Barret's Voice is Concerning in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Yesterday a new teaser for the Final Fantasy VII remake dropped, and players got to see and hear more of the characters as they will appear in the new game. For the most part, the reaction is positive. In the case of Barret Wallace, the reaction has been mixed.

[NecrumOddBoy]

"Barret is a stereotype of a gruff black man in the English translation of the original game."

I wish FF VII's Meteor would hit this planet already. For f*cks sake with another idiotic social justice thinkpiece from Kotaku. This one is actually more cringeworthy than the Days Gone debacle.

[mixelon]

It’s true though? English translation of Barrett is nothing like the original Japanese version. They purposely amped up his Mr T-ness, in a way that does a disservice to the character.

[WickedLester]

So? If that's what Square wanted to do with him, that was their prerogative.

[mixelon]

Which is it, “we respect the artistic vision” or not? Because the English FF7 translation absolutely does *not* respect the source material fully and was a total rush job.

Squares English translation was not what the Japanese team would have done at all, it is NOT their vision, as fun as it was. It’s even censored in lots of places! You guys *hate* that. You can’t have it both ways!

[bluefox755]

There used to be nothing wrong with the Mr. T caricature. It wasn't malicious, it was just fun, like a valley girl stereotype of white women. Now apparently blacks are considered delicate snowflakes who off limits for humor.

[zypher]

@mixelon

Why are you trying to bring reason to a discussion of anything (particularly racial stereotyping) on NG4?

[Mr Pumblechook]

Gita Jackson says "I’ve never played Final Fantasy VII" however she feels she is an a position to criticise FF7 and its fans about what is acceptable.

Barret Wallace IS at times an exaggerated representation of an African-American strong man - but he ISN'T meant to represent all black men. He uses slang but that is meant to be representative of his background and the reality is people use slang. Barrett is a strong, lovable and great character.

Jackson gets her Kotaku-working friend Paul Tamayo to comment he says "I honestly think they could’ve gone without that direction altogether" - but if they did that he wouldn't be Barret.

Gita Jackson is complaining for complaining's sake. She post HER opinion and disguises it as the opinion of 'many' on the internet. She doesn't want Barret to be a masculine black man - she wants him to be... different! Well guess what sister, Barret is a masculine black man!

Also, Jackson destroys her own argument. "This depiction plays into racist assumptions people make about black men: not seeing them as full people, but as hulking masses of muscle that sometimes provide folksy wisdom." These both have been two stereotypes in media, however depicting Barret as a strong man, who isn't stupid but is intelligent and wise, actually breaks the stereotype to created a much more rounded whole character. Essentially Jackson wants Barret to be changed to address the all stereotypical representations of black men, but this is an existing character who shouldn't be changed just for her politics!

Look, Barret has been a favourite of mine for years and the more extreme excess of his street talk should be improved, however he is a strong, powerful, sympathetic and powerful black man in video games and this is why he has been one of the most enduring characters in gaming. Let's not let the people who are paid to professionally hate on games ruin this.

[sampsonon]

@bluefox755: blacks, me being one, couldn't give a crap about the characters voice. it's white folks that feel they need to some how stick up for black folks when we're not asking for it.

now if the character was a white person in black face talking like that, first i would find that funny as hell because of the ignorance, would be wrong.

white folks, you don't have to baby black folks.
look for real institutionalized racism, not a video game using a MR.T voice.

[RauLeCreuset]

bluefox

"Now apparently blacks are considered delicate snowflakes who off limits for humor."

Nope. It's that the real snowflakes lose their shit, unable to handle critiques of racial portrayals in a work. So many facets of a creative work are open to and often critiqued, but criticize a Black character's portrayal and get swept away in a flood of snowflake tears. Some of you act like there's not a documented history of problematic portrayals of Blacks in media. Some of you also act like you don't get the problem with blackface either though. So I'm going to defer to Zypher on this.

@sampsonon

From one Black person to another, you don't have the authority to speak on behalf of all of us in giving a pass to a potentially problematic portrayal. I have no problem with you speaking on how you feel as a Black man, but you veer dangerously close to tokenism when you start behaving like you're speaking for all of us to tell White people it's okay not to baby us (as if that's been the problem), your first reaction to someone doing the same portrayal in blackface would be to find it funny as hell, and that this is a non-issue to an entire race you presume to speak for.

