UPDATE: If you're reading this more recently, keep in mind that this thread was originally written long before the Activision Blizzard controversy came to light. Had I written this now, none of the ActiBlizz characters would be featured. Fuck Bobby Kotick & fuck Activision Blizzard.
Happy Black History Month, Era! To celebrate the month, I thought I should do a day for various black characters in games. Each week will be dedicated to a specific genre, with a different character per day. If you missed a week, don't sweat it. You can either check below or the threadmarks for a link to said week.
- Day 1: Twintelle (ARMS)
- Day 2: Nagoriyuki (Guilty Gear)
- Day 3: Sean Matsuda (Street Fighter)
- Day 4: Leroy Smith (Tekken)
- Day 5: Zasalamel (Soul Calibur)
- Day 6: Jacqui Briggs (Mortal Kombat)
- Day 7: T.J. Combo (Killer Instinct)
- Day 8: Baptiste (Overwatch)
- Day 9: Roland (Borderlands)
- Day 10: Lifeline (Apex Legends)
- Day 11: Marina (Splatoon)
- Day 12: Alyx Vance (Half-Life)
- Day 13: Demoman (Team Fortress)
- Day 14: Avery Johnson (Halo)
- Day 15: Sheva Alomar (Resident Evil)
- Day 16: Rodin (Bayonetta)
- Day 17: Cherry Hunter (Streets of Rage)
- Day 18: Shinobu Jacobs (No More Heroes)
- Day 19: Cere Junda (Star Wars)
- Day 20: Aveline de Grandpré (Assassin's Creed)
- Day 21: Billie Lurk (Dishonored)
- Day 22: Barret Wallace (Final Fantasy)
- Day 23: Nessa (Pokémon)
- Day 24: Abdonis (Ring Fit Adventure)
- Day 25: Cyrus (The Elder Scrolls)
- Day 26: Clementine (The Walking Dead)
- Day 27: Doc Louis (Punch-Out)
- Day 28: Vivienne de Fer (Dragon Age)
- Day +1: Have Black Characters Be Voiced By Black Actors
- Day +2: Improve Options For Afrocentric Hair Styles
- Day +3: Take The Time To Depict Black People Properly
- Day +4: Hire More Black Executives & Developers
- Day +5: Cut It Out With The Stereotypes
- Day +6: Don't Be Afraid To Make Darker-Skinned Black Women
- Day +7: Make More Black Characters In General
- The character cannot be ambiguously dark-skinned.
- This mainly applies to the likes of Elma (Xenoblade), Ramlethal Valentine (Guilty Gear), & Steve (Minecraft).
- Only one character per franchise.
- Otherwise Final Fantasy would dominate the RPGs & More section with two from Pokémon.
- The characters have to have originated from a video game.
- This mainly applies to the likes of Black Panther, Miles Morales, Storm, & Cyborg.
- The character can be from an established multimedia franchise if their point of origin is still a video game.
WEEK 1: TOP-VOTED FIGHTING GAME CHARACTER
DAY 1: TWINTELLE (ARMS)
Let's be honest, you all knew I was gonna start with the Silver Screen Queen who should have been the ARMS rep in Smash Ultimate (not hating on Min Min, mind you, she's the 2nd best pick they could have made). And as many of you are aware, Twintelle is one of the few instances of melanin in a Nintendo game (lord knows Smash Ultimate could used some). Regarding her story, Twintelle started her career in the spotlight as part of the same record label as Ribbon Girl. But according to Biff (the announcer for ARMS), she eventually decided to pursue a career in acting, so she & Ribbon Girl parted ways in terms of them working together. This soon led Twintelle to establishing Twintelle Productions, eventually resulting in a productive career as a world-famous actress in the world of ARMS (thus earning the aforementioned moniker). To address the obvious elephant in the room, Twintelle is the only known character who possesses the ARMS gene that had said gene materialize in the form of her hair rather than her actual arms. Twintelle also possesses the ability to slow down time around her opponents, which helps Twintelle stand out compared to her fellow combatants (Fun Fact: That mask is a free mask issued by ARMS Labs & is meant for being able to take control of said extendable limbs, as the arms would be more-or-less useless without the mask being on). This fact has caught the interest of ARMS Labs, who have tried & failed to have Twintelle come in for examination.
