Barret Wallace

Barret Wallace is a playable character in Final Fantasy VII. He is the leader of an eco-group called AVALANCHE, trying to prevent Shinra from using Mako, the planet's life source, as a form of energy. However, his seemingly benevolent cause of fighting for the planet is a cover for his true personal vendetta and anger, which he later must come to terms with. Despite his brash and sometimes violent attitude, Barret has a good heart, and is torn between fighting and caring for his adopted daughter Marlene.

Appearance
In his original appearance, Barret is a heavy-set, muscular black man with a dirty brown vest and green pants with large black boots. His right arm was mangled in the loss of his hometown, so it has been replaced with his weapon, the Gun-Arm, which lets him interchange various weapon attachments to it. He also has several bands of metal around his waist and his remaining arm, and a tattoo on his left shoulder. His hair is cut short and he has a thick beard, with a dog-tag hanging from his neck. Three scars adorn his right cheek. This appearance has humorously been compared to actor Mr. T, a comparison also somewhat shown through Barret's character.

In Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, Barret's Gun-Arm has been replaced by a transforming steel hand that can turn into a large gun, allowing him to live a more normal life. His vest has been replaced by a puffier, off-white one and he wears a fish-net shirt, and his pants are now black. His hair is also differently styled, and is now arranged in cornrows. Nomura has commented that Barret's character was redesigned largely due to the comparisons to Mr. T, and when instructing the animators on what Barret's Gun-Arm should be like, he merely told them to make "a big, over-the-top gun that transforms in a huge, over-the-top way."

In spite of being redesigned to be less stereotypical, his character, especially in the English version, is still played out to be similar to Mr. T.

Character
Barret is characterized early in Final Fantasy VII as a brash, gruff man with a short temper and a tendency to curse, although his mouth is not as bad as Cid Highwind's. He is prone to firing his Gun-Arm into the air in fits of rage while roaring, particularly after the Sector 7 Slums are destroyed, and this always catches attention of everyone around him. However, Barret's rage is accompanied by a deeper, albeit rarely shown thoughtfulness. Barret later admits to Elmyra Gainsborough that he wants to be with his daughter Marlene and care for her, but at the same time he wants to fight and save the planet, the issue confusing him to the point he gives up trying to explain it.

Barret has a tendency to describe life with train metaphors, including one of his more well-known phrases, "there's no gettin' off this train we on 'till we reach the end of the line". Late in Final Fantasy VII, when Cloud and Tifa are both absent, he at first says he ought to be leader, but then says he's come to realize he's not suitable, and elects Cid in his place. In the novella On the Way to a Smile, Barret's character is examined on a deeper level, revealing his isolation due to his Gun-Arm from which he sees himself as a monster even around children, and his search for a new meaning to his life after his vendetta with Shinra is settled and the company destroyed. Still guilty over the chaos AVALANCHE caused, particularly the death of the group's members under his leadership, Barret seeks both a normal life and a way to atone for his 'minefield of mistakes' as the faction's leader.

Before Final Fantasy VII
Barret was born and grew up in the small, forested coal mining village of Corel. He was happily married to a woman named Myrna Wallace, but it was due to her suffering from an unspecified illness that Barret decided to advocate co-operation with Shinra in building a Mako Reactor north of Corel. His childhood friend Dyne disagreed at first, but Barret convinced him to agree.

In Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, the original, more violent incarnation of AVALANCHE has occupied the Corel reactor near Corel on May 8, 0003. Barret helped the Turks sneak into the reactor to take it back. At the time he did not know the name of the enemy organization he was fighting, and ironically would choose that title for his own insurgency group. Shinra then destroyed the reactor as well as Corel in retaliation, believing it was the people of Corel who helped AVALANCHE take the reactor. In the chaos, Barret and Dyne returned to the town and are gunned down by Shinra troops. Dyne fell off a cliff and Barret narrowly grabbed his hand. Scarlet fires on them, shooting their hands and causing Barret to drop Dyne to his apparent doom.

In the aftermath, Barret found Dyne's daughter Marlene and took her to raise her as his own, believing Dyne had perished. It was also at this time he acquired his prosthetic Gun-Arm, which was later revealed to made for him by Shalua Rui. Sometime after, Barret made his way to Cosmo Canyon and learned of AVALANCHE, becoming the leader of the organization's second incarnation, and went to Midgar to begin his campaign against Shinra.

