As a Black man, I find Barret's portrayal offensive AF

[Bunkei]

This is a representation problem first and foremost. There are definitely people who sound and look like Barret in the Black community. However, Barret can be well written and still be made up of racist caricatures.

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I guess where our thinking divulges. I don't look at Barrett as a representation of anything other than a fictional character. Again, it's fine to have issues with his design, but to say that this was intentionally done as a stereotypical jab at black people is unfounded.

 

[Mansa Mufasa]

I guess where our thinking divulges. I don't look at Barrett as a representation of anything other than a fictional character. Again, it's fine to have issues with his design, but to say that this was intentionally done as a stereotypical jab at black people is unfounded.

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I don't think they said to themselves "Hey lets fuck with Black people" I think it speaks more to the representation issue we have in Gaming and Tech in general.

Like I said, he is well written but that doesn't mean he's not problematic either.

 

[Agni]

I guess where our thinking divulges. I don't look at Barrett as a representation of anything other than a fictional character. Again, it's fine to have issues with his design, but to say that this was intentionally done as a stereotypical jab at black people is unfounded.

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This is naive. It's like saying you don't see color. Media portrayal matters. When people are constantly exposed to certain things, that shapes their perceptions even if they don't realize it. Why that is significant is because many minorities who suffer from these problematic depictions often don't have a loud enough voice to actually contest and combat those portrayals. In the case of Barrett, black people have enough of a presence in America to actually make their voices heard but even then there is dismissiveness or ignorance towards them because their voice can be shouted over by the more ignorant majority.

Intent matters little. It's about the end result.

 

[Deleted member 46958]

Yeah, it bothered me too. It feels like a caricature.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Yeah the elevator scene in the demo basically cemented my decision to play it in Japanese when given the option.

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On the other hand. Barret is actually played by a black man in English rather than a Japanese man.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Yeah, just watching the trailers and gameplay videos was embarrassing tbh, the way he speaks is so over the top, ridiculous and distracting, like I'm watching an old cartoon or something.

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In a sense, you kind of are. It's a remake of an old cartoon.

Ass great a game as FFVII is, it's 100% an over the top silly game with serious moments.

As someone else said, FFVIIR tries to make it a more serious game with silly moments instead.

They didn't even bother to hire a black man for the original/Japanese voice

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This would be extraordinarily hard if at all possible. Japan doesn't have a lot if any black voice actors that can speak Japanese.

It's pretty bizarre how much of a sideways step it was since 1997. Like you had a chance to fix it and...nah.

Made me seriously reconsider thinking Rude was black because they didn't go all funhouse mirror on him like they did with Barret



Folks tend to circle the wagons when a game is new, so it's a lot harder to criticize them without getting dogpiled on.

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Allow me to blow your world. They've said that Rude is Latino not black.

Although I guess Rude could be Afro-Latino.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

......

 

[RecRoulette]

Allow me to blow your world. They've said that Rude is Latino not black.

Although I guess Rude could be Afro-Latino.

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Huh. Learn something new every day.

 

[Rozart]

Preach.

Never played the OG but Barrett's character really took me aback. It was such an over-the-top stereotype and it was so crudely done.

I had no idea if that was how he was like in the original game as well but it was so cringey.

Here's to hoping that he gets a more nuanced character development in part 2.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Preach.

Never played the OG but Barrett's character really took me aback. It was such an over-the-top stereotype and it was so crudely done.

I had no idea if that was how he was like in the original game as well but it was so cringey.

Here's to hoping that he gets a more nuanced character development in part 2.

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Believe it or not, they've toned him down from the original game.

On the other hand, the original game was over the top in everything it did and there was no voice-acting just text bubbles.

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[Powdered Egg]

I pity da pollutin fool, sucka!

Hearing Barret in the demo was a turnoff and I'll probably end up skipping the game entirely. They could have gone with Idris Elba, Michael K Williams or Keith David, or some new actor sounding along those lines.

Instead we get jive turkey in our game. Nice job square enix

 

[Asklepios]

I am glad people are calling this shit out. Tired of JRPGs getting a free pass and it's fanbase making excuses for Japanese devs "misinterpreting" the culture etc.

 

[FFNB]

I feel you, and agree.

I love Barret as a concept. He's a loving father, and passionate about protecting the planet, but the actual portrayal of his character is embarrassing. It's like non-black writers can't wrap their heads around writing a black man as...just a man. Like, we come in all different shapes, sizes, temperaments, intellects, and personality traits. It's almost like we're...individuals, and not a monolith. Crazy, I know!

It'd be nice if black people (and people of color in general), were portrayed with the level of variety and complexity as white men in entertainment media. Considering that the FFVII Remake took a lot of elements and reinterpreted them, nothing would have been lost reinterpreting Barret, even if you still kept him a large, muscular Black man. I would have been just as happy if he was a Dennis Haysbert or Lance Reddick in terms of performance if you still wanted him to be authoritative and stern. The loud, yelling, angry Black man is a trope I'm fucking sick and tired of.

I've had to cringe inwardly at Barret's portrayal in the Final Fantasy universe since 1997. I'm ready to put that shit to rest, and I had hopes prior to its reveal that an FFVII Remake if it were to happen would address it. Naive thinking, I know.

I remember my roommate walking into the room while I was playing FFVII Remake, and there was a scene where Barret was, doing his thing, and she just started laughing hysterically and was like, "What the fuck? That shit is racist!" She's white, and when I say I was embarrassed to even keep playing... I just had to shake my head and was like, "I know, dude. I know." And we got on a whole discussion about how fucked up Barret's portrayal was. She'd never seen or heard of FFVII (she's a young'un), so she was just floored by how this game was so over the top with his portrayal, especially in contrast to how the other characters in his scenes were acting. He's embarrassing. I'm sorry, but Barret Wallace is a fucking embarrassing as fuck character, and I don't need to have non-black people telling me how totally cool and awesome and full of depth he has, because his portrayal fucking sucks.

 

[Level 7 Boss]

Its not a great take. It's one that completely misses the point. Barret is actually written really well so much so that the VA direction undermines the writing because it leans heavily into the Angry Black guy stereotypes set forth by Mr. Tee.

There's a representation problem within Gaming and media as a whole, it feels like of every 5 Black characters 3 of them will be Mr. T variants 1 would be a comedic relief a la Sazh and the last one might be an actual character because that's the only one where someone Black had input on their creation.

Barret does not reflect me as a Black person with that shuck and jive preacher voice. I hate that it's the type of archtype so many people lean into and support.

Fuck that he's well written. He's still a make up of several racist stereotypes, his voice literally sounds like something from an Aunt Jemima/Uncle Ben's commercial back in the 50s.

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I think you are being incredibly generous with those ratios. As you observe, media representation of black people is deeply problematic. You have to question why this is still happening in 2020, where black people in media are bereft of nuance and simply regurgitate tropes steeped in racism

 

[Ferrs]

Believe it or not, they've toned him down from the original game.

On the other hand, the original game was over the top in everything it did and there was no voice-acting just text bubbles.

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To be fair the english localization made him even worse. He was bad in the original already because he was overly angry, but this MR T talking is fault of the english script.

 

[AgeEighty]

I liked Barrett a lot in both the original game and the remake. But it was clear in the original game that this was a Japanese stereotype of an urban black man, and I was kind of surprised when the voice acting performance in the remake more or less doubled down on that.