Barret Wallace

File:VIIBC wiki icon.pngFile:OtWtaS wiki icon.pngFile:VIIAC wiki icon.pngFile:VIIDoC wiki icon.png

## Barret Wallace

バレット・ウォーレス (Baretto Wōresu?)
Alternate names: Barett, Barrett, Bullet

### Portraits

File:FF7 - Barret Portrait.pngPortrait during motorcycle minigame.

### Other appearances

* **Opera Omnia**
* **Theatrhythm**
* **Record Keeper**
* **Brave Exvius**

## Biographical information

### Age

35 (*Final Fantasy VII*)
37 (*Advent Children*)
38 (*Dirge of Cerberus*) (born December 15th, 1972)

## Gameplay details

* Final Fantasy VII
* Final Fantasy VII Remake
* Before Crisis
* Dirge of Cerberus

## Behind the scenes information

### English voice actor

Beau Billingslea (Compilation)
John Eric Bentley (Remake)

> Head of the underground resistance movement AVALANCHE, Barret depends on brute strength and his 'Gun-arm' to see him through...
>
> Description

**Barret Wallace** is a playable character in *Final Fantasy VII* and *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, and a recurring character in the *Compilation of Final Fantasy VII*. He leads a cell of the eco-terrorist group Avalanche, trying to prevent Shinra Electric Power Company from using mako, the planet of Gaia's life source, as a form of energy.

Barret fights passionately for his cause and cares greatly for his allies. His seemingly benevolent cause of fighting for the planet is a cover for his 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 daughter, Marlene.

Barret wields gun-arm, mechanical guns grafted in place of his right arm, allowing him to fire from range. His Limit Break abilities largely consist of physical attacks with these weapons.

## Profile

### Appearance

 File:Barret-FFVIIArt.png
In his original appearance, Barret is a heavy-set, muscular dark-skinned man with a dirty brown vest, green pants and large brown boots. His right arm was mangled in the loss of his hometown, and has been replaced with his weapon, the gun-arm, which lets him interchange various weapon attachments to it. Due to poor conversions from centimeters to feet in early English materials, Barret's height has been listed as 6'4". His height is actually 6.46ft, or 6ft5.6in. The official North American website for the original launch of the game used the rounded down value of 6'5", while the *Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- Signature Series Guide* guide rounds up to 6'6".

Barret has several bands of metal around his waist and his remaining arm, and a tattoo of a skull surrounded by flames that form the image of wings on his left shoulder. His hair is cut similar to a hi-top fade and he has a thick beard and a dog-tag around his neck. He has three scars on his right cheek. He also wears a silver hoop earring in his left ear. This appearance has humorously been compared to actor Mr. T, a comparison also somewhat shown through Barret's character.

In *Final Fantasy VII Remake* Barret wears sunglasses/ballistic eyewear and his basic gun-arm resembles a modern rotary-style machine gun. He wears a black tank under his vest and has visible chest hair. The metal bands around his left forearm have been replaced with a leather bracer with small metal plates strapped on top of it. The bands around his waist appear to be some form of back brace. He wears cargo-style pants, and his boots are zipper-back styled. The skull tattoo on his left arm uses the *Advent Children* redesign.

In *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* and *Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-*, Barret's gun-arm has been replaced by a transforming steel hand that can turn into a large gun. His vest has been replaced by a puffier, off-white one. He wears a fish-net shirt and retains the green pants. His hair is differently styled, and is now arranged in cornrows. Character designer Tetsuya 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 told them to make "a big, over-the-top gun that transforms in a huge, over-the-top way." Barret's skull tattoo was altered from his original artwork in *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children*; originally a skull with wings, it was changed to a rounder skull with extending wisps.