Twintelle always comes dressed to impress, fitting considering her status as a top-tier actress.
As for her design, Yabuki's team at Nintendo EPD Group 9 (in cooperation with Nintendo of America & Nintendo of Europe) did a great job with Twintelle. She's probably the 2nd biggest fan-favorite of the ARMS cast (at least in the West, Ninjara is in 2nd over in Japan), behind only Min Min. As far as her design is concerned, it's a great one. Twintelle skin complexion jells perfectly with her white sleeveless shirt, which is styled extravagantly in a way that shows that she takes her fashion very seriously. And on that topic, her shoes are basically sneaker heels are the perfect expression of her duality of form & function. Normally I'm not big on characters wearing heels in fighting games (namely for practicality reasons), but I'm known to make exceptions when they thematically fit the character in question. And the symbolism of Twintelle's sneaker heels are so great that I'm willing to make such an exception here. As for critiques that I have with Twintelle, I have two. One, I wish that they gave Twintelle a bit more muscle. Canonically, Twintelle hits the gym quite often & is actually stronger than series poster boy Spring Man. As such, I wish that Nintendo took a cue from Street Fighter & let her have a decent amount of muscle for her regular arms.
Even with her normal arms, Twintelle benches more than Spring Man.
Another issue I have is with her voice actress. Because ARMS did all of its voice recording in Japan, Nintendo EPD Group 9 stuck with actors in the general area of the studio. In Twintelle's case, she's voiced by French singer Adeyto Rex Angeli. Having white actors in PoC roles seems to be a recurring problem with Nintendo (Claude, Cyril, & Dedue being recent examples for Nintendo's characters of color), one that I hope is addressed going forward. And even outside of Nintendo, Twintelle is far from the only character who has this problem (even of the characters I have planned). To take a bit of a tangent to focus on the topic, the most famous example of this is Nadine Ross from Uncharted (she was in the running to be listed under Action), being voiced by Laura Bailey. While granted, Laura was cast prior to Nadine's design being finalized, she should have been recast when Nadine's design was locked in. Going back to Twintelle, while this isn't a big problem with Twintelle specifically, I wish that there were more black women with darker skin. There are some examples in gaming already (one will be talked about later in the month), but there should be more. But that goes more into colorism in games, which is a topic that was covered in beautiful detail by our own celes (who was actually among the people who helped me out with this thread). Please check out her thread when you get the chance.
Colorism in video games (Open spoilers)
Before I start: I just want to make it clear that you can like a character, game, an artist, a publisher, etc. in isolation while still acknowledging that looked at within the greater context, that thing you like might be contributing to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes or imagery that...
www.resetera.com
WEEK 2: TOP-VOTED CHARACTER FROM SHOOTERS
DAY 12: ALYX VANCE (HALF-LIFE)
DAY 12: ALYX VANCE (HALF-LIFE)
Half-Life is a series that means a lot to a ton of people, one that took years until it got a new entry. But when it finally got a new game, not only did it become the marquee game for VR, it also pushed Alyx Vance to the forefront (with the game being named after her). Originally the secondary protagonist behind series protagonist Gordon Freeman, Alyx made her debut in Half-Life 2 & became an equally iconic character up to the aforementioned Half-Life: Alyx (where she took center stage). That being said, I should preface this with the fact that there are spoilers for Half-Life: Alyx in this post. So only read the lore part if you're either already played Half-Life: Alyx or don't mind being spoiled.
Alyx's family photo, one of the few things to survive the Black Mesa Incident.
Alyx Vance was born to a black father (Eli) & an asian mother (Azian), living at the Black Mesa Research Facility's dormitories. When Azian was killed during the Black Mesa Incident, G-Man ended up saving Alyx from the chaos (Alyx was a little girl at the time, so she doesn't remember much of the incident). From then on, it was on Eli to raise Alyx on his own (likely at Black Mesa East) during the Combine's reign over the world. She even built Dog (a sentient robot body guard), who always knows where Alyx is, when she was a kid (a testament to her hacking skills). It didn't take long for Alyx to join the resistance once she became an adult. Hell, she was already doing reconnaissance missions by age 19 & helping with citizen evacuation to Black Mesa East when she was 24. She's plenty capable on all fronts. But as for Alyx as a person, she's generally an optimistic woman with a bit of a sense of humor. But her friendliness shouldn't be mistaken for passiveness, as she doesn't take shit directed at her or anyone else she cares about (just ask Dr. Mossman). Though even in Dr. Mossman's case, Alyx's hostility towards him was eventually addressed (more on that later). Speaking of which, onto the lore.