[Eonjay]

Actually this goes back to the age old debate over original vs dub. So many works of art have been utterly trashed by poor English dubs. Why is this so consistent across the medium? Either way I didn't hear this and automatically think is was bad.

Actually I was more surprised that any English dub existed at all.

[LanceLegstrong]

Wtf do you mean “you guys”!?!?

[Lord_Sloth]

The dude straight up screams Mr T which is not the black stereotype anyways. The original translation had Barrett in your face with his dialogue and I'm pretty sure he even said called somebody a fool at least once.

On another note I've met multiple people who actually DO come off like Barrett. He came from the slums and lived a hard life. Hard lives breed hard men which tbh Barrett embodies quite well. He's a great character with some amazing moments and story arcs and 1 of my favorite scenes in the entire game when Sector 7 falls. Y'all need to stop looking at the surface and actually look at the characters for what they are instead of what they aren't.

[WombBat]

Nothing wrong with his Mr. T-ness. My problem with the voice is it sounds like a white guy trying to do a black guy voice so it sounds wonky.

[rainslacker]

Think of all the white Male characters in this game. Then tell me any of them are accurate representations of white men across the board.

Cloud...now an overly emo brooding brute who needs others to tell him what to do while already knowing what needs to be done.

Sepiroth...evil incarnate that wants to destroy the world because of mommy issues.

Guy at the brothel...sexist, fat, and lecherous, who uses women to improve his lot. Basically a pimp.

Most shinra execs... greedy and corrupt, destroying the world and not realizing it or not caring. That one is probably accurate of execs.

Reno...an idiot pawn for shinra.

Nothing in this game is a accurate representation of the whole. Every character is a characterization if some specific trait. There is no way to be offended by this, without also being offended by the other stuff, because it means your selective, and being selective about stereotype, or the more accurate term, archetypes, is just as bigoted as the author is claiming barrett's representation is.

At least barrett's is being represented how most fans know him, if in part, and the fans are going to care a hell of a lot more about that than if somebody at kotaku is offended. It's like saying leisure suit Larry can't be a sexual deviant. It's just who the character is. If they change the deeper motivation behind barriers actions in the full game, then we can talk. But barrett's personality is contrasted by his actual actions, and he is by far one of the best written and deepest characters in the game. His gruffness comes from his anger and position in life. He still doesn't back down and fights the good fight. Who cares if he sounds like a gruff black man?

[RDF]

What?

[PlayableGamez-]

You can never win with this SJW vs Anti-SJW stuff.
Games are not PC enough: Barrets Voice
Games are too PC: Women being clothed in MK11
This stuff is comically stupid now.

[RauLeCreuset]

"In the reactions that I’ve seen, fans don’t want to censor or remove Barret from the game; they were just hoping to see a better portrayal of his character this time around."

That's not comparable to the anti-SJ reaction to MK. A lot of times there are critiques of this nature, people go suspiciously overboard in their reactions, as if saying the game could have steered away from that stereotype (especially with the services of such a capable voice actor) is a call to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Portrayals in creative works get called out all the time. That's part of the creative process. Out of all the stuff that people nitpick in a creative work, it's critiques of how certain historically disadvantaged groups are portrayed that receive this much backlash. What's the angle? To shutdown this one area of criticism? To what end?

[rainslacker]

Given how little we have seen of his portrayal so far, I think its premature to say we need it to be better.

No one complained that kratos sounded like a gruff black man, despite the voice actor always being like that. Its the way they convey emotions beyond the voice that matters, and with Christopher judge, in stargate SG-1, and in GOW, there were many moments where the subtlety came through and had a powerful effect on the watcher.

I don't know if barrett's actor will achieve this, but given that the original was usually gruff, but had many moments of kindness and humanism, he has the most material to work with if we go by the source material. Since he will obviously get more time than what little they used him in advent children, I say let's wait and see before these kinds of concern articles come out. It just reeks of kotaku setting itself ince again to find some problem with the game on release. They had the same complaint about days gone, except it was a white guy. Now it's because it's a stereotype. Well, being gruff isnt a stereotype, it's a personality trait shared among different races, and is a trope for portraying people who are angry and have lived through hard times. Tropes are racist, they're just an established thematic narrative device that people can instantly recognize.

