It’s no surprise that Bethesda is hiding a ton of easter eggs around Starfield’s 1,000 planets, and one of them appears to be a reference to its landmark RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
As reported by PCGamesN, an infamous NPC from Oblivion called the Adoring Fan might just be making a return in Starfield. A video released by the developer last week shows the character creation menu and its Traits system, one of which is called “Hero Worshipped”.
It reads: “You’ve earned the attention of an annoying ‘Adoring Fan’ who will show up randomly and jabber at you incessantly. On the plus side, he’ll give you gifts.”
To fans of Bethesda’s previous games, this sounds very similar to the yellow-haired Adoring Fan from Oblivion, who would follow the player constantly after they become Grand Champion of the Cyrodiil Arena.
The Adoring Fan provided no bonus in combat as he refused to fight, and would instead yap in the player’s ear for the rest of their game. Even when killed, he’d simply respawn three days later.
Based on the brief Starfield description (which subject to change, given the game is still months from being released), the Adoring Fan won’t be a permanent thorn in the side as he only seems to show up occasionally.
We’ll find out for sure when Starfield launches in 2023, of course, though the game currently lacks an exact release date. We know Bethesda isn’t shy when it comes to including easter eggs, as fans already think they’ve spotted real-life NASA projects and what appears to be our own solar system.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.