Alyx during the events of Half-Life: Alyx. Not much to say here considering that this is concept/promotional art.
Going into the events of Half-Life: Alyx (five years prior to Half-Life 2), Alyx & her father Eli were captured by the Combine after the latter came across info regarding Combine's superweapon. Russell (a mechanic with the Resistance) breaks out Alyx & later saved her dad, who he knows will die in the future (which he tells Alyx about). Although he promises to avert this, we don't know what changes Half-Life: Alyx will bring about to the timeline (more on that later). From there, they went to the Vault to contain the superweapon mentioned earlier, only to find out that one of its prisoners was a Black Mesa Incident survivor. Alyx though it was the protagonist of the other games (Gordon Freeman), but it was actually G-Man. He basically does a "No you" to Alyx's request to get the Combine ship off-world, instead taking Alyx to the future so she can save her father by killing the Advisor (who kills Eli in the future). After that, G-Man puts Alyx in stasis despite her wishes to the contrary. Given how recent Half-Life: Alyx is, there's no way of knowing how much the timeline will be changed by the events of the game. The rest of the discussion will be about the original timeline.
Considering that Half-Life: Alyx is a prequel, the fact that her design didn't change much over the years makes sense.
Alyx's designs have remained mostly consistent over the years, likely due to the fact that her most recent appearance (Half-Life: Alyx) was a prequel to her debut game (Half-Life 2). Her design is short, sweet, & to the point. A zip-up hoodie, a leather jacket, fingerless gloves, jeans, & boots. Alyx's skin is somewhat lighter than you'd expect from most black women given her biracial heritage, but you won't catch me questioning one's blackness (especially given that her face model is Jamil Mullen). Though simple on the surface, there are little details that speak volumes about her character. The hooded sweater Alyx wears under her leather jacket is adorned with the Black Mesa logo & branding, a callback to where she grew up. The box-like necklace she wears belonged to her late mother, so that serves as a reminder of what she lost (even she was really young at the time of her mom's death). Even the fact that the right sleeve of Alyx's leather jacket is duct taped together shows that she isn't one to throw something out so easily (this is more of a detail from the original Half-Life 2 rather than Half-Life: Alyx, where Alyx's jacket was in-tact). Outside of that & her right arm bandage in HL2, Alyx has practical elements such as her green belt (which holds her gun & EMP Tool) & her headband holding her hair back from getting in front of her face. Basically the name of the game with Alyx's design is practicality. And while that doesn't exactly make for a very detailed design section, it does its job & does it well. Plus it helps that she isn't really sexualized, one aspect of colorism in games that Valve dodged with Alyx's design. So yeah, good job, Valve. As mentioned before, sometimes less is more.
Alyx is another case where I have very few complaints. There is something to be said about there being very few dark-skinned black women in gaming. But Alyx's case is justified given her mixed heritage (& again, I'm not here to question one's blackness). Funny enough, her first VA (Merle Dandridge) was also half black & half asian (her mom was Korean) & was originally gonna return to voice her in Half-Life: Alyx. But she sadly didn't return, replaced by Ozioma Akagha (also a black actress). So for both VAs, there's no issue of having a non-black actress. Likewise, Alyx avoids most of the colorist pitfalls of black women in media thanks to her more friendly personality & her design not being overly sexualized. So yeah, Valve did great with Alyx as a character.
