my character say, “Soo… that just happened”
many sandwiches to collect
“You can’t just stick a hunk of mirelurk meat between two slices of bread and call it a sandwich!”
I find talking protagonists in RPGs with customizable characters a two edged sword. It can work out great, but if your voice not fit the character you’re playing, or is even highly dislikable for you, then it becomes a real big issue in regards to immersion and enjoyment. Silent protagonists allow you to use a specific headvoice for your character.
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Personally, I’m not a fan of this trend that’s been semi-standard since at least Halo: Reach. The whole silent protagonist thing really takes me out of the game; I would much rather hear any voice for my character.
Contrast this with, say, Cyberpunk 2077 where the main character talks quite a bit. This makes me feel way more like a real person in the game world.
I disagree, the voiced protagonist in Fallout 4 really limited the role playing aspects. I felt like most conversation prompts ended up being
A. Yes, I’ll do that B. Yes, I’ll do that but be a sarcastic dick about it C. No, but actually still yes I’ll do that D. Leave conversation
And the previews were useless. I ended up being a sarcastic dick most of the time when I wasn’t trying to.
It isn’t a trend, it is standard for Bethesda games.
I don’t really want to hear my character talk in an RPG where I am making the character and supposedly have my own background, look and sound in mind and am the one selecting what that character says. Unless if they have tons of different voices, like old Bioware RPGs did, I would prefer to just read it myself and give whatever voice I want. It immerses me in the game much more, where I feel like the character I am playing because I am given opportunity to say the dialogue choices my self.
I think it all depends on what sort of game you have, specifically if it is story driven or immersion/exploration driven.
Halo Reach is story driven and would have absolutely benefitted from a voice. Mass Effect was primarily story driven and the voiced protag worked great.
Fallout 4 is the opposite and a silent protag would have been better as silent, like in Fallout 3 or Elder Scrolls games.
