017Putting the ‘warrior’ into
eco-warrior, Barret’s able
to see what harm Shinra
is doing to the planet.
W
ith a gun for an
arm, the leader
of the eco-
terrorist group
AVALANCHE is
better at taking out targets from
a distance than getting up close
and personal like Cloud. He’s
no-nonsense, angry, and often rude- but with what Shinra is doing to
the planet he has every right to be.
His motivations are simple: he just
wants to save the planet to build a
brighter future for his daughter
Marlene. While he wants to protect
her, for him that doesn’t mean
leading a passive life off the radar,
but taking up, er, arm and causing
some trouble for Shinra.
Claiming he can hear the planet crying
out in pain as Shinra drains the Mako
energy from it, Barret has a brash way
of trying to spur others to action. But
that’s just because for him the maths
are simple: the planet’s Mako is finite,and once it runs dry that’s the end of
all life on it. From his perspective, it’s
simply stupid for anyone to believe
otherwise. Because of that, Cloud’s
nonchalance infuriates him.
As the leader of AVALANCHE he
takes his duties seriously. After all, the
members are committing crimes, even
if it’s in the fight against an unjust
society. He’s the sort of guy who will
make sure his teammates are safe
before he is, taking a harder path to
make an easier one for other people.
For the most part his plans are
practical and he takes saving the
planet very seriously. But Barret also
relishes the chance to spread his
message, and his booming, jovial side
can come out when he feels free to
speak his mind. He even suggests
the group practice their victory poses
to start a movement when he
discovers Shinra is broadcasting their
destructive exploits to the people of
Midgar on the news.T
he second playable
member of the party,
Barret teams up with Cloud
pretty early on. He has
one big advantage over his
golden-haired mercenary
comrade: his gun-arm.
That means he can blast
enemies from a distance.
Not only is he able to stay
out of the way of some
attacks, but he can reach
some opponents that the
others simply can’t, suchas mounted sentry guns,
or enemies that float just
out of reach. As he’s at
the back of the party, he’s
also a good choice to issue
commands to others in a
larger fight as he can see
more of the field.
Hold down the attack
button and Barret will
simply unload a full clip
before he has to stop
to briefly reload. His w
attack fires a chargedburst that deals a lot of
damage, but you either
have to wait for it to refill
or manually refill a chunk
by pressing the button
again. His abilities reflect
his gun-armed nature, as
many involve blast attacks.
But he also has others,
like Steel Skin, that offer
defensive buffs. After all,
this big guy won’t go
down without putting up
one hell of a fight.Bringing a gun to a giant sword fight
HOW HE FIGHTS