WEEK 3: TOP-VOTED ACTION GAME CHARACTER
DAY 17: CHERRY HUNTER (STREETS OF RAGE)
I was about to start writing Cherry's section in the thick of the winter storm. But thankfully my internet is back now, so I can continue with my research with no roadblocks. Anyway, Streets of Rage 4 ended up being a breakout hit & a solid-ass revival for the franchise. Along with that were a number of newcomers, one of which is actually the daughter of a series veteran. I'm talking about none other than the rock-&-roll pogo brawler Cherry Hunter. To be honest, I didn't really pay too much attention to the game when it first came out. But once people sang the game's praises as well as seeing Cherry as a character in action, I knew I had to start paying attention. And I'm glad I did, because both her & the game as a whole are great. Granted, I could have gone with Adam Hunter (her father), who's been around since the first game. But on top of there not being a ton of black women in games, her not being a police officer (more on that later) gave her the edge over her old man automatically. Also, I would normally wait until 8-9 AM CST to post this. But since I have no idea if Xfinity is gonna maintain their internet or not in the morning, I figured it'd be best not to risk it & post this section now. This won't be a regular thing, but more of a preventive measure so you can enjoy Cherry's section on schedule. So anyway, let's get to the write-up.DAY 17: CHERRY HUNTER (STREETS OF RAGE)
You seriously thought they would take you bribe, Mr. Y? Really?
The story section is probably gonna be shorter than you're used to since Streets of Rage doesn't have a shit-ton of lore. But I should probably preface this with a bit about her father, series veteran Adam Hunter. Adam was in the original Streets of Rage game & actually quit his police force due to the corruption within. Though ironically enough, he returned to police work via Special Forces despite now having a daughter. Cherry actually inherited a lot of her father's fighting prowess, but didn't really want to follow in her dad's policing footsteps despite being quite the daddy's girl (good on you for not joining the police, Cherry). Until the events of Streets of Rage 4, Cherry was a guitarist for Wood Oak City's. Though when Blaze sent the call to fight the new incarnation of the Syndicate to Adam, it was Cherry who ended up answering due to her dad being busy with another assignment. If this scenario of Adam being busy & someone else in his family taking up the call sounds familiar, it's because her uncle (Eddie "Skate" Hunter) did the same thing in Streets of Rage 3 after rescuing his brother in 2. And I guess this makes sense within the context of Streets of Rage 4, as Cherry actually has more in common with her uncle mechanically than her father in the sense that she's a fast-but-weak character (A.K.A. right up my alley)……which would explain why Skate didn't return but Adam did (he's an unlockable character). Anyway, being the only character in the game who can run, the game-plan with Cherry is to get in & out of trouble with quick strikes when you do get in close. It's actually quite a rush (no pun intended) playing as Cherry & it complements her energetic personality well. It was alongside the team of old & new fighters that they were able to take down the Y Syndicate (the name of the new group), led by Mr. Y. So yeah, not too bad for her first outing.
Her design is just too good, plain & simple.
Beat-em-ups take a lot after fighting games in their design logic in that they have to communicate everything you need to know about the character at a quick glance, originally out of necessity since you need to decide to who play quickly since you spent a quarter to play. Obviously that's not very common these days now that everyone's moved to console & PC play, but those same mindsets are very much in play today when it comes to the genres that dominated the arcade scene. And even though Cherry Hunter is a child of the console era when it comes to the beat-em-up genre, she's very much one of the best examples when it comes to character design in the genre (or in general, honestly). Everything about Cherry's outfit, from her loose & torn yellow t-shirt to the black tube top underneath to her ripped jeans to her black shoes, everything about Cherry's design screams "rock star". Though the bandages around her arms & her pleasantly-surprising amount of muscle remind you that she's still a very capable fighter. Actually, this is something that I appreciate about Street Fighter's women, as sexualized as they tend to be (especially as of recently). I even love Cherry's hair, which are big poofy dreads with a magenta fade down to the tips (living up to her namesake). She even rocks her guitar into battle, which adds to the rock star look. Even the use of yellow & black is a uniting element between the other playable members of the Hunter family throughout the series, which is a cool touch. If you're expecting me to tear into a specific element, I don't really have anything. It's just a fantastic design. Granted, I'm not too sure about he significance of her black necklace, but it looks great & lines up with the black tube top. Not to mention that she isn't objectified in a way that takes away from her character, so that's a plus. Either way, the devs fucking nailed it with Cherry's design. And the sprite work done for Cherry is top-tier, which I didn't expect to be any different given how well the other characters were handled.
Case in point about yellow & black being the uniting Hunter family colors. But yeah, welcome to the Streets of Rage family, Cherry.