### Personality

 File:Barret AC 2007 Art.jpg

> You gotta understand somethin'... I don't got an answer. I wanna be with Marlene... but I gotta fight. 'Cause if I don't...the planet's gonna die. So I'm gonna keep fightin'!
>
> Barret in *Final Fantasy VII*

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 catching the attention of everyone around him. Having lost the way of life he was accustomed to due to Shinra, Barret turned to extremism, but his rage is accompanied by a deeper, albeit rarely shown thoughtfulness. Barret admits to Elmyra Gainsborough he wants to be with his daughter Marlene, but at the same time wants to save the planet, the issue causing such dissonance he gives up trying to explain it.

Barret describes 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," which he adopts from Cloud during the train ride after their first successful Avalanche mission. Late in *Final Fantasy VII*, when Cloud and Tifa are absent, Barret first says he ought to be the leader, but then says he has come to realize he is not suitable, and elects Cid in his place. Barret discovers his quest is mainly fueled by his love for his daughter Marlene, rather than grander ideology as he had posited earlier, and that he wants to make the world a better place for her sake.

In the novella *On the Way to a Smile*, Barret's character is examined on a deeper level, revealing his isolation due to viewing himself as a monster because of his gun-arm, and his search for a new meaning to his life after his vendetta with Shinra is settled. Still guilty over the chaos Avalanche had 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.

## Story

**Spoiler warning: *Plot and/or ending details follow.*** *(Skip section)*
### Early life

Barret grew up in the small, forested coal mining village of Corel. He was married to a woman named Myrna who suffered from an unspecified illness. Because of his wife's illness 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.

 File:BC Barret 1.jpg
In *Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-*, the original, more violent incarnation of Avalanche has occupied the Corel on May 8, 0003. Barret helps the Turks sneak into the reactor to reclaim it. At the time he does not know the name of the enemy organization, and ironically would later form his own cell in the same insurgency group. Shinra destroys the reactor and Corel in retaliation, believing it was the people of Corel who helped Avalanche take the reactor. In the chaos Barret and Dyne return to the town and are gunned down by Shinra troops. Dyne falls off a cliff and Barret narrowly grabs his hand. Shinra executive Scarlet shoots their hands and Dyne falls 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. He acquired a prosthetic adapter for his arm that allowed him to attach weapons, which was made for him by the artisan Old Man Sakaki. Barret made his way to Cosmo Canyon and learned of Avalanche, becoming a leader in the organization's second incarnation, and went to Midgar to begin his campaign against Shinra.

### Original continuity

#### Avalanche leader

Sometime in 0007 in Midgar, Barret leads the eco-terrorist group Avalanche against Shinra, his members including Biggs, Wedge, Jessie and Tifa. 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 Mako Reactor 1 is successful, although Barret views Cloud's fee steep and he does not like him. However, Avalanche's need for help and Cloud's skill convince Barret to continue to keep him with the group. At the next reactor bombing, the group runs into President Shinra and Barret curses at him. As the robot the president sends after the group explodes, Cloud is separated from the others.

Tifa comes up with a plan to meet the crime lord of Sector 6, Don Corneo, when they discover he is a Shinra informant whose men have been hunting info on a man with a gun-arm. While Tifa and Cloud are away, Shinra sends the Turks to destroy the pillar holding up the Sector 7 plate, crushing the slums beneath where Avalanche's headquarters is located. Barret, Biggs, Jessie and Wedge fight to stop them, and the others are lost in the struggle with Barret the last one standing defending the pillar when Cloud and Tifa join him. Despite their efforts the pillar is destroyed and Barret, Cloud, and Tifa narrowly escape.

Barret is enraged at the loss, but is consoled by Tifa's assurance that Aerith Gainsborough, a woman she and Cloud had met in the slums, took Marlene to safety before the plate fell before being kidnapped by the Turks. Barret has a heartfelt reunion with Marlene, but Elmyra criticizes him for leaving his daughter alone when he goes off to fight Shinra. Barret struggles explaining his reasons, rationalizing it that the planet needs saving, especially for Marlene's sake. He leaves Marlene in Elmyra's care, and asks the two to flee Midgar as the city is no longer a safe place.