[Exvalos]

We as gamers need to form an anti SJW, its literally comical now and its ruining gaming.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

It's amazing people like you cry so hard about SJWs when these types of thing rarely if ever affect you.

[RauLeCreuset]

Truth. I keep coming back to this. Out of all the stuff that fans nitpick and complain about, it's identity based critiques like the article that get such vitriolic reactions. OP wishes Meteor would hit the planet. Why? Because people want a video game banned? No, though it would still be a dumb overreaction. The article itself noted they didn't see anyone trying to censor or remove Barret, let alone ban the game. It's because people said they could have avoided the stereotypes this time around. All this animus over that.

[AnnaDea]

I can guarantee you that most of the ideology from white privileged middle class women doesn't effect them at all.

It´s just projecting some post high school tantrums that has really f*cked up the western civilization in the last 6 years.

[rainslacker]

Except they do affect the things we care about. Like days gone got down rated by some for having a gruff white character. Is that right? If we care about the game, then I think it's right to care about these SJW who inject their beliefs into gaming culture, having a negative effect on the products themselves. You think the devs are happy kot getting some potential bonus because if the meta score, or the loss if sales cause the to not hit targets.

When a staple of DOA gets removed, then later added back in, to appease SJW, it affects us.

Seriously...why should these SJW have so much influence, yet be free from accountability? If they can spew their bs which doesn't affect them in the slightest because they can avoid the game, and have someone else review it if it's not their cup of tea, then we can cry hard about how stupid it all is.

One thing is sure. We, as a community, buy and play these games. There is absolutely no evidence that these SJW types do that, so I question why they cry so hard if something doesn't affect them.

[Smclaren1985]

I’m glad someone came right out and said it’s an absolute joke so called “games journalist” use games to push there idiotic social justice nonsense creating issues that aren’t there I am sick to the back teeth of this to.

[ReVibe]

Well, I don't exactly see Jussie Smolett tearing shit up alongside Cloud.... Looks like Mr. T to me.

[OGamer]

As long as white billy is not offended by the portrayal of a racist black stereotypical character then NO ONE SHOULD BE OFFENDED. Smh so many racists gamers that cant see past their own azz

[trooper_]

I don’t even know what’s the issue with his voice. He sounds great.

[rainslacker]

They're young over there and probably dont realize he was modeled off of mr t, and was always a stereotypical gruff black man.

Maybe square can make him a butch female lesbian who isnt sure what gender they are, just so it can be considered progressive.

One thing square needs to avoid is trying to change the characters. Game is going to be decisive enough since it's a remake, making one character into something he isnt would just piss off the fans, and there is no point just to appease the over sensitive people who apparently aren't familiar with the source material.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Aren't you a butch lesbian?

[DarXyde]

I'd rather see how the community responds. If the black gaming community takes offense to Barret's caricatured character, then Square probably messed up.

Otherwise, I don't think it's helpful for others to say this is an issue or a nonissue.

My two cents.

[sushimama]

"Barret’s characterisation in this version involves an exaggerated black dialect, and his re-translated dialogue now also emphasises Americanised ideals about masculinity."

Go to hell Kotaku, seriously. You're a cancer on society. Stop perpetuating the outrage over nothing culture. You don't have to try and fix everything. Social Justice Warriors with a website. Just stop it.

[mixelon]

Not really. If it’s true to the Japanese version it’s good. If it’s and butchered as the original eng translation was? It’s bs.

English sub Barrett has a completely different personality to the Japanese original. It’s not an outrage, they’re reporting on something that was expected, given the history.

[Pozzle]

But English audiences only know Barrett as he was in the original game's translation, which was a tough-talkin' Mr T-type dude. So it would be silly for Square to suddenly change that to make him closer to the Japanese version 20+ years after the fact. English players didn't play the original in Japanese; that's not the one English people remember fondly and have nostalgia for.