I have literally no complaints about Cherry, none. Like I said, normally I'd give some sort of critique about the game, be it some instance of colorism or the voice actor not being black. But here, nothing. Granted, the lack of a VA mention is due to the lack of voice acting in the game, but that's besides the point. They absolutely fucking hit it out of the park with Cherry Hunter, & I couldn't be happier. I did warn you this would be shorter than usual. But honestly, I'm glad it was. There's not much more I could add without feeling like it drags on. Go play Streets of Rage 4 if you get the chance, you'll thank me later.
WEEK 4: TOP-VOTED CHARACTER FROM RPGs & MORE
DAY 22: BARRET WALLACE (FINAL FANTASY)
DAY 22: BARRET WALLACE (FINAL FANTASY)
I mean, come on. He's quite literally one of the most iconic black characters in gaming (probably one of the most iconic characters in gaming period). Hell, I'm pretty sure most of you immediately thought of Barret when this whole thread started (& not just because of the fact that he was in the banner). And that's for a multitude of reasons, a good chunk of which is that Barret is one of the earliest party members in one of the most prolific games of all time…..a game that just got part of its story remade just last year. Granted, Final Fantasy has a decent assortment of black characters. Hell, Final Fantasy could do a decent job of carrying the RPG section on its own. But I did limit myself to one per franchise. And I couldn't pick anyone but Barret to represent the franchise in this thread. Normally I would go on a long-winded introduction for Barret. But as I said on the day I posted Billie Lurk's write-up, Barret doesn't need an introduction. So let's get to it. I better not fuck up.
I know what you're wondering, "How can anyone with a gun for an arm call themselves a parent". Well, Barret's actually a damn good father.
Before the events of Final Fantasy VII, Barret Wallace lived in Corel (a forested mining town) whit his wife Myrna. But when she fell ill to an unspecified illness, Barret agreed to help Shinra build a mako reactor just north of his town alongside Dyne (who needed some convincing). He did just that & helped the Turks sneak in, but they ended up destroying the reactor to retaliate against Avalanche. Barret & Dyne tried to escape in the ensuing chaos, but both were gunned down by Shinra troops. This left Dyne at the mercy of a cliff, grabbing onto Barret's right hand……which Scarlet proceeded to shoot. So now Barret's down a right hand & Dyne is presumed dead, leaving behind his daughter Marlene (who Barret would soon adopt & raise as his own). From there, Barret would get a prosthetic adapter from Sakaki that would allow Barret to use various weapons in exchange for his missing forearm & join Avalanche as one of its leaders to take the fight to Shinra. Originally he worked with the main Avalanche group with Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, & Tifa. But after various disagreements, Barret & Co. would split off from the main Avalanche group & establish their own cell with the people in question over in Sector 7's Seventh Heaven, all the while raising his newly-adopted daughter. From here the events of Final Fantasy VII are put into motion, but most of you know the drill by this point. Cloud is hired as a mercenary to help Avalanche with blowing up some mako reactors, becomes the first member of your party besides Cloud himself, they have a run-in with Shinra, Barret & the group befriends various party members along the way (including Red XIII in Barret's case specifically), and they chase down Sephiroth all the way from Midgar to the Northern Cave. Though along the way, Barret would eventually revisit his hometown. Or to be more specific, they would visit North Corel, which was established by the survivors of the mako reactor explosion that Barret helped put into motion. It was actually here (or at least in prison) where he would reunite with Dyne, now rocking a gun-arm on his left arm that he used to enact the Gold Saucer massacre. As it turns out, the loss of his family drove Dyne mad to the point where he just wanted to destroy the world, hence why he went on a murderous rampage. Hell, Dyne nearly pointed said rampage towards his daughter upon learning that she survived in a twisted thought process that his wife shouldn't be alone in the afterlife. Though after being defeated by Barret, Cloud, & the others, Dyne would throw himself off a cliff to his death. With his homecoming as well as the general journey of Final Fantasy VII, Barret had a long quest of his own, both literally & emotionally. And given that the remake seems to be taking a new uncharted path, there's no telling how much these events will differ in the remake.
Barret's quite fun to play in the remake, actually. He's also fun in the original, but so is everyone due to the turn-based combat. The remake's combat system makes things more specific for each character, hence the more focused praise.
