OP
OP
Let's be honest, they're probably gonna pick Ring Fit Trainee for the next Smash game. But I most certainly wouldn't say no to Abdonis (as mentioned before, Smash has a severe melanin deficiency).
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
A Celebration of Black Characters in Games
- Thread starter Neoxon
- Start date
I'm not a big fan of Nessa's design. It's mainly her having straight hair. Speaking of Pokémon though, some shout outs to black characters from this series:
Grant
Lenora
Marshall
Not an Iris fan, huh?
Sazh unfortunately gets completely sidelined in the two sequels to FF13. He barely appears in them and they don't do anything with his character
Forgot about her. Iris is alright. I tend not to be a fan of little girl characters but there's nothing wrong with her. Iris is notable as she's champion in White 2 and Black 2.
I think this is going to become a Twintelle thing all over again. As long as black Nintendo characters remain side characters in games, we're never going to get them in Smash.
Abdonis sounds like a cool dude.
I don't think he's black, but he (or at least those who get "Norted") does still fall under the dark skin=sign of corruption angle that way too many games lean into.
I'm well aware of the shitty trope and? The person i quoted said he was black and he isn't.
Hello. Not sure if I'm doing this right and apologies if I'm doing this wrong, but for the RPG characters can I nominate Seth From Lost Oddysey?
Seth Balmore (Character) - Giant Bomb
Despite her youthful and exuberant disposition, Seth Balmore is, like Kaim, an immortal who's a thousand years old.
www.giantbomb.com
Seth Balmore is one of the few immortals living in human form in the world of humans, where she has resided for over 1,000 years. She is a tough, fearless, and highly intelligent warrior, who is a valuable asset to the team. While at first she seems like a energetic, childish character, she is actually a smart, serious, and passionate person.
Seth has hardly any memories of the previous 1,000 years. As the story progresses, Seth gains back some of her memories, like the other immortals. The things we learn include her being a former pirate (famous at that), and that she has a son, Sed, also a famous pirate. When the two reunite, Sed looks old enough to be her grandfather, but since she's immortal, she looks the same as she has for all this time.
Seth wields heavy swords along with Kaim, and is the fastest and one of the strongest fighters in your party. Having been in the Uhran army, she has honed her battle skills, and can show them off impressively. "
Man, after playing Persona so many times and then spending days on this fashion thread for here and my blog and noticing a couple of fashion trends popularized by black people in 5 and the dancing game I want an RPG with black high schoolers. I need my culture represented in the genre. I need the AAVE, the food, the fashion, the everything.
I can't take getting crumbs any longer.
I can't take getting crumbs any longer.
...huh?Hello. Not sure if I'm doing this right and apologies if I'm doing this wrong, but for the RPG characters can I nominate Seth From Lost Oddysey?
"Seth Balmore (Character) - Giant Bomb
Despite her youthful and exuberant disposition, Seth Balmore is, like Kaim, an immortal who's a thousand years old.
Seth Balmore is one of the few immortals living in human form in the world of humans, where she has resided for over 1,000 years. She is a tough, fearless, and highly intelligent warrior, who is a valuable asset to the team. While at first she seems like a energetic, childish character, she is actually a smart, serious, and passionate person.
Seth has hardly any memories of the previous 1,000 years. As the story progresses, Seth gains back some of her memories, like the other immortals. The things we learn include her being a former pirate (famous at that), and that she has a son, Sed, also a famous pirate. When the two reunite, Sed looks old enough to be her grandfather, but since she's immortal, she looks the same as she has for all this time.
Seth wields heavy swords along with Kaim, and is the fastest and one of the strongest fighters in your party. Having been in the Uhran army, she has honed her battle skills, and can show them off impressively. "
If you don't think she's black or something then you should probably say that instead of just replying to someone like this.
Anyway. I feel like there probably needs to be a conversation about how dark skin asian people exist but this isn't the thread for that.
Last edited:
OP
OP
I thought I should also cover one of the earlier black characters in gaming, so let's go back & cover Cyrus.
DAY 25: CYRUS (THE ELDER SCROLLS)When most think of The Elder Scrolls these days, you'd probably think of Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online, or maybe even Oblivion. But the protagonist of the fourth game in the franchise (The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redgard) gave us a protagonist whose legacy would be felt in later entries of the series (Oblivion especially). That man's name is Cyrus the Restless (he also goes by Sura in Yoku, but most know him as Cyrus). As you can tell, Redguard is unlike most games in the franchise as it actually has a more defined protagonist (name & all). This is in part thanks to this game being more of a third-person action game, similar to that of Tomb Raider. Because of this, the game is able to tell a more focused story without having to account for a self-insert avatar who has the story happen around them due to how customizable they are. And the fact that Bethesda decided to have their named protagonist be a black man says a lot. So with that being said, let's dig into Cyrus' lore.
Yeah, his mistakes got him in deep trouble, even if he ultimately helped save the entire island.
Born in Sentinel, Cyrus grew up with his older sister Izsara with dreams of becoming a pirate thanks to his conversations with Tobias. He would later receive sword training, as well as few other tricks, from Hakan (his brother-in-law). It was through Hakan that Cyrus would learn about the Forebear & Crown conflict as well as the then-ongoing Tiber wars. Said information was later confirmed by Cyrus' father, whose Crown faction wasn't very fond of his son-in-law's Forebear affiliation. Despite this, Cyrus' dad tried to resolve the conflict by writing a play (fitting, as Hakan is an actor himself, which is how he & Izsara met in the first place). And while the play was a success & peace was struck, but said peace didn't last long when Hakan ended up getting drunk & making a scene of the party (for reference, Cyrus was 23 during the events of this party). He was doing stupid stuff like insulting the playwright & challenging Cyrus (who was also drunk) to a duel. But it was slapping Izsara that set Cyrus off, leading to the duel that Hakan desperately wanted. Cyrus ended up winning, leading to Hakan's death, an act that made Cyrus run away into the care of Tobias. Cyrus would work under Tobias as a mercenary for 9 years before the two split up after the Tobias was injured during an ambush to free some Khajiit slaves. Despite this, the two still kept in touch, something that would be beneficial for Cyrus when he learned via Tobias that Izsara hadn't been seen in three months (prompting him to head to Stros M'kai). Upon his arrival to Stros M'kai, Cyrus didn't waste any time in trying to find any & all information on the whereabouts of his older sister (collecting various artifacts along the way), only to find out that she had "joined" (really kidnapped by) the Restless League. Cyrus then wasted no time in freeing his sister from her slumber, with both of them quickly escaping the realm from which Izsara was trapped in. It was then that they realized that N'Gasta's amulet (the original owner of which Cyrus had killed before rescuing Izsara) was actually the Soul Gem of Prince A'Tor, who was kept in stasis by the Restless League (Cyrus of course made quick work of the dragon guard & got the gem back). After attempting to resurrect the prince in question, he didn't return to his body, but rather Cyrus' sword (now called the Soul Sword, for obvious reasons). It was then that Cyrus would defeat (I.E. kill) Ariel Richton & Dram to free Stros M'Kal (which Izsara would eventually become governor of). Cyrus would eventually spend the rest of his days doing mercenary work, becoming a legend across many sailors & pirates as a hero to the Crowns. Even in Oblivion, you can hear pirates at the Imperial City Waterfront sing songs about Cyrus, showing how much of an impact Cyrus left on the world of Elder Scrolls. As a person, Cyrus was far from perfect. But he tried to do the right thing where he could, & atone for the mistake he made when possible. He also had a pretty strong love of adventure & solid leadership, the latter of which was made pretty apparent during his speech about the Prince's soul inhabiting Cyrus' sword. There's not a whole lot of depth to his character, which is to be expected from a game from the 90's. But the fact that he still left such an impact on the world (as stated already) does show that he was a noble soul all the same in spire of his mistakes.
I've been covering a ton of "less is more" designs in this thread, huh.
Like a number of other characters I covered, Cyrus inhabits the "less is more" mindset when it comes to character design. His design screams "pirate" from head to toe, from his black boots to his orange pants to his white shirt (including a deep v-neck, exposing his chest) to his brown vest. This is paired with the Soul Sword (or what would later become said Soul Sword) at his left hip on his black belt. If this section is shorter than usual, that's because it is. There's not much to dissect about Cyrus' design. It's simplistic, but effective in its job of displaying Cyrus as the pirate he always wanted to be as a kid. And hey, Cyrus accomplished just that.
If nothing else, Cyrus got to do what he loved, from when he first left the island a fugitive to when he left as a hero.
Similar to the character design, there aren't many critiques I can give about Cyrus as a character in terms of racist stereotypes. Hell, he even had a black voice actor at the time (Michael Mack, who would become a regular for the Redguards in later Elder Scrolls games). Sorry if you were expecting something longer, but I honestly don't have much to critique about Cyrus. Given that he was the first named protagonist for The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda did a damn good job on their first go.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the RPGs & More Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, this character may not be an RPG character, but they're definitely one hell of a survivor.
Last edited:
The references to Cyrus in Oblivion were how I found out about Redguard as a kid. Never had the chance to play it, but i just found out it's available on GoG for $6. Might make a weekend out of that. The game doesn't really get remembered much these days since it was only a supplementary spinoff to tide fans over until the launch of Morrowind, but god damn did bethesda bone up on their worldbuilding skills with this game. Daggerfall was great but Redguard in contrast did a great job to make the world of tamriel feel that much more like a world, and not like you're trekking through one given continent on foot like Daggerfall. I don't play Elder Scrolls Online, but I know the hammerfell expansion/locations have a fair share of references to Redguard. Whenever we get a TES game taking place in Hammerfell, I'd love to see it pay homage to this game in some capacity. Maybe a questline where you help Cyrus's grandkid or something.
Love Cyrus. Easily one of the stand-out characters in TES lore, if not the series as a whole. While far from an ideal or perfect hero, as far as TES heroes go, he basically fits right in with the other big-names like the Dovahkiin or Nerevarine while managing to stand above as his own character with personal history, goals, and a legacy that never needs to hem and haw about his details as highlighted by nearly every game since featuring books, oral recollections, and artifacts of his adventures. Michael Mack also did a fantastic job with bringing him to life, with his Big Speech being a highlight of any part of the series in my opinion.