[Old McGroin]

@ CaptainIronbat

😂😂😂&# 128514;😂

[Teflon02]

mixelon
English speaking people got the english version of the game. Barret is known the way he is in that version. No one cares that he's a stereotype that uses slang etc. No one expected any different and no one complains about it. Why tf would they completely change him. He's suppose to be a high spirited black man right? I'm black and I think it's great he was the way he was. Made him alot more believable as a person being different. Also if we know him as that why would they change him. No one cries for M.Bison to be Vega, Balrog to be M.Bison, and Vega to be Balrog. Once you've established something, own it if people like it. Changing it requires a rework of the whole series as that's not his character in the english verison. People cry about the artistic choice forgetting that the same people who decided on his japanese apparence are the ones giving the okay on the americanized version.

[Lord_Sloth]

Anybody else miss the bubble system on this site?

[rainslacker]

I assume you speak Japanese and know what his characterization in the original language was? His personality didn't change between the two versions, and he was modeled after mr. T in that version as well. But the Japanese version didn't really have a way to portray the gruff black man like we had available in the east. Barrett's attitude is a product of it's time, and there is really no reason to change it, because it was never offensive.

Even mr. T is a characterization by the guy who does it. You think he acts and talks like that in real life? And what is that characterization, and what is inherently racist about it? He's an angry man. He's gruff. He also happens to be black. Are you saying there aren't any white characters like that? Like half of John Wayne's characters. Michael ironside. Charles Bronson.

There is a difference between a personality and if that personality is because they're black or white or whatever. Never once is barrett's race a factor in the game. He isnt an angry black man. He's an angry man. His reasons are clearly stated time and again. He's angry at shinra and blames them for his lot in life. He eventually takes responsibility for his own actions, and throughout, does a lot to try and improve his lot in life, and take care if his responsibilities.

If people get all worked up over a few lines of dialogue and immediately think his portrayal is because of him being a stereotypical black guy, they either dont know the character, or are more bigoted themselves to think that such portrayals are due to racial reasons. The problem is more on them, than the character, or how he's portrayed.

[Anthotis]

It isn't. Sephiroth's voice could sound better, though. Would've imagined him sounding more whispery and vampiric.

Cloud and Aeris sound really good.

Also LOL @ Kotaku. What a turd pile that site is.

[Pozzle]

I think they've changed Sephiroth's voice actor too. George Newbern has voiced him since Advent Children and he had a pretty deep, menacing voice for Sephiroth. This new guy sounds a bit more...monotone? It's not terrible, but it stands out a bit in the trailer.

[Teflon02]

I was assuming that it was just the part he was doing specifically. The thing is his voice acting in Advent and such was during a different time and the situation was different. Maybe it changes to show a more heartless sounding dude. Monotone usually is associated with that in alot of cases. I'm probably wrong though

[Vegamyster]

Teflon02

George did his voice in the prequel Crisis Core, i hope they find a way to bring him back, the new guy sounds too young.

[Nacho_Z]

Yeah Barret is a bit cartoonish and old school but he's also a great and well rounded character. There's no need to change anything about him and imo from the trailer the voice actor nailed it.

[Teflon02]

I thought he was the best voice in the trailer apart from cloud sounding exactly how you'd expect

[Eonjay]

I want to know what's wrong with sounding like a gruffly black man. Anyway his character model is great.

[Vegamyster]

I love his excitable attitude throughout the game, the reason he's like that in the first place is what happened to his family/town, he's one of the best characters in the game and they should change nothing.

[Yi-Long]

I'm just hoping they'll include the option for the original Japanese voices.

[mixelon]

Yes! With a direct subtitle translation. PS1 FF7s translation is pretty weird.

[CrimsonWing69]

So white characters are a problem and characters who are black that have a strong black voice are a problem? So, what now!? I’m pretty sure people would be upset if the black guy was voiced by a different ethnicity. What the hell is wrong with people now!?

[Ogygian]

Thankfully there is a language barrier which prevents arrogant, self-absorbed Western SJWs from corrupting Japanese minds as they have those in their own countries.

So we're still likely to get an authentic FF7 remake, and not a piece of social propaganda wearing its clothing.

[mixelon]

FF7’s original English translation is nothing like the Japanese and is censored in multiple places.

People are arguing to have the game MORE like the Japanese version. Japanese Barrett is a stoic hero type, in the US he’s Mr T. 😂 I like both but they’re not arguing for change for change’s sake here.

[Ogygian]

It's deceptive to argue that Kotaku is making a case for authenticity to the Japanese when the language and arguments they have used reveal their motivation to be to attack FF7 for not catering to their ideologically-influenced sensibilities.

