The upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield touts an overwhelmingly massive galaxy, and Bestheda has teased an intriguing and tantalising look at the universe. In the lead-up to its release on 6 September, three new animated shorts were released to introduce players to the Settled System, the small pocket of colonised star systems in which the game takes place.
Each story in Starfield: The Settled Systems is told through visuals and music with zero dialogue, and briefly shows off the setting for one of the three featured cities. “Supra Et Ultra” (Latin for “above and beyond”) features a courier who signs up for a career of adventure as a military pilot on New Atlantis, the capital of the United Colonies.
Meanwhile, “The Hand That Feeds” tells the story of Ada and Harper, two street rats who make a living by stealing from wealthy partygoers, as they become entangled with Ryujin Industries, a megacorporation based on the city of Neon.
Rounding out the anthology is “Where Hope is Built,” focusing on young orphan with the dream of escaping Akila to explore the stars. All three animated shorts are beautifully animated, with the deliberately stilted style in flashback sequences standing out as an interesting artistic choice, and it’s unclear which animation studio(s) worked on them.
It’s also not known if players will cross paths with these characters in the game itself, but it’d be a pretty neat tie-in with these gorgeous animated shorts. Cyberpunk 2077 pulled off a cool easter egg hunt with its Edgerunners anime crossover in patch 1.6, and only time can tell if Starfield will get the same treatment when it launches 6 September for Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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