Starfield players decry child characters as ‘immersion breaking’
Bethesda SoftworksWhile Starfield’s universe has been praised for its size and diverse population, players have noticed an issue with its child characters.
Starfield lets players explore a massive universe with over 1,000 planets. Most do not have life or human settlements, but those that do are home to a wide range of people brought to life by hundreds of actors.
However, players have noticed one aspect of Starfield’s population is notably underdeveloped – a surprise for a game that otherwise pays so much attention to little details.
Players are pointing out that, while Starfield’s adult characters are all fairly unique, several of the children featured in it look pretty much identical.
Starfield players accuse Bethesda of using the same character model for all kids
As Reddit user nicholasthehuman pointed out, there are at least three children in Starfield players will interact with as part of quests that look the same.
Cora Coe (daughter of companion and potential romantic option Sam), Annie Wilcox, and Sana all share the same hairstyle, skin tone, and body type, with just their clothing and facial details being different.
For some, this is immersion-breaking, especially as players may do quests with them back to back. As nicholasthehuman also notes, the three have similar voices, though they do not, as they suspect, share a voice actor. All three roles are credited to different performers.
Others have agreed with the sentiment. The similarities between the characters’ appearances are clear and the fact that Cora and Sona can be on your ship at the same time makes it more obvious.
Adding to the immersion issues are the fact that the kids don’t acknowledge one another even if they are in the same place. As one player recalled, “In my Save Sona was sad that she had no kid to play with, while Cora was standing two feet from her.”
Starfield’s children may be negatively impacting the experience for some, but other longtime Bethesda fans are not surprised.
As some have pointed out, Cora, Annie, and Sona’s character models actually are different, and other children in the game look more varied. Still, giving all three of these characters the same hairstyle is an odd choice, especially when there aren’t that many children in Starfield that players will need to interact with.
Ultimately, this is a pretty minor concern in a game with so much content. But it can impact the experience for some players, particularly since Starfield pays so much attention to detail elsewhere.
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