Furthermore, the English version of FF7 is arguably no less authentic than the Japanese at this point, given the quantity of international sales, and how it is these versions that people in their respective territories have fond recollections of.

So I totally agree they're not arguing that the game should be changed for the sake of it. They want it changed because their ideology commands it.

[JokerBoy422]

I've yet to see anyone want the game to be "MORE like the Japanese version".

[MrSwankSinatra]

Lmaoooooooo you can't convince these idiots on this site like Ogyian, they're literally full of the typical "oh, this is just SJW" bs from their asses to their mouth.

[ShinRon]

kotaku article is actually justified this time around if Barrettes personality was changed during translation. ive never heard that criticsm before tho.

the voices are par for the course for ff voice acting aka decent if you like anime otherwise terrible.

edit: this fake drama can be good buzz for the game if SqEnix handles it smoothly

[JokerBoy422]

No, they'll be forced to go back to the drawing board for Barrett and we won't see the game for another decade.

[MrSwankSinatra]

You sound dumb, voice work is not comparable to game development, it literally does not take a decade to change the direction of character, especially when they literally have already made this game before and the archetypes of each character whether japanese or english is available. If you're gonna argue something come up with an actual logical point, not dumb bs.

[BlackTar187]

Mrswank
You post about people being stupid etc etc for complaining then basically insult everyone in all your posts.

Well done

Obviously his comment was partially sarcastic because we've known about a possible remake for like 10yrs.

You must be fun at parties.

[ShinRon]

you can disagree can you challenge?

[Teflon02]

Yeah if you want another delay and people not being as interested for the character they love being altered and turned to a character they don't know

[AK91]

Um actually this is a non issue the bigger question is now that this game has confirmed to be episodic will there be enough content on each release.

[Tsuru]

They stated each episode would feel like a full length game.

[MrSwankSinatra]

Sounds like an excuse to me when games like The Witcher III and GTA V exist, plus not to mention the scale of cyberpunk 2077 is going to make this episodic format look like a joke.

[Thundercat77]

I say Kotaku's mediocrity is more concerning.

[mixelon]

Everyone should really watch this series to see how weirdly different the versions of FF7 are. And see why people are hoping for a Barret more like.. well, Barret.

https://kotaku.com/s/final-...

It’s literally just a long form run down of all the differences in the writing. Not political, nothing to get your pearls in a bunch over. Can learn a lot from it.

[NecrumOddBoy]

Look, stop pitching Kotaku's garbage.

[mixelon]

Seriously. Watch the videos. It doesn’t make any political points at all. If you’re so afraid of anything outside your bubble that you won’t even watch videos about inconsistencies in translation.. Kotaku hires a lot of different people. It’s not my fault the video series happens to be hosted by them.

It’s just as much “Social Justice” that got you the original censored translation as anything going on now.

This piece is not connected to the recent article at all.

[Ricegum]

mixelon

"If you’re so afraid of anything outside your bubble..."

No. It's just no one actually cares. Please move on now, it's kind of cringing.

[MrSwankSinatra]

Why don't you stop crying?

[Nacho_Z]

But the English translation is the only one I know and to me that version of Barret is the real Barret. I wouldn't want him changed to match a game I never played.

[mixelon]

The differences aren’t that difficult to work around. The version in Advent Children played it well without messing things up.

[MrSwankSinatra]

That's a moot point considering you're perfectly fine with them changing the ENTIRE GAMEPLAY SYSTEM, so stop the nonsense.

[rainslacker]

Barrett's had about 3 lines in advent children, and I'd say they were all pretty much like what this article complains about. They degraded his character to wanting to just fight people because he was still angry. Even though his story was resolved in the original game.