#### Pursuit of Sephiroth

Portrait by Tetsuya Nomura.
When the group arrives at the Shinra Building, Barret suggests barging in through the front door, but the others disagree. They find Aerith in captivity of Professor Hojo, the head of Shinra's science department, who wants to interbreed her to "preserve their species," Aerith being a Cetra. They also meet another of Hojo's "specimens," Red XIII of a rare sentient leonine species.

Sephiroth appears at the Shinra Building and kills President Shinra. After being captured by the Turks and mysteriously released from their cells during the night, they find the President impaled on Sephiroth's katana in his office after the Jenova body from the lab goes missing. They escape the building on vehicles stolen from the Shinra exhibition rooms and the group flees Midgar to Kalm. Cloud is elected the group's leader over Barret, and he grudgingly accepts.

In Kalm Cloud explains Sephiroth is a legendary SOLDIER who defected Shinra to exact revenge on mankind, and though thought perished appears to have returned. He tells his version of the Nibelheim Incident of five years ago when he and Sephiroth came to Nibelheim to inspect the Nibel Reactor and Sephiroth went mad upon learning of his origins from the Jenova Project and torched the town. His story is continually interrupted by Barret who is asking for more details as Cloud's recollection is inconsistent.

The group continues to track Sephiroth and crosses the sea at Junon to Costa del Sol with Barret disguised as a sailor aboard the Shinra cargo ship where he spies upon Rufus Shinra, the new president of the Shinra Company. In Costa del Sol Barret is angered at the others' claim he looks "cute" in the sailor suit and should keep it as pajamas, but secretly retreats to the inn to look at himself in the bathroom mirror while wearing it.

The group eventually arrives at North Corel, a town built by the Corel survivors near the destroyed mako reactor's ruins. The townspeople vilify Barret and he divulges his past to the group. Riding to the Gold Saucer, an amusement park built towering over the Corel ruins, Barret's frustrations increase and he runs off alone after Aerith tries to cheer him up, telling Cloud and the others not to forget they are after Sephiroth. Cloud and the others find many people gunned down at the Battle Square, and a survivor says it was a man with a gun-arm.

 File:BarretFMV.jpg
Thrown into Corel Prison after being assumed to work with the gunman, 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 prison's leader, Dyne, who also has a gun-arm on his mangled hand. Traumatized by the loss of his family and home, Dyne wishes to destroy the world, and thus went to Gold Saucer to exact the massacre Barret and the others ended up being blamed for.

When Barret tells Dyne that Marlene survived, Dyne attacks him, saying he has to kill Marlene so his wife will not be lonely in the afterlife. Barret prevails, and Dyne, considering himself a lost cause, permits Barret and the others to leave the prison, then throws himself off a cliff to his death. The owner of Gold Saucer, Dio, learns of the event, and allows the party to leave and gives them a buggy as an apology.

Barret continues to travel with the group, developing a profound respect for Cloud. It is even possible for the two to go out at the Gold Saucer while there to look for the Keystone. During the "date" Cloud and Barret ride the gondola and Barret tries to pry which of the party's women Cloud is attracted to. The pair spots Cait Sith, one of the party's newer members, stealing the Keystone and handing it to the Turks. When they confront him, Cait Sith reveals he has Marlene captive, thus blackmailing the others to taking him along, greatly upsetting Barret.

After being manipulated by Sephiroth to relinquishing the Black Materia at the Temple of the Ancients, Cloud decides to quit the journey. Barret assures Cloud he is among friends and that he will look out for him, pushing him into going after Aerith who has gone missing. When Sephiroth murders Aerith, Barret consoles Cloud, and is willing to continue the hunt for Sephiroth with him even if Cloud now fully knows he is susceptible to Sephiroth's influence. Barret has a small revelation at Gaea's Cliff, where he considers the cold and barren land the exact opposite of the technological Midgar, yet is just as unappealing to him.

#### Meteorfall

After the party reclaims the Black Materia, Cloud, who does not trust himself in Sephiroth's presence, can hand it over to Barret for safekeeping. Sephiroth conjures an image of Tifa who begs Barret to help Cloud, and thus Barret is tricked to handing the materia back to Cloud, who gives it to Sephiroth who uses it to summon Meteor. This rouses the Weapons, colossal monsters created by the planet itself, and Barret and Tifa escape on the Shinra airship *Highwind* with the company's executives and are brought as captives to Junon.

