Barret Wallace (Japanese: バレット・ウォーレス, Hepburn: Baretto Wōresu) is a character in Square Enix's role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII.

[9] Originally called Blow in the early planning stages of the game,[10] Barret's name is based on the Japanese transliteration of the English word "bullet",[1] and he was developed with the "Gunner" character class in mind.

[4] It was redesigned by Brazilian tattoo artist and fashion designer Jun Matsui, featuring a stylized black skull surrounded by flames, meant to give a strong impression of "masculinity and power".

[21] For Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square wanted to show Barret as a mature person, contrasting him with the younger Cloud when interacting with others.

[3] His gun arm also went through significant changes, adding a motor and mapping out the internals to invoke a sense of realism, but also the mental image of Barret being able to disassemble and maintenance the weapon after missions.

[27] In Final Fantasy VII, Barret is introduced as the leader of the eco-terrorist organization AVALANCHE, which is situated in the city of Midgar and opposes the ruling company, Shinra, and their use of "Mako" energy as a power source, believing it to be killing the Planet.

[17] At the game's beginning, they have hired the mercenary Cloud Strife at the behest of his childhood friend and AVALANCHE member Tifa Lockhart,[28] nicknaming him "Spiky" in reference to his hairstyle.

[17] Barret adopted Marlene as his own daughter, had an "adapter" graft to his arm to interface with prosthetic weapons to aid in his combat against Shinra, and founded AVALANCHE.

[30] Dyne's death causes him to admit his grudge with Shinra is solely for revenge, with his earlier claims of "saving the world" meant to convince himself he was fighting for the greater good.

Barret places Marlene in Tifa's care and travels the world to rebuild the planet's infrastructure and find alternate power sources to replace Mako.

He later appears in a minor role in the 2006 video game Dirge of Cerberus, which is set one year after Advent Children, where he helps the protagonist Vincent Valentine prevent Omega WEAPON from destroying the planet.

Kobayashi described his performance as treating Barret as "unrefined [...] but also dependable and unique", trying to keep his "upbeat character and good outlook in mind".

Written by Kazushige Nojima as part of the On the Way to a Smile series, it details the events between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, examining Barret's reaction to his weapon and his belief that it made him a monster.

At the conclusion of the story, Barret visits the creator of the adapter on his wrist and receives the prosthetic hand/gun combination seen in the film, reasoning that although he needs a hand, he also still needs a weapon to prevent others from having to fight.

[41] However in contrast on 1UP, Parish argued in favor of Barret, noting that while on the surface he appeared to be the "worst kind of stereotype", he was a great character with complexity, having made "difficult decisions in his life, and agonized over his losses".

[15] RPGamer's content manager Shawn Bruckner took the discussion further, arguing that claims of Barret's presentation being racist was oversimplification of the character's portrayal, and stated that while he was in some aspects a stereotype, in others, such as his compassion towards his daughter or guilt regarding his past actions, he was not.

[42] Andron Smith in the same publication meanwhile praised his paternal role for not only his daughter but the other characters, with his advice often reaching "the realm of philosophy" with concepts such as "A good man who serves a great evil is not without sin".

[44] Ash Parrish for Kotaku also commented on him, stating that while she had conflicted feelings about his portrayal and citing Jackson's earlier article for the site, she praised the fact Barret went against the archetype of a father with a violent past, noting that similar characters routinely seemed incapable or unwilling to be gentle with their children.

[45] Gen Gumachi of Inside Games praised Rebirth for expanding on his character, portraying him as considering the views of the other party members while still retaining his "manly" personality as someone they could depend on.

This is presented through Shinra's destruction of his coal mining hometown, Barrett seeking vengeance through militant environmentalism before eventually realizing revenge isn't the right motivation, and safeguarding a future for his adoptive daughter Marlene who is the only surviving connection to his past.

Additionally he was glad to see these elements retained in the Final Fantasy VII remake titles, quickly becoming Perkins' favorite character in the cast, and enjoyed how they also built upon his relationship with Marlene and Dyne, particularly the tragedy of the latter.