The only comparable speech in the series comes quickly to mind is Martin's in Oblivion where, for being the heir of the empire and voiced by Sean Bean, he kind of... well, it's a speech alright. As a shining example of the common man of Tamriel, yet carrying an uncommon profession usually reserved for faceless, personality-less husks of other protagonists, Cyrus provides a rare chance to see the world from a perspective that can roll with its weirdness while seeking his own wants and ambitions in what Nirn can offer him. As a long-time TES fan, I still wait for the day when Cyrus himself manages to appear again, were it to happen with another mainline game in Hammerfell bringing him back with some kind of temporal or magical shenanigans, a revival of the Adventures sub-line to continue fleshing out the world of Tamriel with Cyrus as our hero, or perhaps if TES ever decided to commit to another medium like comics, television, or more novels, Cyrus is the one character above all others I want to see more of. Who else is even comparable?
The only comparable speech in the series comes quickly to mind is Martin's in Oblivion where, for being the heir of the empire and voiced by Sean Bean, he kind of... well, it's a speech alright. As a shining example of the common man of Tamriel, yet carrying an uncommon profession usually reserved for faceless, personality-less husks of other protagonists, Cyrus provides a rare chance to see the world from a perspective that can roll with its weirdness while seeking his own wants and ambitions in what Nirn can offer him. As a long-time TES fan, I still wait for the day when Cyrus himself manages to appear again, were it to happen with another mainline game in Hammerfell bringing him back with some kind of temporal or magical shenanigans, a revival of the Adventures sub-line to continue fleshing out the world of Tamriel with Cyrus as our hero, or perhaps if TES ever decided to commit to another medium like comics, television, or more novels, Cyrus is the one character above all others I want to see more of. Who else is even comparable?
OP
OP
I was up until damn near 5 in the morning (CST) writing this. So with that in mind, I proudly present Clementine.
DAY 26: CLEMENTINE (THE WALKING DEAD)
Like Star Wars, The Walking Dead isn't a franchise that started as a video game. But since Clementine originally made her debut in a video game, she's still fair game like Cere was. And to be honest, she's one of those characters I just couldn't leave out. She's been the constant figure throughout the Telltale games & it was honestly amazing to see her grow as a person. And before you ask, yes, she is black. Not only was Clementine's ethnicity outright confirmed by Jessica Brezzo (basically a Word of God situation), but there's even a family photo that shows both of her parents from before everything went to shit. To be more specific, Sean Vanaman & Clementine VA Melissa Hutchison (more on her later) mentioned that she's of mixed ethnicity (half black, half asian). But as I've said before, you won't catch me questioning one's blackness. So with that cleared up, let's get to her story. And given how the story is set up for The Walking Dead, said story is actually really important. But I'll try to summarize it in a way where it doesn't drag on forever, especially since there are a lot of branching paths regarding the story.
Here's the family photo I mentioned earlier.
Born to a black father (Ed) & a mixed ethnicity mother (Diana, half black & half asian), Clementine had a pretty happy life with her parents alongside her pet goldfish (Peanut) & hamster in Georgia. Even at a young age, Clementine showed her intelligence when 1st grade proved to be too easy for her. She spent a lot of her time making up complex stories & reading books up in her treehouse (she also did watch TV, albeit not as often as most kids her age). It was actually during her parents' trip to Savannah that the zombie outbreak happened (with Clementine being under the care of babysitter Sandra). It was from here that she met Lee Everett, who Clementine stuck with both for his offer to help Clem find her parents as well as Lee somewhat resembling Clem's own father. Along the way, the two get to bond & Lee teaches Clem quite a few survival skills (skills that would serve Clem well later on). But unfortunately, their time together was cut short when Lee was infected, forcing Clementine to either kill Lee at his request or leave him to turn. Like with most of the games' story beats, the choice is left up to you. But either way, Clementine has to leave the city without Lee, beginning a long cycle of Clementine going from place to place, never finding a real home. This puts Clementine in a difficult position to lead the group of Omid & Christa (who Lee told Clem to meet up with before he died/turned). Not only did her carelessness lead Omid to his death, but Clementine was also separated from Christa over a year later & into a new group (though she did find out that Kenny survived by going with this new group). From there, shit gets wild. Not only did they manage to kill the man who was tracking the group (William Carver, the father of group member Rebecca's child), but they had to go through both the death of Kenny's girlfriend as well as Rebecca dying from childbirth & reanimating as a walker……the latter of which happened during a standoff against a group of Russian immigrants. Clementine's group managed to come out on top, but Clem ends up getting shot later when she saw Arvo (the sole survivor of the Russian group) & some others try to escape. While it seems like the story will change wildly if you choose to go with Kenny (who has the further choice of splitting off from Kenny or continuing on with him) or going with Jane, all it ultimately amounts to is different scar placements on her face & either an AJ brand or a missing finger on her left hand (her companion either way ends up dying) as she tries to care for AJ. After joining & being subsequently booted from the New Frontier for trying to steal medicine for AJ (who was ill at the time), she travels with Javier (who she just recently rescued) to Richmond, not far from where AJ was being kept. Years later, Clementine & an older AJ (still a young boy, mind you) come across a bunch of kids at an abandoned boarding school, with whom Clem bonds with thanks to her time in grade school before everything went to shit. Turns out, the kids were trading their own to a group of raiders in exchange for their safety, one of which is Lilly (one of Clem's old acquaintances). With Marlon dead by AJ's hand, Clem had to deal with Lilly on her own. Clem did try to help get as many kids out as possible, but some ended up getting kidnapped anyway while AJ was wounded by a gunshot. Enlisting James' help, Clem track down Lilly's group to a ship where the kids & AJ were being held. And while the kids were freed, AJ is left with a choice to either kill or spare Lilly. Either way, a bomb that James placed ends up going off, one that Clementine & AJ narrowly escaped from. Knocking on heaven's door after her betrayal & the explosion, Minerva shoots Clementine in the leg during a walker ambush, with a walker biting said left leg right afterwards. She & AJ do survive the ambush, but Clementine had to have AJ amputate the leg in question. In the end, Clementine would finally find a home after years of wandering as leader of Ericson (who had previously treated AJ for the gunshot wound from earlier).
If I was a kid in a zombie apocalypse, I also wouldn't really be concerned with fashion.
Clementine grows as a person over the course of the series, in part thanks to the harsh environment she had to grow up in & the fact that she had to face said hardship as a little girl. She starts off as polite girl who was pretty mature for her age. But as the deaths pile up & the situation becomes more bloody, she becomes more isolated & brash, believing that it's safer to go it alone. She would eventually become more than capable of making her own choices by the end, as well as being more in touch with who she is both in terms of her beliefs as well as her bisexuality. This rapid character growth makes sense given that she's one of the few constants over 4 seasons of choice-based adventures, her character fits the environment she was created under (both in a literal sense for the game & a narrative sense for her world). She's very much a well-rounded character who makes perfect sense within her context. No objectification, no colorist stereotypes for black women, nothing along those lines. Clementine is just written as a person in a shitty world, & that works perfectly. As for Clementine's design, there's not much to it (hence why I blended it with the personality section). There are a few changes along the way, be it cutting her hair if Lee asks her to before his death or a scar on her face or even a missing finger depending on your choices (either that or a brand on the hand in question). But the one constant seems to be the hat that belonged to her birth father, which Lee gave to her in Season 1 & was worn ever since. It makes sense that she doesn't really have a consistent design, as she had to get by with whatever clothes she can find. So there isn't really much to talk about here beyond the fact that she (thankfully) isn't being sexualized even in her older years since that'd not only be creepy, but also a colorist approach to black women in games. So yeah, bullet dodged there.
They grow up so fast. ;_;
As for critiques about Clementine, I don't really have any regarding her actual character. That said, I do have a gripe about her voice actress, Melissa Hutchinson (who also voices Monster Hunter in MvCI). She does a fantastic job, mind you. But I wish that they got a black actress to voice Clementine. As you can tell, this a recurring problem in games, but one that seems to be changing for the better. Outside of that, I have nothing but praise for her character. Seeing her grow over the years was nothing short of amazing, & I have to give Telltale Games props for nailing it with Clementine. She more than earned her spot on this thread.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the RPGs & More Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, this is another Barret situation where I couldn't not mention this character given how prolific they are in the world of gaming. So yeah, 90% of you can probably guess who it is.
Last edited:
OP
OP
Hard to believe that there's only one more character to cover. Anyway, here's Doc Louis.
DAY 27: DOC LOUIS (PUNCH-OUT)
Like Barret, Doc Louis is one of the most prolific black characters in gaming with a legacy that's even older than Barret's (dating back to the NES). He was basically non-negotiable regarding the choices I made for this thread. But weirdly enough, I don't see a ton of people bring him up when it comes to prolific black characters in gaming (let alone Nintendo's prolific black characters) in some of my social circles. Hopefully they can see this thread & be reminded of how Doc Louis persevered over the decades. So enough with the prelude, let's get to the rest of the write-up.
Doc Louis has always been in Little Mac's corner since we first met them. And given his experience, Mac is lucky to have him as a coach.
Originally hailing from Brooklyn (much like his student, Little Mac), Jerome "Doc" Louis is a former heavyweight boxer who was the champion of his class during the height of his fame around 1954. Not a whole lot of Little Mac's rogues gallery were active during Doc Louis' time in the ring, but one of the ones who were was Bald Bull. In fact, it was also implied that Doc Louis may have been the Bull's trainer for a time. Either way, after he became a coach for the sport he once dominated decades later, he would come across a starry-eyed Little Mac with dreams of reaching the heights that the Doc once got to. Doc Louis agreed to train Little Mac, teaching him everything he knew from his time in the ring. Even during fights, Doc Louis puts his time-tested mind to good use, helping Mac point out weaknesses & strategies that can be used to take down whoever his student is facing. Hell, Doc Louis may taunt Little Mac's opponent (typically with bad jokes) to help boost Mac's morale (it sure helped me during the especially-tough fights in Punch-Out!!! Wii). Doc Louis is just a generally supportive guy who wants to see his student succeed. He even respects the new guard in the ring, especially Mr. Sandman (who became the champ in Doc Louis' absence). That's not to say that Doc Louis doesn't still have some fight left in him, as he can still give Mac a run for his money in Doc Louis' Punch-Out!!! (a WiiWare-exclusive game that's basically standalone DLC for Punch-Out!!! Wii). But these days, Doc Louis mainly backs up Little Mac, & does a damn good job of it. The two are basically in separable, to the point where Doc Louis shows up alongside Little Mac in his victory animations in Smash.
There's something of a simple elegance to Doc Louis' design. Though something about his Smash model rubs me the wrong way (more on that later).