A week later during a public execution, Barret escapes with Cait Sith and Yuffie Kisaragi's help. They make their way to the *Highwind* to rendezvous with the rest of the group, minus Cloud, who has not been seen after he gave away the Black Materia. While Barret doubts Cloud's true identity, he realizes he is not fit to be the group's leader, and in Cloud's absence hands control over to Tifa. When she departs to care for a catatonic Cloud whom they discover in Mideel, Barret elects Cid, the *Highwind's* pilot, as leader.

Shinra is collecting Huge Materia from mako reactors in a bid to stop the Meteor that is now approaching the planet, but the party wants the materia for themselves to help battle Sephiroth. During Shinra's quest to collect the Huge Materia from the Corel Reactor, North Corel is on the brink of destruction from Shinra. If they deter the accident Barret becomes a local hero. If the town is destroyed, further blame is put on him.

After Shinra destroys Sephiroth's energy barrier from over the North Crater, the group descends into the Northern Cave to defeat Sephiroth and release Holy to save the planet from the Meteor. Barret elects to keep fighting for Marlene and satisfies himself knowing he has done well.

#### Post-crisis

In *On the Way to a Smile* "Episode: Tifa", Barret, along with Cloud and Tifa, revisits the various locations they had seen during their quest to save the planet from Sephiroth. In Kalm, Barret reunites with Marlene. They return to the ruins of Midgar, destroyed in the battle between Holy and Meteor, where they help construct a new city, Edge. Barret suggests Tifa to open a new bar to help the depressed cope with their losses, and Tifa, struggling with her personal dilemmas, agrees to run it. Shortly after, Barret leaves on a journey to settle his past.

Barret is the focus of "Episode: Barret." After leaving Marlene in Cloud and Tifa's care, he searches the world for an alternative energy source to replace mako, and his peace of mind. Searching for a way to atone for the deaths of Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, and to adapt to life after the end of Shinra and the need to fight, Barret visits the artisan Old Man Sakaki, who made his original arm adapter to use weapons, and requisitions a new attachment for the gun-arm that can transform into a mechanical hand, allowing him to live a more normal life. Sakaki requests for him to wait at least a week for its completion. During a truck run to a nearby village to ensure its safe passage, he strikes a conversation with a coal mechanic about how to face his problems; after taking down a monster, and with the mechanic even in fear of him, Barret hesitantly accepts that "the monster dens may be in him."

Upon helping with the farm work for the village to sell their produce in the city, he witnesses a father and his sick daughter requesting the lead driver to take her to Midgar; the daughter is suffering from a severe case of Geostigma, a new terminal illness that has been infecting people ever since Meteorfall. Shortly after the daughter passes away, Barret learns the father was once one of the crew that piloted the *Gelnika*, a Shinra cargo plane.

Barret makes his way to Rocket Town, where he meets with Cid and the new crew with his new airship. After having witnessed further of the pandemic the planet is now struggling with, Barret reconsiders the use of mako to aid the people and find a cure with airship technology. Cid claims the planet has shifted the lifestream away from where the old reactors are settled, and that it would take a greater degree of manpower that would prove inefficient compared to the expertise that Shinra had before its demise.

Cid shows Barret a black substance he and his team recently discovered: oil. Having located an ideal but dangerous monster-ridden area to construct an oilfield in, Barret's hopes are elevated. He comes to catharsis in being able to help with both his strength and insights, as the airship can be used to help those with Geostigma get to aid when a cure is found, and a new fuel source would help everyone with its use and innovation. Returning to Sakaki, he tells him to hold onto the arm, as Barret puts his strengths to use in rebuilding the world.