Mechanically, Barret focuses on long-ranged attacks with a couple of melee attacks for good measure in both the original game as well as the remake. In the original, Barret is more of a defensive character due to his weapon, stats, & Limits (at least initially). But eventually you can change this by using Barret's ultimate weapon (Missing Score), which allows for more material slots, thus opening up more options without losing his damage potential. His two Limits (Agermax & Catastrophe) add to his sheer amount of firepower. In the remake, a lot of that is still true. But given that the remake is more of an action RPG, Barret's gun-arm can be used to reach enemies that Cloud, Tifa, & Aerith otherwise couldn't. As per his initial defensive role in the original game, Barret has the highest durability of all the remake's party members & a lot of health. His unique attack varies depending on what kind of weapon you have equipped. For ranged weapons, it's Overcharge (which buffs damage & fills your ATB gauge faster). For physical weapons, it's Overrun (Barret charges forward, hitting any enemies in his way, then ending with a huge AoE ground smash). Because of his high durability, Barret can serve as a support role pretty well, especially with abilities like Lifesaver (which has Barret take on his allies' damage) & Steelskin (which makes him tank all damage coming his way). Basically the remake goes through lengths to establish Barret as the rock of the team, both emotionally & in combat. Speaking of which, Barret is very much a bleeding heart, especially once he joined Avalanche. He's fully committed to the cause of the organization & cares deeply about the teammates of whom he goes into battle with. Unfortunately, this passion can backfire depending on the situation, as it has on a few occasions. But all the same, Barret maintains a strong sense of justice Barret is also very much capable of sincerity, something he often shows with his daughter Marlene. But the gung-ho attitude part comes from the localization basing much of his personality after Mr. T, which is very much a black stereotype. The remake retains a fair amount of this stereotyping, but we do see the more sincere side of Barret more often as well as that passion being more genuine & not stereotypical. From what I've been told, this is more in line with how the Japanese performance is handled. And given that his English VA in the remake (John Eric Bentley) is very much capable of delivering such a performance, this is something that I'll chalk up more to the localizers than the actor.
The changes between Barret's classic & remake designs are a classic case of the little things eventually adding up.
Barret's design didn't change TOO much between the original & the remake. A lot of the same design elements are consistent across both, from Barret's gun-arm to his brown sleeveless leather jacket to his green cargo pants to his brown gloves & boots. He even retains the skull tattoo on his left arm, even if the actual details & placement on the left arm differs between the two (on top of a new tattoo design, said tattoo is lower on Barret's arm in the remake). Barret maintains a short flat-top, one with straight hair for some reason. I originally thought this was a quirk of the remake, but I realized that this was a thing in the original as well upon further inspection of Barret's OG concept art. Not sure why that's the case, but whatever. Lastly, the make-up of his gun-arm differs between the two. It's more of a stub with a gatling gun at the end, but the barrels are much more detailed & longer in the remake. Hell, there are even slots for Materia in the remake's take on the gun arm. Not to mention the addition of the sleeve coming from the gun arm, likely to hide whatever scars that are still there. Plus I'm liking the black sleeveless shirt he now wears in the remake. But outside of that, Barret tends to wear sunglasses for a good chunk of FFVII Remake. But honestly, I'm not a fan. Like, the glasses themselves are nice, but Barret looks great already. No need to hide those eyes behind your shades. Not to mention that they make no sense to be worn at night anyway (obviously not all of FFVII is at night, but you get my point). But yeah, as mentioned before, sometimes less is more. And Barret still stands as one of Nomura's best character designs. Though you could probably say the same for most of FFVII's major characters, so I'm glad Barret is among the better examples of this…….even if I wish his hair was curlier. I know I skipped his Advent Children design. But given that he didn't have a huge role in that anyway, I figured it'd be best to focus on his OG & remake designs. Basically he trades his brown vest for a white one, now wears a mesh shirt (kinda like what Young Zeku wears in SFV), & braided his hair back. For what it's worth, I do like the braids. But something about that version of Barret felt......off to me (not just the shirt, a design decision that I wasn't a huge fan of). So yeah, focusing on the OG & remake versions here.
