Starfield: 8 Characters Who Should Be Romance Candidates

Summary

• Starfield's limited number of romantic partners, only four compared to Fallout 4's ten, disappoints fans who were expecting more options in the game's expansive universe.
• Characters like Heller, Nyssa Marcano, and Marika Boros should have been included as romance options in the original release due to their interesting backstories and potential for compelling storylines.
• The game's lack of romance options and limited character development for potential partners, such as Estelle Vincent and Hadrian Sanon, is a drawback that might be remedied by future DLCs or mods.

Given that Fallout 4 offered a total of ten potential romantic partners, fans were understandably disappointed to discover that Starfield includes only four by comparison. In Fallout, the options ranged from long-term relationships with trusted companions to dates with a former actress’s brain in a combat robot. Starfield’s options, however, all come from Constellation, a faction that every player will join as part of the game’s main story.

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With Starfield expanding its scope from a traditional game map to an expansive procedural universe, it seems improbable that so few should be eligible partners, especially to a dashing and heroic space captain such as yourself. Though incoming DLCs are sure to offer additional romance options, here are a few that Bethesda snubbed in the original release; because there really should be more fish in the blackest sea.

1 Heller

First up is Heller, one of two characters you’ll meet as soon as you start a new save in Starfield. A talented miner with a keen interest in geology, your fellow Argos employee will seek new employment after being kidnapped, alongside Barrett, by the notorious pirate group the Crimson Fleet.

Heller is a down-to-earth miner from a single-parent household on Titan who won his role at Argos by impressing Lin with his geological knowledge. Alongside being added as a romance option, he deserves a mission or two of his own, especially given the tragic backstory of his father’s abandonment of his family of eight.

2 Nyssa Marcano

The bartender at New Atlantis’ premiere bar for ship captains is Nyssa Marcano, a mixologist with a million-credit drink idea. You’ll gradually help her turn her business dream into a reality, securing funding for her venture from the Stroud-Eklund corporation and even backing it yourself if you choose to do so.

You might expect to see some compensation for the effort you’ve put into making her venture pay off, with the bartender perhaps handing off the reins at the Viewport to another. Were that the case, she might navigate a boom in demand for her Supernova alongside a budding romance with a handsome Spacefarer. Unfortunately, your chemistry falls as flat as the drink’s sales, and Marcano’s quests offer little recompense for credits nor time spent.

3 Marika Boros

Another character found at the Viewport is Marika Boros. Though her voice implies she may already be happily married to Borat, this recruitable crew member has a backstory that may ring true with lots of Starfield players. Growing up under HopeTech rule in Polvo’s company town/corporate headquarters, Marika sought escape through the Freestar Rangers but was disheartened by their ineffectuality and pandering to their Council of Governors.

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Coming to New Atlantis, she was stationed by the UC in The Well, where she became equally disillusioned with both the Freestar Collective and the United Colonies. Marika’s dream of starting her own Settlement is perfectly matched by your Spacefarer’s ability to start outposts and could even result in you saving her parents, who she mentions still suffer poverty in the oppressive HopeTown.

4 Mathis Costello

Mathis Costello will first be encountered when you become a member of the Crimson Fleet as a rookie also attempting to join. The two of you are paired up for two missions together, at the end of which, you can decide whether to help him qualify for the pirate faction.

The budding buccaneer will spill his own plans to you on your second quest together, asking for your support in a coup of the Fleet’s current regime, a plan he later abandons because it’s a death sentence. As one of the major characters of this quest line and one of the game’s few space scoundrel companions, the big-bearded Costello is as honest and caring as pirates get, and his hidden treasure might just be a heart of gold.

5 Estelle Vincent

Another member of the Crimson Fleet, Estelle Vincent can be found in Madam Sauvage’s Place in Neon, where she’s a key contact in the faction quest Absolute Power. Her relevance to anything beyond this single mission is negligible, likely because a confrontation with Benjamin Bayu gives you the opportunity to pin everything on her.

A crucial flaw in Starfield is that it offers choices that serve as little more than flavor text, and yours regarding Vincent is one of these. You might save her life in your encounter with Bayu, but the game offers no further opportunities to interact with her, and another promising character is denied the grace of even becoming a crew member on your ship. Then again, as a favorite among the community, Vincent is sure to get mod coverage before long.

6 Hadrian Sanon

As far as traditional romantic options go, the clone daughter of an executed war criminal is hardly a typical inclusion. For a Bethesda game, however, Hadrian Sanon’s situation is pretty standard. After all, who doesn’t have issues with their parents? Once you discover that her father, Vae Victis, is alive and working for the United Colonies, you’ll face the difficult decision of whether to let her know.

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The former military scientist will become an option as a companion once you complete the Vanguard questline, but any attempt to get closer to Hadrian will hit a wall. Despite the opportunity to explore Sanon’s character and her life’s trauma further, she gets no further quests of her own, and your crush goes out of the window with her character development.

7 H. H. Holmes

The most difficult pick to justify on this list goes by the name Wyatt Earp, who lives in Crucible, a town of cloned historical figures of note. Spend time in the robot-manned settlement, however, and a worried Earp will request to meet with you outside of town, where you’ll learn his darkest secret: the clone is, in fact, of H. H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer.

Since the Crucible’s clones are just engineered copies based on the genes of their namesakes’ descendants, the cloned Holmes is not to blame for the actions of the real serial killer. Although he gets no further characterization after revealing his identity to you, Holmes deserves a chance to choose the life he wants and would make for both an excellent companion and love interest in this regard. In fact, we’d kill for the opportunity!

8 Amelia Earhart

Serial killers aside, the third clone to grace this list is famed pilot Amelia Earhart, whose education thankfully included up-to-date flight training, though she’s unable to leave the Crucible until you complete Operation Starseed and hand control to the clones. If you take her with you, she’ll be a useful crew member and an optional companion.

By taking her on your travels, you’ll fulfill her dream of seeing the stars for herself, having spent several lifetimes trapped at the facility. Though the clones are not their genetic ancestors, Earhart has a lot in common with her namesake, and her personality makes her exclusion as a romantic interest all the more disappointing. The famed American aviator is one of many cruelly omitted as romantic interests in Starfield, so eager players will have to turn, as ever, to the modding community.

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