Doc Louis' design is simplistic like a number of designs that I covered, but it gets its point across quite well. It screams "trainer" from his red track top to his blue sweat pants to his white sneakers. This kinda gives off an American flag iconography, albeit not as overt as T.J. Combo's designs (especially his earlier ones). he also rocks brown boxing gloves whenever he's doing mock fights with Little Mac, likely a holdover from his boxing days. And of course, how could I not mention his iconic mustache. Clearly this design works for him, as it hasn't really changed since his debut on the NES. But there are various small-but-appreciated changes Next Level Games made to be more respectful with regards to how Doc Louis is represented, namely his top lip being darker than the bottom one & his palms actually having less melanin. It's sad that I have to mention these points, but it's still nice to see.
Thank god Next Level Games updated Doc Louis' design for the Wii game, especially regarding his lips.
A lot of my issues with Doc Louis come from his appearances outside of Next Level Games' Punch-Out!!! Wii. For as many stereotypes that can be found in the game, they at least improved Doc Louis in a major way in terms of his design & personality. From the properly colored lips (an issue that plagued Doc Louis in prior games) to actually having less melanin in his palms, Next Level Games made sure to do right by the Doc. They even added onto Doc Louis' character in small but meaningful ways, such as his love of chocolate & bad jokes. Hell, NLG made sure to get a black actor to voice Doc Louis (Riley Inge). That said, Doc Louis' Smash iteration feels…..off for some reason. I want to say it's the shape of his head, but I'm not sure that's all there is to it. I guess he isn't the first instance of characters not transitioning to Smash well, as Shulk's Smash Ultimate model also looks weird. But it's still disappointing to see considering that Little Mac was served pretty well in his transition to Smash. But that's about it. Doc Louis is a long-standing black character in gaming who only got better over the years, namely thanks to Next Level Games' take on the character. I know this write-up is a bit on the short side, but that's because there isn't a whole lot of lore to bite into. But all the same, I can't help but love the guy.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the last character in the RPGs & More Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, I still have one more RPG character up my sleeve.
Cutting it a bit close, but Leo from the Cold Steel series is pretty cool
Not a mindblowing character by any means, but stands out as one of the only black characters in the franchise. In-universe he acts as (one of) the surrogate fathers of a main character and is generally a pretty agreeable dude. In the 4th game he goes from minor antagonist to playable character
Not a mindblowing character by any means, but stands out as one of the only black characters in the franchise. In-universe he acts as (one of) the surrogate fathers of a main character and is generally a pretty agreeable dude. In the 4th game he goes from minor antagonist to playable character
Week 4: Characters From RPGs & More
OP
OP
Welp, here's the last week of characters. It's been a long road, but I'm glad I walked down it. Also, here's the poll results.
Anyway, let's get to the characters.
WEEK 4: CHARACTERS FROM RPGs & MORE
DAY 22: BARRET WALLACE (FINAL FANTASY)
I mean, come on. He's quite literally one of the most iconic black characters in gaming (probably one of the most iconic characters in gaming period). Hell, I'm pretty sure most of you immediately thought of Barret when this whole thread started (& not just because of the fact that he was in the banner). And that's for a multitude of reasons, a good chunk of which is that Barret is one of the earliest party members in one of the most prolific games of all time…..a game that just got part of its story remade just last year. Granted, Final Fantasy has a decent assortment of black characters. Hell, Final Fantasy could do a decent job of carrying the RPG section on its own. But I did limit myself to one per franchise. And I couldn't pick anyone but Barret to represent the franchise in this thread. Normally I would go on a long-winded introduction for Barret. But as I said on the day I posted Billie Lurk's write-up, Barret doesn't need an introduction. So let's get to it. I better not fuck up.
I know what you're wondering, "How can anyone with a gun for an arm call themselves a parent". Well, Barret's actually a damn good father.
Before the events of Final Fantasy VII, Barret Wallace lived in Corel (a forested mining town) whit his wife Myrna. But when she fell ill to an unspecified illness, Barret agreed to help Shinra build a mako reactor just north of his town alongside Dyne (who needed some convincing). He did just that & helped the Turks sneak in, but they ended up destroying the reactor to retaliate against Avalanche. Barret & Dyne tried to escape in the ensuing chaos, but both were gunned down by Shinra troops. This left Dyne at the mercy of a cliff, grabbing onto Barret's right hand……which Scarlet proceeded to shoot. So now Barret's down a right hand & Dyne is presumed dead, leaving behind his daughter Marlene (who Barret would soon adopt & raise as his own). From there, Barret would get a prosthetic adapter from Sakaki that would allow Barret to use various weapons in exchange for his missing forearm & join Avalanche as one of its leaders to take the fight to Shinra. Originally he worked with the main Avalanche group with Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, & Tifa. But after various disagreements, Barret & Co. would split off from the main Avalanche group & establish their own cell with the people in question over in Sector 7's Seventh Heaven, all the while raising his newly-adopted daughter. From here the events of Final Fantasy VII are put into motion, but most of you know the drill by this point. Cloud is hired as a mercenary to help Avalanche with blowing up some mako reactors, becomes the first member of your party besides Cloud himself, they have a run-in with Shinra, Barret & the group befriends various party members along the way (including Red XIII in Barret's case specifically), and they chase down Sephiroth all the way from Midgar to the Northern Cave. Though along the way, Barret would eventually revisit his hometown. Or to be more specific, they would visit North Corel, which was established by the survivors of the mako reactor explosion that Barret helped put into motion. It was actually here (or at least in prison) where he would reunite with Dyne, now rocking a gun-arm on his left arm that he used to enact the Gold Saucer massacre. As it turns out, the loss of his family drove Dyne mad to the point where he just wanted to destroy the world, hence why he went on a murderous rampage. Hell, Dyne nearly pointed said rampage towards his daughter upon learning that she survived in a twisted thought process that his wife shouldn't be alone in the afterlife. Though after being defeated by Barret, Cloud, & the others, Dyne would throw himself off a cliff to his death. With his homecoming as well as the general journey of Final Fantasy VII, Barret had a long quest of his own, both literally & emotionally. And given that the remake seems to be taking a new uncharted path, there's no telling how much these events will differ in the remake.
Barret's quite fun to play in the remake, actually. He's also fun in the original, but so is everyone due to the turn-based combat. The remake's combat system makes things more specific for each character, hence the more focused praise.
Mechanically, Barret focuses on long-ranged attacks with a couple of melee attacks for good measure in both the original game as well as the remake. In the original, Barret is more of a defensive character due to his weapon, stats, & Limits (at least initially). But eventually you can change this by using Barret's ultimate weapon (Missing Score), which allows for more material slots, thus opening up more options without losing his damage potential. His two Limits (Agermax & Catastrophe) add to his sheer amount of firepower. In the remake, a lot of that is still true. But given that the remake is more of an action RPG, Barret's gun-arm can be used to reach enemies that Cloud, Tifa, & Aerith otherwise couldn't. As per his initial defensive role in the original game, Barret has the highest durability of all the remake's party members & a lot of health. His unique attack varies depending on what kind of weapon you have equipped. For ranged weapons, it's Overcharge (which buffs damage & fills your ATB gauge faster). For physical weapons, it's Overrun (Barret charges forward, hitting any enemies in his way, then ending with a huge AoE ground smash). Because of his high durability, Barret can serve as a support role pretty well, especially with abilities like Lifesaver (which has Barret take on his allies' damage) & Steelskin (which makes him tank all damage coming his way). Basically the remake goes through lengths to establish Barret as the rock of the team, both emotionally & in combat. Speaking of which, Barret is very much a bleeding heart, especially once he joined Avalanche. He's fully committed to the cause of the organization & cares deeply about the teammates of whom he goes into battle with. Unfortunately, this passion can backfire depending on the situation, as it has on a few occasions. But all the same, Barret maintains a strong sense of justice Barret is also very much capable of sincerity, something he often shows with his daughter Marlene. But the gung-ho attitude part comes from the localization basing much of his personality after Mr. T, which is very much a black stereotype. The remake retains a fair amount of this stereotyping, but we do see the more sincere side of Barret more often as well as that passion being more genuine & not stereotypical. From what I've been told, this is more in line with how the Japanese performance is handled. And given that his English VA in the remake (John Eric Bentley) is very much capable of delivering such a performance, this is something that I'll chalk up more to the localizers than the actor.
The changes between Barret's classic & remake designs are a classic case of the little things eventually adding up.
Barret's design didn't change TOO much between the original & the remake. A lot of the same design elements are consistent across both, from Barret's gun-arm to his brown sleeveless leather jacket to his green cargo pants to his brown gloves & boots. He even retains the skull tattoo on his left arm, even if the actual details & placement on the left arm differs between the two (on top of a new tattoo design, said tattoo is lower on Barret's arm in the remake). Barret maintains a short flat-top, one with straight hair for some reason. I originally thought this was a quirk of the remake, but I realized that this was a thing in the original as well upon further inspection of Barret's OG concept art. Not sure why that's the case, but whatever. Lastly, the make-up of his gun-arm differs between the two. It's more of a stub with a gatling gun at the end, but the barrels are much more detailed & longer in the remake. Hell, there are even slots for Materia in the remake's take on the gun arm. Not to mention the addition of the sleeve coming from the gun arm, likely to hide whatever scars that are still there. Plus I'm liking the black sleeveless shirt he now wears in the remake. But outside of that, Barret tends to wear sunglasses for a good chunk of FFVII Remake. But honestly, I'm not a fan. Like, the glasses themselves are nice, but Barret looks great already. No need to hide those eyes behind your shades. Not to mention that they make no sense to be worn at night anyway (obviously not all of FFVII is at night, but you get my point). But yeah, as mentioned before, sometimes less is more. And Barret still stands as one of Nomura's best character designs. Though you could probably say the same for most of FFVII's major characters, so I'm glad Barret is among the better examples of this…….even if I wish his hair was curlier. I know I skipped his Advent Children design. But given that he didn't have a huge role in that anyway, I figured it'd be best to focus on his OG & remake designs. Basically he trades his brown vest for a white one, now wears a mesh shirt (kinda like what Young Zeku wears in SFV), & braided his hair back. For what it's worth, I do like the braids. But something about that version of Barret felt......off to me (not just the shirt, a design decision that I wasn't a huge fan of). So yeah, focusing on the OG & remake versions here.
I guess Cloud really did grow on Barret, though more so vice versa.