I guess Cloud really did grow on Barret, though more so vice versa.
Funny enough, I covered most of my criticisms throughout this write-up. The Mr. T-inspired personality that the localizers put on Barret in the original FFVII still plague the character to this day, & it's made all the more annoying when Barret actually breaks away from the stereotype. John Eric Bentley has shown to be more than capable of a more true-to-the-JP-version performance, so I'm not sure why they don't just let John do his thing. This has actually been a point of criticism for both the original & especially the remake from black fans for a while (myself included). Hell, one of our own (Urban Scholar) actually did an article on the subject of how Barret was handled in FFVII Remake that I highly recommend you read which goes into further detail about his flaws than I could.
Decades later, these remakes haven’t fixed their racial representation issues
Final Fantasy VII and Trials of Mana both have problems portraying people of color.
arstechnica.com
Outside of that, here are some of the things that various games can improve upon with regards to how they represent black people. I won't go into too much detail as this is basically extra credit. Not to mention that I may tackle similar topics in deeper detail next year, so think of this as a sneak preview of what I'm considering for 2022 (unless I decide to tackle black representation in games from a different angle). That plus I want to give myself a bit of a break compared to the long write-ups I did over the course of February (a lot of which I had to stay up late to finish) as well as the bonus stuff I did for the first week of March. And thank you ahead of time for taking the time to read it all.
BONUS WEEK: THINGS THAT SHOULD BE IMPROVED WITH BLACK REPRESENTATION IN GAMES
DAY +1: HAVE BLACK CHARACTERS BE VOICED BY BLACK ACTORS
I'm sure you noticed a trend with a solid chunk of the characters on this list that said characters tend to be voiced by non-black characters. Nadine Ross is probably the most infamous example of this (& one I've mentioned before), being voiced by Laura Bailey (all due respect to Laura, but Naughty Dog should have recast the character as soon as Nadine's design was finalized). In Nintendo's case, most of their PoC characters are voiced by white actors, which is disappointing to see. That's not to discredit the work the actors put in to bring these characters to life, a lot of them did great work. But in an industry that tends to prioritize white actors, it'd be a great effort to give black actors a chance to shine with the few black roles that exist. Of course, this isn't to say that black actors should only voice black roles. My point is that there already aren't a ton of black characters in games. The least the industry can do is to offer such black actors the few black characters that are there, as there isn't nearly enough room to do otherwise with the characters available. This also extends to other PoC roles. Going back to Nintendo, Fire Emblem: Three Houses had a number of Arabic-coded characters, but all those roles were given to white actors. Of course, this isn't a trend that's exclusive to Nintendo, as even the likes of Clementine & Demoman are voiced by white actors. So it's generally something that I hope improves going forward. Looking at Guilty Gear Strive, I hope that Nagoriyuki & Giovanna are voiced by black actors. But given how they made sure to get a black VA for Venom in Xrd Sign, I'm not too worried on this front. Though you get my point overall, let these talented black actors get their time in the sun.
DAY +2: IMPROVE OPTIONS FOR AFROCENTRIC HAIR STYLES
Dear Video Games Character Creators You Still Need Work
When you’re a person of color, creating an avatar with your skin and hair is often frustrating. Why is that? And are there answers to this?
jrous001.medium.com
DAY +3: TAKE THE TIME TO DEPICT BLACK PEOPLE PROPERLY
ALL CREDIT FOR THESE IMAGES BELONG TO SUGARYACID (who's no longer on Twitter) & SHORTYBAT FROM TWITTER & DEVIANTART RESPECTIVELY!!!!!
DAY +4: HIRE MORE BLACK EXECUTIVES & DEVELOPERS
DAY +5: CUT IT OUT WITH THE STEREOTYPES
Colorism in video games (Open spoilers)
Before I start: I just want to make it clear that you can like a character, game, an artist, a publisher, etc. in isolation while still acknowledging that looked at within the greater context, that thing you like might be contributing to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes or imagery that...
www.resetera.com
Yes, Black Girls Are Allowed To Be Soft
“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.
ashiamonetb.medium.com
DAY +6: DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE DARKER-SKINNED BLACK WOMEN
DAY +7: MAKE MORE BLACK CHARACTERS IN GENERAL
Last edited:
