Grand Champion! Did you think running off to space in a new universe — Bethesda’s upcoming Starfield RPG — could save you from the Elder Scrolls’ most annoying “Adoring Fan?” Nope! Sorry. He’s in space, baby!
During today’s double-feature of non-E3 events, we saw a whole lot of new Starfield footage from Bethesda, plus a ton of new Xbox games coming to Game Pass, Xbox, and PC this year and the next. But buried in all of this Summer Game Fest-ing was a brief cameo in Starfield from one of the most annoying (and oddly loved) meme characters from a past Elder Scrolls adventure.
The Adoring Fan first appeared in 2006’s open-world RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The fan is a young Wood Elf citizen who becomes your biggest cheerleader once you have achieved the rank of Grand Champion in the in-game combat arena. If you let him follow you, he’ll do so no matter where you go or what you do. Even if you kill him, he’ll return, remaining your biggest fan ever. And apparently, he (or a long-distant relative of his) is also in Starfield, sporting a similar haircut and personality.
How the “Adoring Fan” works in Starfield
During a segment about character creation in Bethsesda’s Starfield Direct event, we see an example of an in-game trait called “Hero Worshipped.” (This trait previously was spotted last year, but we didn’t see any gameplay of it back then.)
Here’s the text explaining the trait:
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.
So yeah, it’s basically the same thing as Oblivion. He even goes on and on about how he “can’t believe” he gets to stand next to you, just like he did in Elder Scrolls. Those gifts better be good, kid.
Bethesda also teased that you can remove traits in Starfield using different methods as well as the idea that if the fan gets too annoying, you can take him to some desolate planet and blast him in the back with a space shotgun. Let’s just hope the bastard can’t respawn to haunt you like in Oblivion.
Starfield is out September 6 for Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Kotaku is covering everything Summer Game Fest, from the main show on Thursday to other events happening throughout the next week. Whether you’re into larger-than-life triple-A games or intimate, offbeat indies, you can keep up with all things SGF here.
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