Funny enough, I covered most of my criticisms throughout this write-up. The Mr. T-inspired personality that the localizers put on Barret in the original FFVII still plague the character to this day, & it's made all the more annoying when Barret actually breaks away from the stereotype. John Eric Bentley has shown to be more than capable of a more true-to-the-JP-version performance, so I'm not sure why they don't just let John do his thing.This has actually been a point of criticism for both the original & especially the remake from black fans for a while (myself included). Hell, one of our own (Urban Scholar) actually did an article on the subject of how Barret was handled in FFVII Remake that I highly recommend you read which goes into further detail about his flaws than I could.
arstechnica.com
But that aside, Barret definitely doesn't disappoint. He's a deep character with a complicated past that shaped him into the hero he is now. He's an icon through-&-through, and he's definitely earned the title.
DAY 23: NESSA (POKÉMON)
It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of Pokémon Sword/Shield. In fact, I'd go as far as to argue that it's one of the weakest games in the mainline series. And trust me, the National Dex was the absolute least of its issues. It was really easy, the Wild Area (as it was in the base game) had a lot of missed potential, there isn't a lot to explore in a number of the towns, & the game overall felt like it was rushed out the door. But if there are two things that I'll always give Sword/Shield credit for, they're the Pokémon designs & the gym leaders (also the the DLC, but I'm mainly talking about the base game here). One of them is among the most popular of the lot (albeit not Raihan levels of popular), the second gym leader of the Galar region known as Nessa. And while Raihan stole some of Nessa's thunder post-launch, that's not to say that Nessa isn't a cool gym leader by any means. Speaking of whom, I was originally gonna cover Raihan for this section. But upon further research & consultation on Raihan, there's not enough to go off of that clearly defines him as black. This is due to his name having both Hindi & Arabic origins as well as the fact that The Pokémon Company didn't make a conscious effort to cast a black actor for Raihan from the get-go as they did for Nessa (his first VA in Twilight Wings seems to have been Arabic going off his name, while his Journeys VA is of mixed ethnicity). Don't get me wrong, Hindi &/or Arabic representation is a great thing to have in gaming and I'll never say no to more ethnic diversity in the medium (or any medium, for that matter). But this thread is about celebrating black characters in gaming. So out of precaution, I decided to go with Nessa for the Pokémon rep (who was actually the original plan before I saw Raihan's popularity, so I guess I was right the first time). With that said, let's get to her lore.
Nessa gives it her all, no matter which job she's doing.
Given that this is Pokémon we're talking about, there's not a lot of lore to speak of, at least when it comes to Nessa's backstory. I couldn't even find anything in the anime (both Twilight Wings & Journeys). So apologies ahead of time if this section is shorter than you're used to (especially compared to Barret yesterday). We do have a bit of her personality & some context about Nessa herself. Nessa was born to a fisherman father & a marketplace-working mother. It was likely because of her parents that Nessa ended up growing up around water-type Pokémon, influencing her decision to specialize in water-type Pokémon when she eventually became a gym leader. She's also close friends with Professor Sonia, with the two having met during their Gym Challenge (Nessa even gives her fresh seafood from Hullbury). As for her rival, it's kind of a one-sided rivalry with Milo (the first gym leader who specializes in grass-type Pokémon). But when asked about the topic, Milo basically said that his only rival is himself. As for what Nessa does outside of the gym, she also has a thriving career as a model (with Nessa being equally popular in both fields, which is a good thing). Though like her two contrasting jobs, she's noted to be a completely different person in front as a model compared to the Nessa we see in the arena. But there are instances where the two worlds collide. When Messa lost the first match in the Finals, there was some concern about how it would impact her modeling career. In reality, she was fine as far as her modeling life was concerned (though her gym is another topic entirely). As for her personality, Nessa is a highly motivated woman with willpower & competitive spirit to spare that she hides under a calm & composed exterior. Nessa's true personality even extends to her strategy, as she opts to suppress & overwhelm her opponents. Nessa definitely gives it her all regardless of what she's doing, be it modeling or battling.
At least TPCi made my life easier by making their characters' design sheets readily available.
Considering her water gym specialization & her father's job as a fisherman, it makes sense that Nessa's outfit is basically what you'd see someone wear at the beach. Nessa kinda veers from the usual rule-of-3 for colors by having her primary colors for her outfit are blue, white, black, & orange, but the outfit still works all the same. As for the actual outfit, Nessa rocks a mid-riff top & shorts (both skin-tight due to them being swimsuits) paired with water sandals (featuring little floatier-looking rings). This is paired with a tight necklace featuring a mossy green gem on her necklace as well as arm bands on her right arm (one blue, one neon green), a neon green waist necklace equivalent (waist-lace?) & a blue glove on her right hand (the one she throws her Poké Ball with). The mossy green gem isn't out-of-place thanks to her hair having the same mossy green highlights interchanging with her black strands, with some of her hair being tied back in a bun at the back with various parts of her hair being held in place with orange clips (outside of the clip holding the bun together, which is white). Basically her design fits the swimmer aesthetic perfectly while being pretty focused on the chosen colors. And while one could say that she's being sexualized, it's not really to the point where it takes away from her character since, in addition to her swimming background, she's also a model by trade. But I guess you could argue that it was also the rating boards holding them back. This talking point actually harkens back to the Twintelle write-up, which is fitting since they're both Nintendo (well, kinda in Nessa's case, since Pokémon isn't 100% Nintendo in the same way ARMS is). But still, I really like Nessa's design.
Thank god Nessa isn't locked to either Sword or Shield.
I only really have one complaints about Nessa. Namely the fact that Nessa continues the trend of Japan-made black characters having blue eyes. I get that it fits her color palette, but having a black character with brown eyes would be appreciated since it's much more common. That plus the colorism concerns of Nessa being sexualized to a degree. But as mentioned earlier, it's fortunately not to the point where it takes away from her character. Her range of emotions from calm to 200% MOTIVATED also dodge the "angry & intense black woman" stereotype, so another bullet dodged there. And that's not to mention the great performance of Anairis Quiñones in Twilight Wings (good job for making sure you cast a black actress for Nessa, TPCi). Speaking of which, it's about time that the actual Pokémon games include voice acting. It's not like casting the character is an issue, as that has to happen for the anime anyway. But especially with the opening of the game, the lack of voices is really jarring. That aside, Game Freak/Creatures/TPCi/Nintendo did right by Nessa, so good job to them.
DAY 24: ABDONIS (RING FIT ADVENTURE)
I've been playing Ring Fit Adventure daily since I got it back on June 20th, 2020 (seriously, I have proof) when I could find it in stock. Said stock issues have improved a lot in the months that followed, but the game in general ended up being the hit nobody expected that's probably gonna pass up Splatoon 2 in its current trajectory. And I can see why, it combines working out & gameplay in a way that even Wii Fit (RFA's spiritual predecessor) failed to accomplish. And on top of that, an interesting cast of characters that give you just enough to keep you going. Dragaux is the main antagonist, yes. But the other challengers are the Four Masters (well, after they're mind-controlled by Dragaux by taking advantage of their insecurities). One of the Four Members is Abdonis, the ab-based fitness fighter of the game's world. And like his fellow members of the Four Masters, there's a lot to him than you'd think. So let's check those aspects out.
Abdonis is but one member of the Four Masters. But unlike his coworkers (as he'd call them), we have a bit more to chew on regarding Abdonis' backstory.
Before he became the ab-based member of the Four Masters, Abdonis was just Donny, son of the Priestess (likely having grown up in Tears of Solar Plexia going by the Priestess' attachment to the place). Donny even showed his fitness prowess at a very young age, as he broke the Bank Balance top score in record time when he was only 3 years old (for reference, he's 20 when we meet him in Ring Fit Adventure's story). Donny even picked up a knack for making disguises, which we see him use later in life throughout the story. Outside of all that, we don't have a lot to go regarding Donny's upbringing, but it seems as though the two have a very close bond given how the Priestess speaks of her son. Despite this, Donny did develop trust issues, believing that only his abs will always be there for him. And usually Abdonis is able to push through life anyway, as shown when he first meets Ring Fit Trainee & Ring. But unfortunately, these insecurities were something that Dragaux capitalized on when he corrupted Abdonis as well as the other members of the Four Masters. While corrupted, Abdonis ended up doing a number of things that he wouldn't be proud of, from seemingly pushing away his mother to turning a bunch of kids in the Moppets Gong Missing world into ghosts. But despite his loyalty to Dragaux while corrupted, this wouldn't amount to much after Dragaux absorbed the life force of all the Four Masters. It was after this that Abdonis & the others were freed from the Dark Influence, realizing their various mistakes. Though fortunately, Ring pointed out that Priestess believed in her son despite everything, which helped Abdonis realize that he can believe in people other than himself…..or his abs. As for Abdonis as a person, he's more sensitive than his appearance would have you believe, believing that his abs "guard his delicate heart" (his words). Likewise, as mentioned earlier, Abdonis had trust issues, thinking that everyone will eventually abandon him in the end. So I guess it's fitting that his Four Masters nickname was inspired by Adonis (the Greek god of beauty & desire), as he clearly longed for companionship (or more specifically friendship in his case) alongside his looks. But as was pointed out, this was eventually worked past to make himself a more well-rounded person. He even helps train the Ring Fit Trainee upon being freed from Dragaux's control & eventually Dragaux himself being freed from the dark influence that made him evil. So at the very least, he (& the others) take responsibility for their actions & try to make up for them. If nothing else, his mother raised him pretty well.
Gotta respect the work he put into his abs.
Abdonis' design is a textbook case of "less is more". On top of his marquee abs, he rocks a midriff jacket, black sleeves & yoga pants, a yellow cloth around his waist featuring a light green trim tied up with a black string, black yoga pants, & black shoes with yellow soles. The design directly attracts your attention to his abs, which are……actually quite impressive. No seriously, you could probably grind meat on them. As for his general appearance, he has his braided hair tied back for the most part, outside of a few strands of hair that he dyed yellow & left poking up front. This is similar to his mother's hairstyle, so it's likely something he was inspired by her to do with his hair, indicating their bond. The yellow theming also extends to his eyes, which I guess makes sense given that core workouts are color-coded as being yellow. But it would have been nice if he had brown eyes. Still, it's a simple-yet-effective design that makes it clear that he's an ab-based boss fight while also having a hair style not uncommon amongst black guys (outside of the yellow strand up-front which, again, is likely inspired by his mother).
Maybe I shouldn't have cheesed the game by farming for EXP boosts, because the game ended up being easier than I expected (even at max difficulty). Still love it, though.