You say that they changed it in translation. So you mean all those emotes they used to show he was angry were redone? Barrett wasn't stoic. He was hot tempered. In both versions. At the time, mr. T was a perfect example of what they wanted to portray. But the Japanese language is more measured for expressing emotion, so it's not that his personality is different, it's that there aren't as many direct translarions, so things got changed. They did censor some things, but his personality remains essentially the same. He's an angry warrior. Cloud is the stoic one, although even he wasn't as stoic as they eventually made him into in ac

[Ogygian]

Examples of SJW language and argumentation used:

"This depiction plays into racist assumptions people make about black men"
"his re-translated dialogue now also emphasizes Americanized ideals about masculinity"
"Many fans were indeed hoping for a modernization of Barret" (note the word "modernization")
"whenever a black character comes on screen with the wild problematic features and just overall behaviors"
"It just makes me wonder how many black producers/writers/directors are involved (if at all)"
“Do [they] ever talk to PoC? At all?” (selectively quoted tweet)

You're only pretending that is not the case because you agree with them, and think that people on N4G are stupid enough to fall for the nonsense about authenticity to the original Japanese version.

[mixelon]

I didn’t say I agree with all those points at all. 🤷🏻‍♀️ An authentic translation would be better than a modernised, altered one.

I just said that the original translation is not true to the source material.

I didn’t make a judgement call on the content of this article. People have always had issues with barrat’s translation. This is just a different take on it.

[WickedLester]

Mixelon you need to go get yourself a life. You obviously have way too much time on your hands.

[mixelon]

Dude, you have 3500 comments.

[MrSwankSinatra]

I don't even want to know what gross life you probably live with a name like "WickedLester"

[BlackTar187]

See mixelon comment immediately followed by the angry bodyguard mrswank lol. It's pretty obvious guys.

[BlackTar187]

Why would people want barret to change from the versions they played? If you played the japan version you can now and your issue is solved. No reason to change the character that is more established in English speaking versions.

[dennigo]

i grew up with the english version it's all i've known, i want the version i remember that's pretty normal

[CobraKai]

When this was on PS1 there were no voices, so when I read his lines, he pretty much sounded like a stereotypical black male. Nothing’s changed for me.

[bluefox755]

Lmao, I knew this would come up when I saw the trailer. Of course it's Kotaku as well.

[TheGreatTopHat]

No, it isn't.

[Rapidfirepunches]

Pathetic, Kotaku.

Prediction: They will have articles crying about Tifa's breasts, Yuffie's age, Red XIII being a racist stereotype, and Cid being a misogynist. Probably more.

[NecrumOddBoy]

Oh what about when Cloud dresses up like a woman? I wonder if Kotaku will claim its not "woke" enough or hateful towards women or transgender people.

[goldwyncq]

They'll probably put a "it's transphobic!" spin on it.

[SegaSaturn669]

They should have definitely made him a Korean transgender voiced by David hayter.

[HeisenbergX]

https://youtu.be/yePGFGSNqc...

[Kosic]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who felt this.

Barret's voice sounded fake. Like someone was trying too hard. If they used a more natural voice actor it would've come across more pleasing.

The teaser looked promising and the voice acting was the main thing that caught my attention.

[godofiron]

loath as I am to agree with kotaku... the way that line was delivered "I'm here for ya, to take the LOAD off ya shoulders"... it sounds like what a substantial number of Caucasian people think we sound like. This new teaser is like 12 seconds long, so I genuinely hope that was just one of relatively few corny lines, and not indicative of something worse.

in certain situations, a voice like that works (Robery Downey Jr as Kirk Lazarus playing the role of a black man in Tropic thunder, was fucking hilarious satire)... but it has to be very carefully and expertly done, Cause black people are already at a disadvantage, with the way most media portrays us.

FFVII was made in a different time. And with no voice actors, so all the characters always sounded the way they're supposed to, to each of us. There's no such luxury now. It looks amazing. it just has to sound amazing, for all other characters too.

[GameGod26]

Oh please spare me this hot garbage dude looks exactly like you think he’d sound

[sampsonon]

omg! just omg!

[Surt]

Here comes the weeaboos to bring up the Japanese version as a defense of this SJW crap. Majority of American and English fans don't know shit about the Japanese version of the game. Much like Dragon Ball or Pokemon or sailor moon, ext.

Back then you couldn't just go into a store and pick up a anime unless it was in small section of a video store mixed in with hentai. Toonami and scifi channel and very few other channels dictated what anime was shown and they weren't shown in the weeaboo preferred language.

[ElementX]

Unfortunately in an era of political correctness, things that used to be ok decades ago will cause anger in today's society. You can call out Kotaku, however if they don't say something, somebody else will. Many movies and TV shows from the 90s and earlier contain stereotypical characters and people look back at them today in disgust, it's just the way things are now.

