Bethesda Game Studios is hard at work on its next major sci-fi RPG, Starfield. The game has drawn several comparisons to similar space-faring titles on the market including No Man’s Sky and The Outer Worlds. However, a Bethesda developer has now directly listed several inspirations that the game draws from across television and movies, including the likes of popular sci-fi media like Event Horizon and Cowboy Bebop.
Emil Pagliarulo, a design director at Bethesda, recently posted a thread on Twitter going over some of Starfield‘s sci-fi media inspirations. The list is chunky but not too exhaustive, mentioning titles like the classic anime Cowboy Bebop, the 1997 sci-fi thriller movie Event Horizon and more like Space: 999 and Silent Running. However, Pagliarulo avoided mentioning a few crucial sources of inspiration for fear of potentially spoiling the game.
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In the end, the developer concluded by stating, “I don’t think there’s a sci-fi movie or TV show out there that hasn’t inspired Starfield‘s many devs in some way.”
Of course, fans are left to speculate how these inspirations might’ve impacted Starfield‘s creative process and development. It could be argued that Cowboy Bebop, the anime about a group of misfit space bounty hunters, could tie into an aspect of Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG that potentially involves players becoming a bounty hunter themselves and chasing criminals across space.
Event Horizon, on the other hand, is a little more on the terrifying side as the movie explores the dark side of tampering with things beyond our understanding in space. Perhaps Starfield will tackle some existential themes as the movie did, or at least creates a sense of dread during certain missions. We’ll have to wait a few more months to get our hands on Starfield and see just where the road takes us.
Starfield launches on 6 September 2023 for Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Source: Emil Pagliarulo