Abdonis doesn't have a lot to him, but what he does have is interesting in & of itself. It's honestly nice to have a black character with very clear insecurities & is more in touch with their sensitive side in a sea of loud & uber-masculine black men (which is in & of itself a stereotype). Given that Abdonis doesn't really have an English voice actor, there's not much I can critique there, so I'll just leave it as-is there. Abdonis was honestly my favorite of the Four Masters & I'm pleasantly surprised that Nintendo did a lot with the time Abdonis had in the story. Gotta give credit where it's due……totally not because I've sunk in what will soon be 250 days (& counting, as of the day this was posted) into Ring Fit Adventure.
DAY 25: CYRUS (THE ELDER SCROLLS)
When most think of The Elder Scrolls these days, you'd probably think of Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online, or maybe even Oblivion. But the protagonist of the fourth game in the franchise (The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redgard) gave us a protagonist whose legacy would be felt in later entries of the series (Oblivion especially). That man's name is Cyrus the Restless (he also goes by Sura in Yoku, but most know him as Cyrus). As you can tell, Redguard is unlike most games in the franchise as it actually has a more defined protagonist (name & all). This is in part thanks to this game being more of a third-person action game, similar to that of Tomb Raider. Because of this, the game is able to tell a more focused story without having to account for a self-insert avatar who has the story happen around them due to how customizable they are. And the fact that Bethesda decided to have their named protagonist be a black man says a lot. So with that being said, let's dig into Cyrus' lore.
Yeah, his mistakes got him in deep trouble, even if he ultimately helped save the entire island.
Born in Sentinel, Cyrus grew up with his older sister Izsara with dreams of becoming a pirate thanks to his conversations with Tobias. He would later receive sword training, as well as few other tricks, from Hakan (his brother-in-law). It was through Hakan that Cyrus would learn about the Forebear & Crown conflict as well as the then-ongoing Tiber wars. Said information was later confirmed by Cyrus' father, whose Crown faction wasn't very fond of his son-in-law's Forebear affiliation. Despite this, Cyrus' dad tried to resolve the conflict by writing a play (fitting, as Hakan is an actor himself, which is how he & Izsara met in the first place). And while the play was a success & peace was struck, but said peace didn't last long when Hakan ended up getting drunk & making a scene of the party (for reference, Cyrus was 23 during the events of this party). He was doing stupid stuff like insulting the playwright & challenging Cyrus (who was also drunk) to a duel. But it was slapping Izsara that set Cyrus off, leading to the duel that Hakan desperately wanted. Cyrus ended up winning, leading to Hakan's death, an act that made Cyrus run away into the care of Tobias. Cyrus would work under Tobias as a mercenary for 9 years before the two split up after the Tobias was injured during an ambush to free some Khajiit slaves. Despite this, the two still kept in touch, something that would be beneficial for Cyrus when he learned via Tobias that Izsara hadn't been seen in three months (prompting him to head to Stros M'kai). Upon his arrival to Stros M'kai, Cyrus didn't waste any time in trying to find any & all information on the whereabouts of his older sister (collecting various artifacts along the way), only to find out that she had "joined" (really kidnapped by) the Restless League. Cyrus then wasted no time in freeing his sister from her slumber, with both of them quickly escaping the realm from which Izsara was trapped in. It was then that they realized that N'Gasta's amulet (the original owner of which Cyrus had killed before rescuing Izsara) was actually the Soul Gem of Prince A'Tor, who was kept in stasis by the Restless League (Cyrus of course made quick work of the dragon guard & got the gem back). After attempting to resurrect the prince in question, he didn't return to his body, but rather Cyrus' sword (now called the Soul Sword, for obvious reasons). It was then that Cyrus would defeat (I.E. kill) Ariel Richton & Dram to free Stros M'Kal (which Izsara would eventually become governor of). Cyrus would eventually spend the rest of his days doing mercenary work, becoming a legend across many sailors & pirates as a hero to the Crowns. Even in Oblivion, you can hear pirates at the Imperial City Waterfront sing songs about Cyrus, showing how much of an impact Cyrus left on the world of Elder Scrolls. As a person, Cyrus was far from perfect. But he tried to do the right thing where he could, & atone for the mistake he made when possible. He also had a pretty strong love of adventure & solid leadership, the latter of which was made pretty apparent during his speech about the Prince's soul inhabiting Cyrus' sword. There's not a whole lot of depth to his character, which is to be expected from a game from the 90's. But the fact that he still left such an impact on the world (as stated already) does show that he was a noble soul all the same in spire of his mistakes.
I've been covering a ton of "less is more" designs in this thread, huh.
Like a number of other characters I covered, Cyrus inhabits the "less is more" mindset when it comes to character design. His design screams "pirate" from head to toe, from his black boots to his orange pants to his white shirt (including a deep v-neck, exposing his chest) to his brown vest. This is paired with the Soul Sword (or what would later become said Soul Sword) at his left hip on his black belt. If this section is shorter than usual, that's because it is. There's not much to dissect about Cyrus' design. It's simplistic, but effective in its job of displaying Cyrus as the pirate he always wanted to be as a kid. And hey, Cyrus accomplished just that.
If nothing else, Cyrus got to do what he loved, from when he first left the island a fugitive to when he left as a hero.
Similar to the character design, there aren't many critiques I can give about Cyrus as a character in terms of racist stereotypes. Hell, he even had a black voice actor at the time (Michael Mack, who would become a regular for the Redguards in later Elder Scrolls games). Sorry if you were expecting something longer, but I honestly don't have much to critique about Cyrus. Given that he was the first named protagonist for The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda did a damn good job on their first go.
DAY 26: CLEMENTINE (THE WALKING DEAD)
Like Star Wars, The Walking Dead isn't a franchise that started as a video game. But since Clementine originally made her debut in a video game, she's still fair game like Cere was. And to be honest, she's one of those characters I just couldn't leave out. She's been the constant figure throughout the Telltale games & it was honestly amazing to see her grow as a person. And before you ask, yes, she is black. Not only was Clementine's ethnicity outright confirmed by Jessica Brezzo (basically a Word of God situation), but there's even a family photo that shows both of her parents from before everything went to shit. To be more specific, Sean Vanaman & Clementine VA Melissa Hutchison (more on her later) mentioned that she's of mixed ethnicity (half black, half asian). But as I've said before, you won't catch me questioning one's blackness. So with that cleared up, let's get to her story. And given how the story is set up for The Walking Dead, said story is actually really important. But I'll try to summarize it in a way where it doesn't drag on forever, especially since there are a lot of branching paths regarding the story.
Here's the family photo I mentioned earlier.
Born to a black father (Ed) & a mixed ethnicity mother (Diana, half black & half asian), Clementine had a pretty happy life with her parents alongside her pet goldfish (Peanut) & hamster in Georgia. Even at a young age, Clementine showed her intelligence when 1st grade proved to be too easy for her. She spent a lot of her time making up complex stories & reading books up in her treehouse (she also did watch TV, albeit not as often as most kids her age). It was actually during her parents' trip to Savannah that the zombie outbreak happened (with Clementine being under the care of babysitter Sandra). It was from here that she met Lee Everett, who Clementine stuck with both for his offer to help Clem find her parents as well as Lee somewhat resembling Clem's own father. Along the way, the two get to bond & Lee teaches Clem quite a few survival skills (skills that would serve Clem well later on). But unfortunately, their time together was cut short when Lee was infected, forcing Clementine to either kill Lee at his request or leave him to turn. Like with most of the games' story beats, the choice is left up to you. But either way, Clementine has to leave the city without Lee, beginning a long cycle of Clementine going from place to place, never finding a real home. This puts Clementine in a difficult position to lead the group of Omid & Christa (who Lee told Clem to meet up with before he died/turned). Not only did her carelessness lead Omid to his death, but Clementine was also separated from Christa over a year later & into a new group (though she did find out that Kenny survived by going with this new group). From there, shit gets wild. Not only did they manage to kill the man who was tracking the group (William Carver, the father of group member Rebecca's child), but they had to go through both the death of Kenny's girlfriend as well as Rebecca dying from childbirth & reanimating as a walker……the latter of which happened during a standoff against a group of Russian immigrants. Clementine's group managed to come out on top, but Clem ends up getting shot later when she saw Arvo (the sole survivor of the Russian group) & some others try to escape. While it seems like the story will change wildly if you choose to go with Kenny (who has the further choice of splitting off from Kenny or continuing on with him) or going with Jane, all it ultimately amounts to is different scar placements on her face & either an AJ brand or a missing finger on her left hand (her companion either way ends up dying) as she tries to care for AJ. After joining & being subsequently booted from the New Frontier for trying to steal medicine for AJ (who was ill at the time), she travels with Javier (who she just recently rescued) to Richmond, not far from where AJ was being kept. Years later, Clementine & an older AJ (still a young boy, mind you) come across a bunch of kids at an abandoned boarding school, with whom Clem bonds with thanks to her time in grade school before everything went to shit. Turns out, the kids were trading their own to a group of raiders in exchange for their safety, one of which is Lilly (one of Clem's old acquaintances). With Marlon dead by AJ's hand, Clem had to deal with Lilly on her own. Clem did try to help get as many kids out as possible, but some ended up getting kidnapped anyway while AJ was wounded by a gunshot. Enlisting James' help, Clem track down Lilly's group to a ship where the kids & AJ were being held. And while the kids were freed, AJ is left with a choice to either kill or spare Lilly. Either way, a bomb that James placed ends up going off, one that Clementine & AJ narrowly escaped from. Knocking on heaven's door after her betrayal & the explosion, Minerva shoots Clementine in the leg during a walker ambush, with a walker biting said left leg right afterwards. She & AJ do survive the ambush, but Clementine had to have AJ amputate the leg in question. In the end, Clementine would finally find a home after years of wandering as leader of Ericson (who had previously treated AJ for the gunshot wound from earlier).
If I was a kid in a zombie apocalypse, I also wouldn't really be concerned with fashion.
