On the occasion of the official release of "The Outer Worlds 2", narrative designer Joe Fielder revealed in a recent interview that Obsidian Entertainment deliberately designed this large and complex RPG so that players may miss some characters and plots due to their choices, and made the branching narrative that "cannot experience all the content in a single play" a core design feature.

Joe Fielder said that the core of this RPG is that the characters and plot will respond to the player's actions.He specifically pointed out that allowing players to role-play according to their own choices is one of the main guiding principles of game design.

"This has been the direction that our three directors have set from the beginning - to create a game that truly responds to the way players play," Joe Fielder explains. "When I was designing the narrative for The Outer Worlds 2, it wasn't my story. My job was to give the player options so that you could freely play the character you created at the beginning of the game."

Joe Fielder further explained that players also have ample choices when building their characters, including exclusive specialties that can be selected and optional flaws that can be accumulated."Sometimes that means you'll be able to unlock special dialogue options, other times it'll be accessing areas you wouldn't otherwise be able to access, meeting characters you wouldn't otherwise ally with, or triggering quests you wouldn't otherwise have."

He particularly emphasized that this is an important part of the design work of "The Outer Worlds 2" for creative director Leonard Boyarsky.Leonard Boyarsky wanted the game to include characters and areas that could only be encountered with certain playstyles or character builds.

"Our creative director, Leonard Boyarsky, puts a lot of emphasis on designing this type of content - areas that may never be discovered unless you play a certain way or make certain choices," said Joe Fielder.This design concept has received positive feedback: "The best parts of my personal gaming experience come from discovering hidden areas or using special skills to achieve results that other players may not see. This is why I focus on improving my observation skills - these designs are like carefully prepared little surprises."

Talking about the reaction of new team members to the design concept of "players may miss content", Joe Fielder said that he would like to see this possibility retained in "The Outer Worlds 2" because it will effectively enhance the replay value of the game.

"A new team member who just finished the game was worried that, 'If the player makes a certain choice, they might miss that option and miss out on a very charismatic and important character and thousands of wonderful lines of dialogue,'" Joe Fielder shared. "But I'm relieved because they can make different choices the next time they play. What we really want to create is a game that allows players to have completely different adventures through multiple experiences."

"The Outer Worlds 2" was officially launched on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S platforms on October 30.