#### Geostigma crisis

 File:Ffviiac-barret.jpg
One year after Meteorfall, in 0009 during the events of *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children*, Barret is still in contact with his friends. Barret leaves a message on Cloud's cellphone, saying he has found a large oil field. Barret later appears to help Cloud fight Bahamut SIN using the gun on his right hand as a weapon (although it can now morph into a prosthetic hand). Despite his time away from her, he 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*, Cid's new airship, and orders Cid to land so they can help, but Cid tells him to jump if he wants off the ship.

Barret 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.

#### Deepground conflict

 File:BarretDoC.jpg

> When I'm through, there won't be a single sucka standing!
>
> Barret, on a phone with Vincent Valentine in *Dirge of Cerberus*

During *Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-*, Barret, Cloud and Tifa lead a ground assault on Midgar against Deepground in 0010, and provides Vincent with a map via phone that leads the way to Deepground. The three join Cid, Reeve, Yuffie, and a young defected Tsviet named Shelke, to aid Vincent in Omega's destruction.

### Remake continuity

 File:VII Remake Cloud and Barret.png
Barret's Avalanche cell is part of a larger faction, known as Avalanche HQ, but is shunned for its extremism as Barret believes in taking out the mako reactors by force. Tifa convinces Barret to hire Cloud for the Mako Reactor 1 bombing, and Barret teams up with him on their way to the core, though he acts dismissive of Cloud and is frustrated Cloud doesn't show any passion for protecting the planet and says he is only on the job for a paycheck. When Barret tells Cloud to set the bomb up in the core of the reactor, Cloud acts strangely, which leads Barret to only distrust him further. They escape during the timer, and the resulting explosion and thus devastation to the surrounding area is far greater than they had anticipated. Though the others are frazzled by this, Barret shrugs it off and begins to plan for the next bombing mission.

They regroup back at the train going back to the slums, though Cloud is late to join them. They make their way back to the Avalanche hideout in Tifa's bar in the Sector 7 slums, but Barret does not invite Cloud for the Avalanche meeting and afterward dismisses him, saying that he is not really part of their group and thus should not be further involved. However, when a swarm of mysterious ghosts attacks the hideout and Jessie is injured on the eve of another bombing mission, Barret hires Cloud on the spot to be her replacement and the mission is back on track. At the next reactor bombing, the group learns that Shinra is using Avalanche for their propaganda to garner public support and has been allowing their acts of terrorism, and in fact, detonates the bomb that destroys the mako reactor themselves. Tifa and Barret are separated from Cloud who falls into the slums below, and return to their hideout. While there however, they hear of a man working for Don Corneo who has been snooping up information on a man with a gun-arm, and Tifa leaves to infiltrate the don's mansion to find out what this is about, inadvertently running into Cloud and his new friend Aerith while there.

 File:FFVIIR Barret Tifa Cloud Sector 7 escape CG 1.png
Shinra sends out the Turks to separate the Sector 7 pillar from the plate, and Barret and the others fight to save it. Barret is the last one standing when Cloud and Tifa join him, but they fail to stop the plate separation procedure and ride a ropeway to safety while the plate falls and crushes the slums. Barret goes ballistic at the sight of carnage, but Cloud calms him by telling him that Aerith took Marlene to safety, and them to Aerith's house where Barret is relieved to see her sleeping soundly in the guest room and they meet Aerith's mother, Elmyra Gainsborough.

Barret wants them to return to the ruins of Sector 7 to look for survivors. They find Wedge, as well as a secret Shinra testing facility they hadn't known about before. After taking Wedge to recuperate at Elmyra's, Cloud resolves to rescue Aerith from Shinra. Barret accompanies him to repay Aerith for saving Marlene. He has a chance to talk with Cloud in Aerith's garden where he tells Cloud about the Avalanche members the latter never got to meet.