Final Fantasy VII
Sometime in 0007 in Midgar, Barret led the reformed AVALANCHE against Shinra, its members including Biggs, Wedge, Jessie and Tifa Lockhart. As part of an attack on Shinra, Barret agrees to hire Tifa's childhood friend, the mercenary Cloud Strife. With Cloud, they begin their largest operation yet on December 9th. The attack on the Sector 1 Reactor is successful, and although Cloud's fee is steep and Barret doesn't like him, the need for help and his skill convinces Barret to continue to keep him with the group. At the next reactor bombing, Cloud is separated from the group.

Afterwards, Tifa allows herself to be kidnapped by Don Corneo when they find out that he is a Shinra informant. While Tifa and Cloud are gone, Shinra sends the Turks to destroy the pillar holding up the Sector 7 plate, crushing the slums. Barret and AVALANCHE fight to stop them, and Wedge, Biggs and Jessie are lost in the struggle. Eventually, the pillar is destroyed and Barret, Cloud and Tifa narrowly escape. Barret is enraged at the loss, but is consoled somewhat by Tifa's assurance that Aeris Gainsborough took Marlene to safety before the plate fell. When Cloud resolves to rescue Aeris from Shinra, Barret accompanies him to save her and pay her back for saving Marlene. Marlene and Elmyra later flee to Kalm sometime later in the game.

The foray into Shinra Headquarters is successful in rescuing Aeris, but the entire group is kidnapped and imprisoned. When the group escapes during an attack by Sephiroth, they flee Midgar to Kalm. There, Cloud is elected leader of the group of allies over Barret, and he grudgingly accepts the decision. After Kalm, the group continues to track Sephiroth and eventually crosses the sea at Junon to Costa del Sol.

The group eventually arrives at North Corel, a town built by the survivors of Corel near the ruins of the destroyed Mako reactor. The townspeople vilify Barret and curse him, and Barret reluctantly explains his past to the group. Riding to the Gold Saucer, an amusement park built towering over the ruins of Corel, Barret's frustrations increase (especially after Aerith tries to cheer him up) and he runs off alone. After this, Cloud and the others find many people gunned down, and a survivor says it was a man with a Gun-Arm.

Thrown into Corel Prison, Cloud and the others find Barret, further enraged and demanding to be allowed to settle his past alone. He allows them to accompany him as they confront the leader of the prison, Dyne, who has his own Gun-Arm on his mangled hand just like Barret. Traumatized by the loss of his family and home, Dyne is now murderous and wishes to destroy the world. When Barret tells Dyne that Marlene survived, Dyne attacks him, saying that he has to kill Marlene so his wife won't be lonely. Barret prevails, and Dyne, considering himself a lost cause, gives Barret and the others permission to leave the prison, then throws himself off a cliff to his death.

Barret continues to travel with the group, developing a profound respect for Cloud. Although it is highly unlikely, it is possible for the two to even spend a date together at the Gold Saucer. After betraying the party at the Temple of the Ancients, Cloud decided to quit the journey but Barret assured him that he was among friends and that he will look out for him. Barret has a small revelation at Gaea's Cliff, where he considers the frigid cold and barren land the exact opposite of the technological Midgar, yet is just as unappealing to him. When the Weapons awaken, he and Tifa must escape on the Highwind with Shinra and are captured. A week later in Junon during a public execution, Barret escapes with the help of Cait Sith and Yuffie Kisaragi, making his way to the Highwind airship to rendezvous with the rest of the group, minus Cloud.

While Barret was skeptical about Cloud's identity after Meteor is summoned, he realized that he wasn't fit to be leader of the group, and in Cloud's absence and hands control over to Tifa, and when she departs to care for a comatose Cloud, to Cid. In the quest for the Huge Materia, North Corel once again was on the brink of destruction from Shinra. If it is saved, Barret becomes a local hero; if it is destroyed, further blame is put on Barret and AVALANCHE for their woes. Up until the last moments of the game, Barret still remained fuzzy about the plotline as do the rest of the characters having been following the assumptions of a mentally blighted Cloud, but satisfies himself knowing that he has done well.