[knickstr]

The combat and story changes are the most concerning to me.

[Surt]

Man with so many SJW freaks around, one can't no longer denie that the creation of Thorazine was a mistake.

[dparente74]

its a Japanese game, they do not care about americas stupid sjw movement.

[Acecalibur]

Omg people complain about everything. Go outside and get some fresh air.

[Chaos_Order]

Nobody:
Kotaku: "This black character sounds too black."
Everyone: ?!?!?!

[goldwyncq]

Kotaku can go off themselves lol

[Vizigoth04]

Without reading the article first. People will just complain about everything. Everything. It's going to be just fine. Now I'll go read the click bait.

[Casepb]

I like it.

[CDbiggen]

As Patrice O'Neal would've probably said - "Concerning" is a vaginal word.

[tombfan]

We're going to start complaining already? 😑

[Abnor_Mal]

The first thing I did after reading the article yesterday was look up the voice actor. Seeing that he is a black man doing the voice only makes me wonder if he had any say in how the voice was suppose to sound. The old PS1 game didnt have voice but text and it was at times annoying to read seeing Barrett as a wanna be Mr. T, but that was par for the course back in those days. Nowadays to sound like Mr. T would be lame, but should still sound like a black person just don't exaggerate the slang in what the voice director thinks a 2019 Mr. T would sound like.

[Vizigoth04]

Yeah so what 22 years ago when this game out and I played it me and my brother would play all kinds of videogames. Then we met our black brother from another mother who equally enjoyed watching and playing Final Fantasy 7 for what it is. Arguably the best game on the PS1. Still today we talk. "You hear they're making a remake? Is it coming out yet?" This is a piece of history in our childhood that we would give anything to back and revisit. We loved Barrett and his character. The game would be the same without him the way he was.

[dennigo]

The internet is a stupid place full of stupid opinions by stupid people.
i'll try to offend as many as possible now:
none of your opinions matter, most of your opinions don't even deserve to be heard.
let the people who make it make it how they wanna make it.
take your worthless opninion and stick it up your ...

[Tsuru]

I personally would not want them to change the story and characters. I played the game when it came out in 97, and thats the game i grew and loved. I can accept changes to the design of the game, but once you start changing story and characters, then its not a remake anymore

[Melankolis]

First of all, is it going to be Barret or Bullet? Aeris or Aerith?

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Barret was definitely a stereotype in the original game and it was somewhat offensive to me yet funny at times. Personally I don’t know any black people that speaks the way Barret does in ff7. I’m not sure why square would do that but I’d hope Barret would still talk in “jive” in the remake just I could get a good laugh and be offended all at the same time

[ReVibe]

So what's gonna happen...? The BLM community is going to rally in Chicago and Detroit if Barrett comes out too black?
These white apologists and other SJWs have zero endgame. They just crave controversy to collectively dogpile on and feel good about themselves for a couple hours.

None. of. this. means. shit. to. anyone! *Makes an imaginary rainbow of sarcasm with hands*

[GameGod26]

Considering how im actually black I’m wondering why i should be offended by that?
He looks exactly like I wanted him to sound

[MrSec84]

It's really not, the guy's voice sounds right.

[Lexreborn2]

Idc I’m playing with Barrett from beginning to end of this remake because he looks absolutely badass.

[BlackTar187]

I always kept him in my group. Great character.

[nommers]

I thought this article was going to be about the quality of the voice acting..which I'm a little worried about for some of the characters, including Barret but for different reasons than this article. Cloud surprisingly sounds much better now than ever. It doesn't sound like Steve Burton, which may be the reason why. I think Aerith has potential too, but overall we haven't heard too many lines by the characters other than Barret which were probably out of context at the very least. Getting the impression that George Newbern isn't voicing Sephiroth and I think I prefer him over the new one atm.

We need to see how the characters converse in a long conversation before passing any judgment though.

[MrSwankSinatra]

I find it hilarious that most people here literally want Barrett to sound like fucking Mr. T in conversation with the other characters. I viewed the trailer and the most apparent weakness is Barretts voice, it sounds out of place, regardless if it's been adapted to fit the english version.