 File:Tifa Barret and Cloud on the Collapsed Sector 7 Plate from FFVII Remake.jpg
As the trains have stopped running, the trio needs to find a way to get topside, and ends up helping Don Corneo's lackey Leslie Kyle, whom Barret warms up to after hearing Leslie's story. They procure powerful grappling guns that propel them across the rubble of the collapsed Sector 7. Barret tells the others to never forget the sight of destruction, to remember that Shinra is their enemy, but promises Tifa they will build a new bar after everything will be over. They make their way the Shinra Building, though Barret is frustrated at their slow pace and subterfuge over simply running in guns blazing. After they rescue Aerith and meet Red XIII, Wedge sends them a message. Wedge has convinced Avalanche HQ to send a helicopter to extract them, and Barret is simultaneously happy that Wedge is well enough to be on his feet, and surprised and concerned as well, as he hadn't asked for Wedge's help.

After briefly being separated in Hojo's lab, the five follow the trail of blood from Jenova's broken tank to find President Shinra hanging from the edge of the Shinra Building, pleading for help. Barret grabs him and contemplates dropping him, but then pulls him over the ledge and tells him to declare Avalanche innocent over the things Shinra's propaganda has been accusing them of. The President scoffs at Barret's vain request to clearing Avalanche's name over asking Shinra to stop all mako production, as Avalanche purportedly wants. The President is killed by Sephiroth who suddenly appears behind him, and who also stabs Barret in the chest, incapacitating him. After Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and Red XIII defeat the Jenova Dreamweaver, the mysterious ghosts that have been intermittently helping and barring their progress thus far heal Barret of his wounds and he comes back in full health, surprised.

The Avalanche HQ helicopter send to extract them is shot down by the Turks and Cloud and Tifa stay behind while Barret takes Aerith and Red XIII downstairs to evacuate. They end up fighting a war machine sent after them by Heidegger, the leader of Shinra's military, but Tifa and Cloud soon arrive in vehicles stolen from the Shinra showrooms and they ride to safety on the Midgar Expressway.

They find Sephiroth waiting for them at the end of the expressway, who leads them to a strange realm where they fight colossal Whispers, the ghostly beings who turn out to be arbiters of fate the planet itself sends out to restrict the flow of destiny to guide the events in a fixed way. Barret supports the party in this surreal landscape, and after Cloud's duel with Sephiroth, it seems the future has become unhinged and anything could happen next. Back in Midgar, Marlene thinks of Barret, and Barret declares he will return for her, but for now he is determined to hunt down Sephiroth as Aerith claims that he is the true threat to the planet, even greater than the Shinra Electric Power Company.

***Spoilers end here.***
## Gameplay

### *Final Fantasy VII*

Barret's battle model from Final Fantasy VII.
Main article: Barret (Final Fantasy VII party member)
Barret is the second playable party member available. He wields various gun-arms for long range combat (with a few melee weapons), and his Limits consist mostly of physical blows with these weapons. He has strong stats for defense and very high Strength, but his magic stats are weaker. His ultimate weapon, the Missing Score, has a large number of Materia slots, and deals more damage based on the AP of the Materia stocked to it. This can allow him to abuse an overflow glitch if stocked with mastered Knights of the Round Materia.

Barret is a date option for Cloud in the Gold Saucer. He begins with 0 hidden date points and has few dialogue options to improve this value, making him the hardest character to date. Dating Barret in the PlayStation 4 version earns the Best Bromance trophy.

### *Final Fantasy VII Remake*

Main article: Barret Wallace (VII Remake party member)
 File:Barret Wallace from FFVII Remake battle render.png
Barret normally wields his gun-arms and specializes in long-range attacks, reaching enemies that would be difficult for melee characters, and dealing single-target damage at a distance. He can also equip melee weapons which change his playstyle entirely, making him focused towards dealing slow but hard-hitting melee attacks. His unique File:Playstation-Button-T.png ability is Overcharge with a ranged weapon, which deals considerable damage and fills his ATB gauge quickly, or Overrun with a melee weapon, in which he charges forward dealing damage in enemies along his path, and then slams down with an attack in a wide radius. Both of Barret's limit breaks deal ranged physical damage.

