Starfield romances and relationships will let you get closer to certain companions as you explore space. Starfield's romanceable NPCs will feature a more detailed system than past Bethesda games, with more awareness of player actions and dialogue. .
From what's been said about Starfield it sounds like there will be more to romancing characters here than just winning them over and selecting them as an option. We'll cover everything we know about Starfield relationships and romance below, which may well have a lot more layers to it than people might be expecting.
Starfield romances and relationship systems explained
The following Starfield romances and relationships info has been 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 relationships seems to be complexity, rather than quantity of characters you can romance. The news that some relationships will be "more complex" than in other Bethesda games was highlighted in an interview Todd Howard gave, 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.
The ESRB rating for Starfield confirms relationships will be sexual in nature, mentioning "suggestive material in the dialogue [...] after sharing a bed with characters". How you get characters into bed remains to be seen but 'nudity' is notably absent suggesting it's going to be a tasteful cutaway kind of deal. There's also no word on if you'll get a buff for sleeping with your partner, a longstanding tradition for Bethesda games.
