Starfield players are haunted by the same doppelganger kids everywhere: “It’s like Skyrim children all over again”

Starfield players are noticing the same – in my humble opinion, creepy – doppelganger kids filling various non-player roles across the RPG’s universe.

In one Reddit post, nicholasthehuman collects several screenshots showing different child NPCs all sporting a similar face and hair style, but with slightly different outfits. The player also recalls each NPC having the same voice.

“Loving the game so far, but just did a couple missions that had the exact same looking kid back to back to back. The face is slightly different for each but I’m pretty sure it was the same voice actress for all 3. It definitely breaks the immersion when each mission related kid looks pretty much the same.”

Why did they use the same looking kid in so many missions/story aspects? Immersion breaking to say the least. from r/Starfield

Other players were quick to chime in with their own experience with the NPC that seems to simultaneously be Annie Wilcox, Cora Coe, and Sona. “What’s worse is that there’s a good chance that two of them will be on your ship at the same time,” reads the top reply on the thread, from Lurid-Jester. “Kind of hard to ignore when they are standing side by side totally ignoring each other.”

“First time I saw Annie I had to double take because I thought Cora snuck off my ship,” adds knoegel. “I thought it was because her dad is a deadbeat due to getting himself locked in my brig. I could open it, but he got himself in there, he can figure a way out.”

Hilariously, Arumbaya says that, “in my save Sona was sad that she had no kid to play with, while Cora was standing two feet from her.” 

In all seriousness, it’s not uncommon for developers to reuse assets like face models to lighten the load on artists who are trying to create massive environments (and indeed universes), often under tight deadlines. Whether it’s immersion-breaking for a game of Starfield’s scope and budget to have near duplicates of the same NPC stand in the same room together is another question and obviously subjective, but long-time Bethesda fans aren’t surprised.

“Sees the same model reused multiple times … A Veteran of Bethesda Games: ‘First Time?'” reads a comment from Plus_Candidate_8011.

“It’s like Skyrim children all over again,” Alezkazam says, seemingly referring to the common sentiment that all kids in Skyrim look the same.

Again, nowhere in these comments is a serious indictment of Bethesda’s world-building, but more of a jocular ribbing. I won’t pretend to have any knowledge of the resources it takes to build a world as big and interactive as Starfield’s, but it’s nonetheless a good time poking fun at its inherent video game-ness from time to time.

Elsewhere, a Starfield engineer has spent 100 hours on an impressive factory to show off the outpost builder’s potential.