Clementine grows as a person over the course of the series, in part thanks to the harsh environment she had to grow up in & the fact that she had to face said hardship as a little girl. She starts off as polite girl who was pretty mature for her age. But as the deaths pile up & the situation becomes more bloody, she becomes more isolated & brash, believing that it's safer to go it alone. She would eventually become more than capable of making her own choices by the end, as well as being more in touch with who she is both in terms of her beliefs as well as her bisexuality. This rapid character growth makes sense given that she's one of the few constants over 4 seasons of choice-based adventures, her character fits the environment she was created under (both in a literal sense for the game & a narrative sense for her world). She's very much a well-rounded character who makes perfect sense within her context. No objectification, no colorist stereotypes for black women, nothing along those lines. Clementine is just written as a person in a shitty world, & that works perfectly. As for Clementine's design, there's not much to it (hence why I blended it with the personality section). There are a few changes along the way, be it cutting her hair if Lee asks her to before his death or a scar on her face or even a missing finger depending on your choices (either that or a brand on the hand in question). But the one constant seems to be the hat that belonged to her birth father, which Lee gave to her in Season 1 & was worn ever since. It makes sense that she doesn't really have a consistent design, as she had to get by with whatever clothes she can find. So there isn't really much to talk about here beyond the fact that she (thankfully) isn't being sexualized even in her older years since that'd not only be creepy, but also a colorist approach to black women in games. So yeah, bullet dodged there.
They grow up so fast. ;_;
As for critiques about Clementine, I don't really have any regarding her actual character. That said, I do have a gripe about her voice actress, Melissa Hutchinson (who also voices Monster Hunter in MvCI). She does a fantastic job, mind you. But I wish that they got a black actress to voice Clementine. As you can tell, this a recurring problem in games, but one that seems to be changing for the better. Outside of that, I have nothing but praise for her character. Seeing her grow over the years was nothing short of amazing, & I have to give Telltale Games props for nailing it with Clementine. She more than earned her spot on this thread.
DAY 27: DOC LOUIS (PUNCH-OUT)
Like Barret, Doc Louis is one of the most prolific black characters in gaming with a legacy that's even older than Barret's (dating back to the NES). He was basically non-negotiable regarding the choices I made for this thread. But weirdly enough, I don't see a ton of people bring him up when it comes to prolific black characters in gaming (let alone Nintendo's prolific black characters) in some of my social circles. Hopefully they can see this thread & be reminded of how Doc Louis persevered over the decades. So enough with the prelude, let's get to the rest of the write-up.
Doc Louis has always been in Little Mac's corner since we first met them. And given his experience, Mac is lucky to have him as a coach.
Originally hailing from Brooklyn (much like his student, Little Mac), Jerome "Doc" Louis is a former heavyweight boxer who was the champion of his class during the height of his fame around 1954. Not a whole lot of Little Mac's rogues gallery were active during Doc Louis' time in the ring, but one of the ones who were was Bald Bull. In fact, it was also implied that Doc Louis may have been the Bull's trainer for a time. Either way, Doc Louis made quite a name for himself during his boxing career, even creating the Star Punch technique (or at least he claims that he did). After he became a coach for the sport he once dominated decades later, he would come across a starry-eyed Little Mac with dreams of reaching the heights that the Doc once got to. Doc Louis agreed to train Little Mac, teaching him everything he knew from his time in the ring. Even during fights, Doc Louis puts his time-tested mind to good use, helping Mac point out weaknesses & strategies that can be used to take down whoever his student is facing. Hell, Doc Louis may taunt Little Mac's opponent (typically with bad jokes) to help boost Mac's morale (it sure helped me during the especially-tough fights in Punch-Out!!! Wii). Doc Louis is just a generally supportive guy who wants to see his student succeed. He even respects the new guard in the ring, especially Mr. Sandman (who became the champ in Doc Louis' absence). That's not to say that Doc Louis doesn't still have some fight left in him, as he can still give Mac a run for his money in Doc Louis' Punch-Out!!! (a WiiWare-exclusive game that's basically standalone DLC for Punch-Out!!! Wii). But these days, Doc Louis mainly backs up Little Mac, & does a damn good job of it. The two are basically in separable, to the point where Doc Louis shows up alongside Little Mac in his victory animations in Smash.
There's something of a simple elegance to Doc Louis' design. Though something about his Smash model rubs me the wrong way (more on that later).
Doc Louis' design is simplistic like a number of designs that I covered, but it gets its point across quite well. It screams "trainer" from his red track top to his blue sweat pants to his white sneakers. This kinda gives off an American flag iconography, albeit not as overt as T.J. Combo's designs (especially his earlier ones). he also rocks brown boxing gloves whenever he's doing mock fights with Little Mac, likely a holdover from his boxing days. And of course, how could I not mention his iconic mustache. Clearly this design works for him, as it hasn't really changed since his debut on the NES. But there are various small-but-appreciated changes Next Level Games made to be more respectful with regards to how Doc Louis is represented, namely his top lip being darker than the bottom one & his palms actually having less melanin. It's sad that I have to mention these points, but it's still nice to see.
Thank god Next Level Games updated Doc Louis' design for the Wii game, especially regarding his lips.
A lot of my issues with Doc Louis come from his appearances outside of Next Level Games' Punch-Out!!! Wii. For as many stereotypes that can be found in the game, they at least improved Doc Louis in a major way in terms of his design & personality. From the properly colored lips (an issue that plagued Doc Louis in prior games) to actually having less melanin in his palms, Next Level Games made sure to do right by the Doc. They even added onto Doc Louis' character in small but meaningful ways, such as his love of chocolate & bad jokes. Hell, NLG made sure to get a black actor to voice Doc Louis (Riley Inge). That said, Doc Louis' Smash iteration feels…..off for some reason. I want to say it's the shape of his head, but I'm not sure that's all there is to it. I guess he isn't the first instance of characters not transitioning to Smash well, as Shulk's Smash Ultimate model also looks weird. But it's still disappointing to see considering that Little Mac was served pretty well in his transition to Smash. But that's about it. Doc Louis is a long-standing black character in gaming who only got better over the years, namely thanks to Next Level Games' take on the character. I know this write-up is a bit on the short side, but that's because there isn't a whole lot of lore to bite into. But all the same, I can't help but love the guy.
DAY 28: VIVIENNE DE FER (DRAGON AGE)
Feels weird that this is the last character I'm covering. Damn, this month flew by fast. And although I didn't get a ton of sleep this month given that I stay up late writing all of these, I'm glad that I did this thread. It's been probably the biggest thread I've ever worked on. And while I have a couple of ideas on how to iterate on this thread as I wait for the poll results for this week, part of me feels like I should save those ideas for next year. That said, the decision to end the string of characters on Vivienne mainly came to the fact that I wanted to wrap things up with a black woman & with an RPG character, not to mention that I've yet to cover Dragon Age. So might as well give Vivienne the nod. Anyway, let's end Black History Month on a high note.
Gotta give Vivienne credit, she worked hard to get to where she was when you meet her.
Born in Rivain to two merchants, Vivienne de Fer was one of the youngest of the fully realized mages, so much so that she ended up transferring to the Montsimmard Circle when she was 19. Vivienne proved to be one hell of a scholar & had early promise at the Game. But despite all of this, she didn't join any Fraternity after she became a full-on enchanter. Vivienne was later invited as one of the envoys from Montsimmard to be at the Imperial Wintersend Ball, where she was courted by Duke Bastien de Ghislain, which started to become a regular thing as time went on…..a scandalous one. A number of bards weren't exactly happy with this relationship. But despite them wanting to make an example out of Vivienne, half of the ones who tried to attack her came back frozen solid. Said attacks eventually stopped when Empress Celene (who was only recently crowned at the time) chose Vivienne as her court enchanter, a position Vivienne transformed from what was basically a court jester to a legitimate advisory position through her own hard work (which went against the ban on mages holding political power). It was all uphill for Vivienne from there, be it her newly-gained moniker (Madame de Ver, the Lady of Iron, which is where the "de Fer" part of Vivienne's name comes from) or her being voted First Enchanter of Montsimmard. And when it came time for the Circles to rebel, Vivienne was the one to become the Loyalists' leader against the mage rebels. In-game, you can recruit Vivienne as one of your companions in The Imperial Enchanter quest. As for what she looks for in an Inquisitor, she prefers one who supports the Circle system & isn't fond of those who supports the rebels. She also has a soft spot for The Grand Game & hopes for her Inquisitor to do the same, or at least pretend to like it. She also wants to follow someone who puts some semblance of an effort into how they appear to others, which makes sense given how hard Vivienne had to work to get to where she was before being recruited as a companion. If you don't take her advice or reject the Game, she'll quickly disapprove of you, so be careful. So yeah, Vivienne is pretty ruthless & cold in her thinking, hardened by the morals she developed over the years & doesn't waver in them.
Vivienne definitely has quite a few subtle-but-notable variations of her design.
A lot of her designs are the same take on white-on-gray. As for what she wears when you first meet her, it's basically the one in the 2nd image. Vivienne rocks a massive collar, an elegant mask with horns on the sides, large shoulder pads with white & gray stripes, & an unfortunate boob window front-&-center (though I guess she isn't super-objectified, so I'll count my blessings there). The entire design has bits of gold laced throughout, fitting of her royal position. Fortunately, upon recruiting her, you can change Vivienne's design to one of the options in the first picture (plus retaining the helmet if you so choose, namely without the mask). As for her actual appearance, it's not often you see dark-skinned black women in games, let alone one who cuts her hair short, so I'll give credit there where it's due. As for the variations of her armor that I prefer, it's actually like the one showed at the bottom. The helmet & collar are really striking to me, as are the uniquely-shaped knee pads and the white-&-gray stripes throughout her design. But she swaps the boob window for a protective chest plate & ditches the mask. Granted, it's yet another instance of white clothes to pair against dark skin, a common trend for black characters in games. But the whole design is just so striking that I don't mind all that much. Plus it becomes more practical upon recruiting Vivienne.
But of all of said variations, I definitely prefer this one.
Besides the aforementioned bit of sexualization (which goes into the colorist trends for black women in games that I mentioned on Day 1 with Twintelle) & the colorist stereotype of her not being able to be soft in any occasion (a topic covered plenty in the colorism thread), my main complaint is that Vivienne isn't voiced by a black actress. That's not to say that Indira Varma doesn't do a good job (& she isn't white, being half Indian), not to mention being a fellow musical theatre actor. But it would have been nice to have a black actress in the role. Likewise, I do appreciate that she keeps a cool head with her own likes & dislikes, rather than be serious or angry 24/7 (which, again, is a colorist stereotype for black women). I wish I had more to say for this final character section, but that's about it. Vivienne is easily my favorite companion in Dragon Age: Inquisition & the developers did a pretty good job with her. This has been one hell of a ride, & I thank all of you for joining in it with me.
Thanks for taking the time to read this thread. Please let me know if there are any other topics you want me to cover. Remember, there's still an entirely poll left to do for this week.
Anyway, let's get to the characters.