Novellas
In On the Way to a Smile: Case of Tifa, Barret, along with Cloud and Tifa, travel to revisit the various locations they had seen in Final Fantasy VII, and in Kalm, Barret reunites with Marlene. They later return to Midgar, where they help construct a new city, Edge. It is Barret's idea for Tifa to open a bar to help the depressed cope with their losses, and Tifa, struggling with her own personal dilemmas, agrees to run it. Shortly after, Barret leaves on a journey to settle his past.

Barret is the focus of another novella, Case of Barret. After Barret leaves Marlene in the care of Cloud and Tifa, he searches the world for an alternative energy source, and his peace of mind. Searching for a way to atone for the deaths of Jessie, Biggs and Wedge, Barret requisitions a new attachment for the Gun-Arm, and after having seen the effects of Geostigma makes his way to Rocket Town, where he helps Cid with his new airship and decides to locate an oilfield to help fuel it, and the airship can then be used to help those with Geostigma get to aid.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
One year later, in 2009, Barret is still in contact with his friends. In Advent Children's opening scenes, Barret leaves a message on Cloud's cell phone saying that he has found a large oil field. Barret later appears to help Cloud fight a battle against Bahamut SIN, and is shown to still uses his gun on his right hand as a weapon. He is seen using his Big Shot Limit Break during the fight, as well as Ungarmax, although he uses the latter as his most basic attack. Despite his time away from her, he still cares deeply for Marlene; his first words to Tifa are a command that his daughter better be safe. After Bahamut SIN is defeated, he watches Cloud battle Kadaj from the Shera and orders Cid to land so they can help, but Cid tells him to jump if we wants off the ship.

He can also be heard, though not seen, in Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII's 'present' sections, as he gives Cloud a 'closed' sign passed on from Yuffie and each present to deliver to Marlene and Denzel.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-


Barret, along with Cloud and Tifa, lead a ground assault on Midgar against Deepground in 2010, and provide Vincent with a map via phone which leads the way to Deepground. The three then join Cid, Reeve, Yuffie, and a young defected Tsviet named Shelke to aid Vincent in Omega's destruction.

Equipment and Stats
For weapons, Barret wields various Gun-Arms and mech-hands that replace his real arm that has been severed. His Gun-Arms have average power, and his strongest, the Missing Score, does more damage the more AP the player stocks it with. In other words, with enough Mastered Materia, Barret can easily hit for 9999 damage with every attack. Barret can also deal decent damage with magical attacks.

Limit Breaks

 * See videos of the various Breaks here

Barret's Limit Breaks mostly consist of physical blows, and one, the Ungarmax, is part of a strategy to defeat Emerald Weapon. It is of particular note that Mindblow is one of a very limited number of attacks available to the player that drains enemy MP. If the player is keen in their leveling, Barret can learn his level 2 technique Hammer Blow very early, making it useful for dispatching enemies instantly.

Development
Barret's original backstory was that of a miner whose home was destroyed by Shinra, a story that was changed very little in the final product. However, there are a few differences between the original events. In the original concept, Marlene was Barret's biological daughter, not Dyne's, and Barret would have had a wife as well. The confrontation between Barret and Dyne would have taken place during a battle between AVALANCHE and Shinra in the ruins of Corel, and the leader of the attack that destroyed the town was changed several times, including Heidegger and Reeve, before settling on Scarlet.

In a deleted scene, Barret was to promise his other AVALANCHE members that they would go to Cosmo Canyon together after finishing their mission. A remnant of this promise still exists in the game, when Barret mournfully says at the campfire in Cosmo Canyon that he swore with his friends that they would have a toast at the Cosmo Candle.

During early plans for the game, Barret was to have the Gunner Job Class. Interestingly, this was several years before that Job actually appeared in a Final Fantasy game in Final Fantasy X-2.

Trivia

 * Barret, along with early versions of Cloud and Aerith, was one of the first three heroic characters designed for Final Fantasy VII.
 * Barret was referred to as Barrett in the English version of the Final Fantasy VII manual.
 * Barret is the first black character to appear in a Final Fantasy game.

Barret Wallace