 File:Barrets Maximum Fury ability from FFVII Remake.jpg
Barret has the highest durability of any party member, having very high HP and defensive attributes, as well as abilities that allow him to resist being knocked back. However, most of his attributes are below average. Barret excels in a unique role in which he can tank damage from the rest of the party and draw it towards himself using his ability Lifesaver, as well as his ability Steelskin that resists all damage he takes. With the right materia setup, he can serve effectively in a supporting role while protecting the party. Depending on his materia and weapon setup, though, he can instead be used more for damage-per-second.

Barret is an option for a resolution scene in the quest "Resolve" in Chapter 14, "In Search of Hope", depending on the player's Affection mechanics with Aerith or Tifa. Barret only participates in the Odd Jobs that take place during "In Search of Hope".

## Musical themes

"Barret's Theme" from *Final Fantasy VII*

File:FFIV PSP Edward Harp Field Sprite.gif
File:FFVII - Barret's Theme.ogg
*Trouble with the audio sample?*

"Barret's Theme" (バレットのテーマ, Baretto no Tēma?) plays as the background to the Seventh Heaven and Sector 7 slums after preparing to attack the Mako Reactor 5. Additionally, "Mining Town" (炭坑の街, Tankō no Machi?), which plays during Barret's flashbacks of Corel and in North Corel, is a remix of "Barret's Theme." A blues arrangement of "Barret's Theme" is a music disc in the remake the player can play in jukeboxes, bought from the Sector 7 train station shop for 50 gil.

"Mark Of The Traitor" also has elements of "Barret's Theme;" it plays in North Corel.

## Other appearances

Main article: Barret Wallace other appearances
Barret has appeared in the following games in the *Final Fantasy* series:

* *Final Fantasy VII G-Bike* as a supporting character.
* *Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia* as a playable character.
* *Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call* as a playable character.
* *Pictlogica Final Fantasy* as a playable character.
* *Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade* as summonable Legend.
* *Final Fantasy Artniks* as a series of cards.
* *Final Fantasy Record Keeper* as a playable character.
* *Final Fantasy Brave Exvius* as a summonable vision.
* *Final Fantasy Trading Card Game* as a series of cards.
* *Triple Triad* as a card.

## Other media

File:Wallace KHII.png
Barret is referenced in *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-*. A soldier in Shinra Headquarters talks about troubles with the inspection team in Corel, particularly the leader-like guy. The soldier recalls his name as "Magnum or Bullet," while in the Japanese version he is referred to as "Magnum" (マグナム, Magunamu?) or "Bread" (ブレッド, Bureddo?). "Magnum" is a Barrett reference, both Barrett and Magnum are firearms manufacturers and names for their firearms. The English "Bullet" is a reference to its similarity to Barret's name, but it is also his Japanese name (Bullet and Barrett are phonetically identical in Japanese). Similarly, the Japanese transliteration of "bread" is similar to Barret's Japanese name, changing the first vowel and voicing the final consonant. The English dialogue also has another reference, saying he acted like a "big-shot" alluding to his Limit Break.

Barret is referred to in *Kingdom Hearts*, though he does not make a guest appearance like many other *Final Fantasy* characters. In *Kingdom Hearts II*, a shopkeeper named "Wallace" appears in Twilight Town alongside Biggs, Wedge and Jessie in *Kingdom Hearts II*. Much like the other characters, his appearance is different from his namesake, being light-skinned instead of dark-skinned, and being tubby instead of muscular.

In *Final Fantasy Tactics*, when talking with Cloud after selecting "Dismiss" from the party menu, he will say, "There's no getting off this train until we reach the station", a reference to a line Barret uses in *Final Fantasy VII*.

The internet MMORPG *Kingdom of Loathing* has a monster called the Burly Sidekick as a parody of Barret.

In *Deus Ex: Human Revolution*, published by Square Enix, there is an antagonist named Lawrence Barrett who possesses a minigun built into his augmented arm. Despite these similarities, the developers have called it a coincidence.

