Pride Month Picks: Parvati And The Importance Of Asexuality

thegamer.com:

This article is part of Pride Month Picks, a collection of pieces that aim to highlight queer representation across games, television, film, books, and more throughout June.

I’ve always had the sense that The Outer Worlds doesn’t quite get the respect it deserves. That its name is incredibly similar to Outer Wilds, which launched just five months prior, didn’t help matters. It also felt like a throwback RPG in the best and worst ways, bringing the classic challenges of the genre that require actual role-play, while also letting the player steer themselves down dead ends and often letting the game drift in the wilderness while the player considers their next move. It’s more divisive than it likely planned to be, but this Pride Month we should go back to Edgewater and take a look at Parvati.

The Outer Worlds is Obsidian making an Obsidian game. Where a lot of modern RPGs, especially shooter RPGs, have smoothed over the role-play itself, The Outer Worlds builds out from its story. We expect games to hand us a lot on a plate these days - we’ve grown accustomed to the choices being binary morality indicators, flashing up on the screen between action and cutscene. The fun parts can never stop for a moment. Players can never be left alone, never be forced to think for themselves. If they do, they might think they’re bored and decide to stop playing.

Related: The Outer Worlds & New Vegas: Obsidian Understands The Anti-Capitalist Themes Of Fallout Better Than Bethesda

Parvati has always been a fascinating part of how The Outer Worlds constructs itself as an RPG. She’s the first companion you meet and is essentially given to you by the game - the other five squadmates have some form of recruitment mission, but with Parvati it’s