WEEK 4: CHARACTERS FROM RPGs & MORE
DAY 22: BARRET WALLACE (FINAL FANTASY)
I mean, come on. He's quite literally one of the most iconic black characters in gaming (probably one of the most iconic characters in gaming period). Hell, I'm pretty sure most of you immediately thought of Barret when this whole thread started (& not just because of the fact that he was in the banner). And that's for a multitude of reasons, a good chunk of which is that Barret is one of the earliest party members in one of the most prolific games of all time…..a game that just got part of its story remade just last year. Granted, Final Fantasy has a decent assortment of black characters. Hell, Final Fantasy could do a decent job of carrying the RPG section on its own. But I did limit myself to one per franchise. And I couldn't pick anyone but Barret to represent the franchise in this thread. Normally I would go on a long-winded introduction for Barret. But as I said on the day I posted Billie Lurk's write-up, Barret doesn't need an introduction. So let's get to it. I better not fuck up.
I know what you're wondering, "How can anyone with a gun for an arm call themselves a parent". Well, Barret's actually a damn good father.
Before the events of Final Fantasy VII, Barret Wallace lived in Corel (a forested mining town) whit his wife Myrna. But when she fell ill to an unspecified illness, Barret agreed to help Shinra build a mako reactor just north of his town alongside Dyne (who needed some convincing). He did just that & helped the Turks sneak in, but they ended up destroying the reactor to retaliate against Avalanche. Barret & Dyne tried to escape in the ensuing chaos, but both were gunned down by Shinra troops. This left Dyne at the mercy of a cliff, grabbing onto Barret's right hand……which Scarlet proceeded to shoot. So now Barret's down a right hand & Dyne is presumed dead, leaving behind his daughter Marlene (who Barret would soon adopt & raise as his own). From there, Barret would get a prosthetic adapter from Sakaki that would allow Barret to use various weapons in exchange for his missing forearm & join Avalanche as one of its leaders to take the fight to Shinra. Originally he worked with the main Avalanche group with Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, & Tifa. But after various disagreements, Barret & Co. would split off from the main Avalanche group & establish their own cell with the people in question over in Sector 7's Seventh Heaven, all the while raising his newly-adopted daughter. From here the events of Final Fantasy VII are put into motion, but most of you know the drill by this point. Cloud is hired as a mercenary to help Avalanche with blowing up some mako reactors, becomes the first member of your party besides Cloud himself, they have a run-in with Shinra, Barret & the group befriends various party members along the way (including Red XIII in Barret's case specifically), and they chase down Sephiroth all the way from Midgar to the Northern Cave. Though along the way, Barret would eventually revisit his hometown. Or to be more specific, they would visit North Corel, which was established by the survivors of the mako reactor explosion that Barret helped put into motion. It was actually here (or at least in prison) where he would reunite with Dyne, now rocking a gun-arm on his left arm that he used to enact the Gold Saucer massacre. As it turns out, the loss of his family drove Dyne mad to the point where he just wanted to destroy the world, hence why he went on a murderous rampage. Hell, Dyne nearly pointed said rampage towards his daughter upon learning that she survived in a twisted thought process that his wife shouldn't be alone in the afterlife. Though after being defeated by Barret, Cloud, & the others, Dyne would throw himself off a cliff to his death. With his homecoming as well as the general journey of Final Fantasy VII, Barret had a long quest of his own, both literally & emotionally. And given that the remake seems to be taking a new uncharted path, there's no telling how much these events will differ in the remake.
Barret's quite fun to play in the remake, actually. He's also fun in the original, but so is everyone due to the turn-based combat. The remake's combat system makes things more specific for each character, hence the more focused praise.
Mechanically, Barret focuses on long-ranged attacks with a couple of melee attacks for good measure in both the original game as well as the remake. In the original, Barret is more of a defensive character due to his weapon, stats, & Limits (at least initially). But eventually you can change this by using Barret's ultimate weapon (Missing Score), which allows for more material slots, thus opening up more options without losing his damage potential. His two Limits (Agermax & Catastrophe) add to his sheer amount of firepower. In the remake, a lot of that is still true. But given that the remake is more of an action RPG, Barret's gun-arm can be used to reach enemies that Cloud, Tifa, & Aerith otherwise couldn't. As per his initial defensive role in the original game, Barret has the highest durability of all the remake's party members & a lot of health. His unique attack varies depending on what kind of weapon you have equipped. For ranged weapons, it's Overcharge (which buffs damage & fills your ATB gauge faster). For physical weapons, it's Overrun (Barret charges forward, hitting any enemies in his way, then ending with a huge AoE ground smash). Because of his high durability, Barret can serve as a support role pretty well, especially with abilities like Lifesaver (which has Barret take on his allies' damage) & Steelskin (which makes him tank all damage coming his way). Basically the remake goes through lengths to establish Barret as the rock of the team, both emotionally & in combat. Speaking of which, Barret is very much a bleeding heart, especially once he joined Avalanche. He's fully committed to the cause of the organization & cares deeply about the teammates of whom he goes into battle with. Unfortunately, this passion can backfire depending on the situation, as it has on a few occasions. But all the same, Barret maintains a strong sense of justice Barret is also very much capable of sincerity, something he often shows with his daughter Marlene. But the gung-ho attitude part comes from the localization basing much of his personality after Mr. T, which is very much a black stereotype. The remake retains a fair amount of this stereotyping, but we do see the more sincere side of Barret more often as well as that passion being more genuine & not stereotypical. From what I've been told, this is more in line with how the Japanese performance is handled. And given that his English VA in the remake (John Eric Bentley) is very much capable of delivering such a performance, this is something that I'll chalk up more to the localizers than the actor.
The changes between Barret's classic & remake designs are a classic case of the little things eventually adding up.
Barret's design didn't change TOO much between the original & the remake. A lot of the same design elements are consistent across both, from Barret's gun-arm to his brown sleeveless leather jacket to his green cargo pants to his brown gloves & boots. He even retains the skull tattoo on his left arm, even if the actual details & placement on the left arm differs between the two (on top of a new tattoo design, said tattoo is lower on Barret's arm in the remake). Barret maintains a short flat-top, one with straight hair for some reason. I originally thought this was a quirk of the remake, but I realized that this was a thing in the original as well upon further inspection of Barret's OG concept art. Not sure why that's the case, but whatever. Lastly, the make-up of his gun-arm differs between the two. It's more of a stub with a gatling gun at the end, but the barrels are much more detailed & longer in the remake. Hell, there are even slots for Materia in the remake's take on the gun arm. Not to mention the addition of the sleeve coming from the gun arm, likely to hide whatever scars that are still there. Plus I'm liking the black sleeveless shirt he now wears in the remake. But outside of that, Barret tends to wear sunglasses for a good chunk of FFVII Remake. But honestly, I'm not a fan. Like, the glasses themselves are nice, but Barret looks great already. No need to hide those eyes behind your shades. Not to mention that they make no sense to be worn at night anyway (obviously not all of FFVII is at night, but you get my point). But yeah, as mentioned before, sometimes less is more. And Barret still stands as one of Nomura's best character designs. Though you could probably say the same for most of FFVII's major characters, so I'm glad Barret is among the better examples of this…….even if I wish his hair was curlier. I know I skipped his Advent Children design. But given that he didn't have a huge role in that anyway, I figured it'd be best to focus on his OG & remake designs. Basically he trades his brown vest for a white one, now wears a mesh shirt (kinda like what Young Zeku wears in SFV), & braided his hair back. For what it's worth, I do like the braids. But something about that version of Barret felt......off to me (not just the shirt, a design decision that I wasn't a huge fan of). So yeah, focusing on the OG & remake versions here.
I guess Cloud really did grow on Barret, though more so vice versa.
Funny enough, I covered most of my criticisms throughout this write-up. The Mr. T-inspired personality that the localizers put on Barret in the original FFVII still plague the character to this day, & it's made all the more annoying when Barret actually breaks away from the stereotype. John Eric Bentley has shown to be more than capable of a more true-to-the-JP-version performance, so I'm not sure why they don't just let John do his thing.This has actually been a point of criticism for both the original & especially the remake from black fans for a while (myself included). Hell, one of our own (Urban Scholar) actually did an article on the subject of how Barret was handled in FFVII Remake that I highly recommend you read which goes into further detail about his flaws than I could.
Decades later, these remakes haven’t fixed their racial representation issues
Final Fantasy VII and Trials of Mana both have problems portraying people of color.
arstechnica.com
DAY 23: NESSA (POKÉMON)
Nessa gives it her all, no matter which job she's doing.
Given that this is Pokémon we're talking about, there's not a lot of lore to speak of, at least when it comes to Nessa's backstory. I couldn't even find anything in the anime (both Twilight Wings & Journeys). So apologies ahead of time if this section is shorter than you're used to (especially compared to Barret yesterday). We do have a bit of her personality & some context about Nessa herself. Nessa was born to a fisherman father & a marketplace-working mother. It was likely because of her parents that Nessa ended up growing up around water-type Pokémon, influencing her decision to specialize in water-type Pokémon when she eventually became a gym leader. She's also close friends with Professor Sonia, with the two having met during their Gym Challenge (Nessa even gives her fresh seafood from Hullbury). As for her rival, it's kind of a one-sided rivalry with Milo (the first gym leader who specializes in grass-type Pokémon). But when asked about the topic, Milo basically said that his only rival is himself. As for what Nessa does outside of the gym, she also has a thriving career as a model (with Nessa being equally popular in both fields, which is a good thing). Though like her two contrasting jobs, she's noted to be a completely different person in front as a model compared to the Nessa we see in the arena. But there are instances where the two worlds collide. When Messa lost the first match in the Finals, there was some concern about how it would impact her modeling career. In reality, she was fine as far as her modeling life was concerned (though her gym is another topic entirely). As for her personality, Nessa is a highly motivated woman with willpower & competitive spirit to spare that she hides under a calm & composed exterior. Nessa's true personality even extends to her strategy, as she opts to suppress & overwhelm her opponents. Nessa definitely gives it her all regardless of what she's doing, be it modeling or battling.
At least TPCi made my life easier by making their characters' design sheets readily available.