## Behind the scenes

 File:Barret sketch.png
Barret, along with early versions of Cloud and Aerith, was one of the first three main characters designed for *Final Fantasy VII*. Barret was a character that Tetsuya Nomura had wanted to create for a long time. Barret's original backstory was that of a miner whose home Shinra destroyed—a story that hardly changed in the final product. In the original concept Marlene was Barret's biological daughter, 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 Corel ruins, 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 the other Avalanche members they would go to Cosmo Canyon together after finishing their mission. A remnant of this promise exists in the game when Barret mournfully says at the campfire in Cosmo Canyon he swore with his friends they would have a toast at the Cosmo Candle.

Barret's job class was originally listed as "Gunner", a class which would eventually be introduced to the series in *Final Fantasy X-2*.

There is a bit of unused dialogue found in the *Final Fantasy VII* game data that would have taken place outside the Shinra Building, before the party heads in for the first time, and in the elevator, if the player entered the building through the main entrance. Outside the building Barret would suggest that Cloud knows the place well, to which Cloud would have answered it to be his first time there. Barret would then have said he has been at the headquarters before back when he still had both his hands. The elevator scene is similar, with Cloud saying he's never been to the place before and asking if Barret is familiar with it, which would have prompted the same response from Barret. These bits were cut from the final game, and nothing in the finished version suggests Barret would have ever visited the Shinra Building before.

### Voice

Barret is voiced in Japanese by Masahiro Kobayashi and in English by Beau Billingslea (*Compilation*) and John Eric Bentley (*Remake*). Barret shares his Japanese voice actor with Ryid Uruk from *Final Fantasy Type-0*.

## Merchandise

Main article: Barret Wallace merchandise gallery
Barret has appeared in action figures, key chains and Coca-Cola figurines. He, alongside Marlene, has also appeared on a Potion can.

## Etymology and symbolism

The name Barret is a Japanese transliteration of the English word "bullet." Before *Final Fantasy VII* had an English localization, Barret was referred to as "Bullet" in some pre-release magazine articles. In a similar manner to Aerith's name ("Aeris" in the final game), Barret was referred to as "Barett" in early Japanese publications despite the English localization using "Barret." In Barret's case (and the same is true for a number of other minor characters), the localization name became the universal one. Therefore from *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* in 2005, "Barret" is used in Japanese publications too.

In English and Japanese, Barret's name is also phonetically identical to Barrett, a firearms manufacturer and term used for their guns.

His last name Wallace is of French origin and means "foreigner." Template:Etymology:Wallace Due to his prominent role as fighting against Shinra, Barret's surname in *Final Fantasy VII* may allude to William Wallace, a Scottish landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, who is the subject of the 1995 Academy Award-winning film *Braveheart*.

*Final Fantasy VII* derives symbolism from Jewish mysticism, and Barret's character may have been influenced by it as well. *Sephirot* are the ten attributes through which God appears, and Barret may be tied to one such attribute, *gevurah*, associated with judgment and strength. From the Bahir, "This is the left hand of God." The right hand of God being *chesed*: kindness/love. Cloud, Barret and Aerith were the first player characters designed for the game, with Aerith and Barret possibly representing *chesed* and *gevurah*. The metaphor may be embodied in Barret, who has lost his right hand, but retains his left.

## References

1. ↑ Final Fantasy VII JP manual, p.06
2. ↑ Final Fantasy VII EU manual, p.04
3. ↑ GameFan magazine, Vol.4, Issue 5, p.18 [1]
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 *Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania*
5. ↑ Complete Timeline of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (Accessed: April 07, 2020) at The Lifestream
6. ↑ *Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega*, p. 020, (Scan)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 007, p.{{{page}}} (incomplete citation)
8. ↑ http://na.square-enix.com/ff7psn/
9. ↑ Archive of http://www.squaresoft.com/barret-char.html on 29th May 1998.
10. ↑ Final Fantasy VII – 1997 Developer Interviews (Accessed: April 07, 2020) at shmuplations
11. ↑ “FFVII: The Unused Text – Part 5” arrives! (Accessed: April 07, 2020) at The Lifestream
12. ↑ Final Fantasy VII Kaitai Shinsho The Complete, p.010

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