[DafunkyRebel]

Kotaku’s final gasp of breath as it’s being disassembled. RIP Kotaku, Get Woke Go Broke

[metalgod88]

When I was a kid, I always did Barrets voice like Mr. T because he looked pretty much like Mr. T and I'm happy they made his voice very close to what I always imagined he would sound like. Cloud on the other hand doesn't have a voice that matches the face and I find it odd.

[Xaevi]

Can't be white, now you can't be too black either. They really do never run out of shite to whine about, fail to see they're the most problematic and toxic group of people. Smh

[zodiac909]

Another Saturday, another fucking racist Social Justice article from Kotaku.

[Flewid638]

This is simply because FF voice acting is terrible. Always is.

Make a stereotypical black guy voice....thats fine. But when the voice acting itself is bad, its gonna come off worse. lol.

[Kteddy07]

Ain't nothing wrong with the voice. Be glad we even have a new Barrett to put a voice too.

[maximumspidey]

his voice is fine. if you think anything is wrong with his voice then fuck you

[Exvalos]

As a black men Barret being an over the top stereotype is not offensive, it ain't like he is, eating watermelon and chugging kool aid while listening to Tupac. Us black men dont care so stop trying to be so damn political and correct just STOP!!!!!! Some of the best movies of all time are us just being us Friday, how high, dont be a menace to society while.drinking your juice in the hood, repos, knock off this fake crap

[X-23]

I get so tired of people who aren't black trying to tell me what I should find condescending and offensive when it comes to stereotypes and characterizations over the Internet and in a case like this I find it particularly annoying because it's an attack on something/someone that I truly enjoyed in my childhood, man how about you people stop throwing around opinion pieces on issues and ideas which you've got no clue about.
It's not up to you to determine what should be considered a "Negative Stereotype" for a "Black Man" and then try to get up on your soap box and preach about how "Oh he a gruff black man," ... AND ... how is this even problematic, unless you are trying too hard to read into things.

[rainslacker]

I can think of a lot more angry gruff white guy characters or personas in both games and movies, than I can think of black characters like that. I know when cinematics started making their way into gaming, the rare isntances they had black characters, they were often portrayed in some stereotypical ways, but I feel that was more because of the Japanese culture handled such things. There aren't a lot of black people in Japan, so, in those early days, most of what they portrayed was a lot like it was in western movies, which generally was pretty diverse. Anime in the 80's and 90's always had some bad stereotypes for black characters, again, in the rare instances they existed, but they've gotten a lot better over the past decade or two.

I don't think they ever set out to be offensive, or try to stereotype black people in a negative light, its just because of limited exposure to black culture compared to other parts of the world....namely, the US, which influenced a lot of the negative black stereotypes we recognize most today.

I personally find it more offensive that this author finds it offensive, and twists it into a bigger problem that I literally haven't seen anyone complain about. Maybe I don't hang out in communities which are always offended over stupid things, or need to always find something to be pissed off about, but about the only issue I had with Barret in the trailer was the quips he made during combat, which is more a pet peeve about characters who have to say things to sound cool, or make the characters seem witty or exciting. I'm not offended by it though, and would certainly wait to play the game before forming an opinion, because if he does it, it's likely all of the others do it as well. Seems out of place for Cloud, but some of the other characters I can see it as part of their personality. Like Yuffie, Barrett, and certainly Cait Sith. Aerith I can see saying something inspirational or hopeful when doing a heal or something.

[bumbleforce]

Stupid article

[william_cade]

The game is going to be hacked to pieces. Who's going to fall for this anyway?

[shingojacky]

Sometimes it's just like, people HAVE TO get angry with something. FFS

[8bitswarrior]

Reallyyy...the character has a build of a soldier, the voice IS well very good for it, what is the problem? he is well pictured too. C'mon too much B...shi...

The fans are concerned - get a life.

[Ahytys]

This game is made by JAPANESE people. You have a black character. Japanese people are not used to seeing black people every day like you do in the US. Of course a black character will have stereotypes and stuff like that.
I’m Italian, and when I watch an American movie I expect Italian characters to be full of stereotypes!
And you know what I do? I laugh, I enjoy the show or the movie for what it is, I don’t cry like a baby because I’m offended and because I feel like I’m not “represented correctly”.
It’s not like the creators think that black people are stupid or “half people”. It’s so stupid to think or even consider that this was their intention!