Starfield Has A Massive Dialogue System With Over 250K Lines So Far

Few games have built up as much hype as Bethesda's "Starfield." The first new IP from the company in over two decades, "Starfield" centers on space exploration, colonization, and drama. Though it seemed at one point that fans would have to temper their expectations about the title following a less-than-flattering leak from an alleged former employee, the "Starfield" gameplay demo shown at the 2022 Xbox Games Showcase brought those expectations sky-high once again.

With the anticipated Q1 or Q2 2023 "Starfield" release on the horizon, Bethesda once again opened up about the project's features and even went into detail about its extensive dialogue system. Dialogue acts as a major component of any Bethesda entry. Be it "Elder Scrolls" or "Fallout," those who play the developer's games expect a sandbox-like experience where they have multiple options, quests, and things to discover. When it comes to its latest endeavor, it seems Bethesda has committed to one-upping itself in the dialogue department — thanks to a new gameplay component, "Starfield" will have over 250,000 possible speech options.

In an October 13, 2022 video on Bethesda's YouTube channel, Bethesda boss Todd Howard fielded some questions about "Starfield" and went into detail about what players can expect from the experience. Howard talked about several different topics, such as how fuel works in-game and whether or not the title can be considered a "hard sci-fi" interpretation of space. One of the most stunning revelations, however, related to the sheer amount of dialogue featured in "Starfield." According to a graphic shown on screen, "Starfield" will contain over 252,953 unique dialogue choices. This is by far the largest amount of dialogue in any of Bethesda's works, dwarfing even "Fallout 4," which had a total of about 111,000 different options.

"We've done a lot of different dialogue systems. We've gone back to kind of a, I'll call it like a classic Bethesda-style dialogue," Howard said about the dialogue design in "Starfield." He stated that the amount of options is due to the game's emphasis on the persuasion mechanic through which players must manipulate certain characters into getting their way, but at a cost. "It feels like it's part of the dialogue, but you're spending points to persuade them," Howard said. "It feels natural, not like I've entered some other mode where I'm not doing regular dialogue. I'm in this mode of persuading you to get what I want."