Starfield launches on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass without a voiced protagonist
Speaking with Polygon, Pagliarulo says Bethesda’s decision not to voice the protagonist in Starfield wasn’t directly linked to the criticism Fallout 4’s voiced main character received from players, “but it certainly played into it.” Pagliarulo says that Bethesda had to decide how best to have the protagonist communicate with the world: “Do we have, like, some RPGs do four voices? Do we have one voice, but hire someone else who’s more convenient? But you can make every different type of person [in Starfield]. We realized that the only way to really do it and let the player be the person they want to be was to have an unvoiced protagonist.”
As Pagliarulo points out, “There was a time in the industry where every protagonist was voiced. It was a AAA thing. We started realizing, you know what, maybe that’s not the case, and maybe fans will actually enjoy the game even more,” later adding: “There’s a big argument, if in Fallout 4 and other RPGs, players don’t like reading a line of dialogue, a player’s response, and then they click it and get [a different spoken line]. But the problem is, then you read it, and then you click it, and you have to wait for them to say the same thing. So that’s not ideal either. So then we just arrived at, what if we just go text? And it was just really freeing.”
We’ll be able to see for ourselves if Bethesda’s decision to make the protagonist silent was the right decision when Starfield launches on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass on September 6, or September 1 for early access players. Starfield is just one of the many games coming to Game Pass in September.