Considering her water gym specialization & her father's job as a fisherman, it makes sense that Nessa's outfit is basically what you'd see someone wear at the beach. Nessa kinda veers from the usual rule-of-3 for colors by having her primary colors for her outfit are blue, white, black, & orange, but the outfit still works all the same. As for the actual outfit, Nessa rocks a mid-riff top & shorts (both skin-tight due to them being swimsuits) paired with water sandals (featuring little floatier-looking rings). This is paired with a tight necklace featuring a mossy green gem on her necklace as well as arm bands on her right arm (one blue, one neon green), a neon green waist necklace equivalent (waist-lace?) & a blue glove on her right hand (the one she throws her Poké Ball with). The mossy green gem isn't out-of-place thanks to her hair having the same mossy green highlights interchanging with her black strands, with some of her hair being tied back in a bun at the back with various parts of her hair being held in place with orange clips (outside of the clip holding the bun together, which is white). Basically her design fits the swimmer aesthetic perfectly while being pretty focused on the chosen colors. And while one could say that she's being sexualized, it's not really to the point where it takes away from her character since, in addition to her swimming background, she's also a model by trade. But I guess you could argue that it was also the rating boards holding them back. This talking point actually harkens back to the Twintelle write-up, which is fitting since they're both Nintendo (well, kinda in Nessa's case, since Pokémon isn't 100% Nintendo in the same way ARMS is). But still, I really like Nessa's design.
Thank god Nessa isn't locked to either Sword or Shield.
I only really have one complaints about Nessa. Namely the fact that Nessa continues the trend of Japan-made black characters having blue eyes. I get that it fits her color palette, but having a black character with brown eyes would be appreciated since it's much more common. That plus the colorism concerns of Nessa being sexualized to a degree. But as mentioned earlier, it's fortunately not to the point where it takes away from her character. Her range of emotions from calm to 200% MOTIVATED also dodge the "angry & intense black woman" stereotype, so another bullet dodged there. And that's not to mention the great performance of Anairis Quiñones in Twilight Wings (good job for making sure you cast a black actress for Nessa, TPCi). Speaking of which, it's about time that the actual Pokémon games include voice acting. It's not like casting the character is an issue, as that has to happen for the anime anyway. But especially with the opening of the game, the lack of voices is really jarring. That aside, Game Freak/Creatures/TPCi/Nintendo did right by Nessa, so good job to them.
DAY 24: ABDONIS (RING FIT ADVENTURE)
Abdonis is but one member of the Four Masters. But unlike his coworkers (as he'd call them), we have a bit more to chew on regarding Abdonis' backstory.
Before he became the ab-based member of the Four Masters, Abdonis was just Donny, son of the Priestess (likely having grown up in Tears of Solar Plexia going by the Priestess' attachment to the place). Donny even showed his fitness prowess at a very young age, as he broke the Bank Balance top score in record time when he was only 3 years old (for reference, he's 20 when we meet him in Ring Fit Adventure's story). Donny even picked up a knack for making disguises, which we see him use later in life throughout the story. Outside of all that, we don't have a lot to go regarding Donny's upbringing, but it seems as though the two have a very close bond given how the Priestess speaks of her son. Despite this, Donny did develop trust issues, believing that only his abs will always be there for him. And usually Abdonis is able to push through life anyway, as shown when he first meets Ring Fit Trainee & Ring. But unfortunately, these insecurities were something that Dragaux capitalized on when he corrupted Abdonis as well as the other members of the Four Masters. While corrupted, Abdonis ended up doing a number of things that he wouldn't be proud of, from seemingly pushing away his mother to turning a bunch of kids in the Moppets Gong Missing world into ghosts. But despite his loyalty to Dragaux while corrupted, this wouldn't amount to much after Dragaux absorbed the life force of all the Four Masters. It was after this that Abdonis & the others were freed from the Dark Influence, realizing their various mistakes. Though fortunately, Ring pointed out that Priestess believed in her son despite everything, which helped Abdonis realize that he can believe in people other than himself…..or his abs. As for Abdonis as a person, he's more sensitive than his appearance would have you believe, believing that his abs "guard his delicate heart" (his words). Likewise, as mentioned earlier, Abdonis had trust issues, thinking that everyone will eventually abandon him in the end. So I guess it's fitting that his Four Masters nickname was inspired by Adonis (the Greek god of beauty & desire), as he clearly longed for companionship (or more specifically friendship in his case) alongside his looks. But as was pointed out, this was eventually worked past to make himself a more well-rounded person. He even helps train the Ring Fit Trainee upon being freed from Dragaux's control & eventually Dragaux himself being freed from the dark influence that made him evil. So at the very least, he (& the others) take responsibility for their actions & try to make up for them. If nothing else, his mother raised him pretty well.
Gotta respect the work he put into his abs.
Abdonis' design is a textbook case of "less is more". On top of his marquee abs, he rocks a midriff jacket, black sleeves & yoga pants, a yellow cloth around his waist featuring a light green trim tied up with a black string, black yoga pants, & black shoes with yellow soles. The design directly attracts your attention to his abs, which are……actually quite impressive. No seriously, you could probably grind meat on them. As for his general appearance, he has his braided hair tied back for the most part, outside of a few strands of hair that he dyed yellow & left poking up front. This is similar to his mother's hairstyle, so it's likely something he was inspired by her to do with his hair, indicating their bond. The yellow theming also extends to his eyes, which I guess makes sense given that core workouts are color-coded as being yellow. But it would have been nice if he had brown eyes. Still, it's a simple-yet-effective design that makes it clear that he's an ab-based boss fight while also having a hair style not uncommon amongst black guys (outside of the yellow strand up-front which, again, is likely inspired by his mother).
Maybe I shouldn't have cheesed the game by farming for EXP boosts, because the game ended up being easier than I expected (even at max difficulty). Still love it, though.
Abdonis doesn't have a lot to him, but what he does have is interesting in & of itself. It's honestly nice to have a black character with very clear insecurities & is more in touch with their sensitive side in a sea of loud & uber-masculine black men (which is in & of itself a stereotype). Given that Abdonis doesn't really have an English voice actor, there's not much I can critique there, so I'll just leave it as-is there. Abdonis was honestly my favorite of the Four Masters & I'm pleasantly surprised that Nintendo did a lot with the time Abdonis had in the story. Gotta give credit where it's due……totally not because I've sunk in what will soon be 250 days (& counting, as of the day this was posted) into Ring Fit Adventure.
DAY 25: CYRUS (THE ELDER SCROLLS)
Yeah, his mistakes got him in deep trouble, even if he ultimately helped save the entire island.
Born in Sentinel, Cyrus grew up with his older sister Izsara with dreams of becoming a pirate thanks to his conversations with Tobias. He would later receive sword training, as well as few other tricks, from Hakan (his brother-in-law). It was through Hakan that Cyrus would learn about the Forebear & Crown conflict as well as the then-ongoing Tiber wars. Said information was later confirmed by Cyrus' father, whose Crown faction wasn't very fond of his son-in-law's Forebear affiliation. Despite this, Cyrus' dad tried to resolve the conflict by writing a play (fitting, as Hakan is an actor himself, which is how he & Izsara met in the first place). And while the play was a success & peace was struck, but said peace didn't last long when Hakan ended up getting drunk & making a scene of the party (for reference, Cyrus was 23 during the events of this party). He was doing stupid stuff like insulting the playwright & challenging Cyrus (who was also drunk) to a duel. But it was slapping Izsara that set Cyrus off, leading to the duel that Hakan desperately wanted. Cyrus ended up winning, leading to Hakan's death, an act that made Cyrus run away into the care of Tobias. Cyrus would work under Tobias as a mercenary for 9 years before the two split up after the Tobias was injured during an ambush to free some Khajiit slaves. Despite this, the two still kept in touch, something that would be beneficial for Cyrus when he learned via Tobias that Izsara hadn't been seen in three months (prompting him to head to Stros M'kai). Upon his arrival to Stros M'kai, Cyrus didn't waste any time in trying to find any & all information on the whereabouts of his older sister (collecting various artifacts along the way), only to find out that she had "joined" (really kidnapped by) the Restless League. Cyrus then wasted no time in freeing his sister from her slumber, with both of them quickly escaping the realm from which Izsara was trapped in. It was then that they realized that N'Gasta's amulet (the original owner of which Cyrus had killed before rescuing Izsara) was actually the Soul Gem of Prince A'Tor, who was kept in stasis by the Restless League (Cyrus of course made quick work of the dragon guard & got the gem back). After attempting to resurrect the prince in question, he didn't return to his body, but rather Cyrus' sword (now called the Soul Sword, for obvious reasons). It was then that Cyrus would defeat (I.E. kill) Ariel Richton & Dram to free Stros M'Kal (which Izsara would eventually become governor of). Cyrus would eventually spend the rest of his days doing mercenary work, becoming a legend across many sailors & pirates as a hero to the Crowns. Even in Oblivion, you can hear pirates at the Imperial City Waterfront sing songs about Cyrus, showing how much of an impact Cyrus left on the world of Elder Scrolls. As a person, Cyrus was far from perfect. But he tried to do the right thing where he could, & atone for the mistake he made when possible. He also had a pretty strong love of adventure & solid leadership, the latter of which was made pretty apparent during his speech about the Prince's soul inhabiting Cyrus' sword. There's not a whole lot of depth to his character, which is to be expected from a game from the 90's. But the fact that he still left such an impact on the world (as stated already) does show that he was a noble soul all the same in spire of his mistakes.
I've been covering a ton of "less is more" designs in this thread, huh.
Like a number of other characters I covered, Cyrus inhabits the "less is more" mindset when it comes to character design. His design screams "pirate" from head to toe, from his black boots to his orange pants to his white shirt (including a deep v-neck, exposing his chest) to his brown vest. This is paired with the Soul Sword (or what would later become said Soul Sword) at his left hip on his black belt. If this section is shorter than usual, that's because it is. There's not much to dissect about Cyrus' design. It's simplistic, but effective in its job of displaying Cyrus as the pirate he always wanted to be as a kid. And hey, Cyrus accomplished just that.
If nothing else, Cyrus got to do what he loved, from when he first left the island a fugitive to when he left as a hero.
Similar to the character design, there aren't many critiques I can give about Cyrus as a character in terms of racist stereotypes. Hell, he even had a black voice actor at the time (Michael Mack, who would become a regular for the Redguards in later Elder Scrolls games). Sorry if you were expecting something longer, but I honestly don't have much to critique about Cyrus. Given that he was the first named protagonist for The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda did a damn good job on their first go.
DAY 26: CLEMENTINE (THE WALKING DEAD)
Like Star Wars, The Walking Dead isn't a franchise that started as a video game. But since Clementine originally made her debut in a video game, she's still fair game like Cere was. And to be honest, she's one of those characters I just couldn't leave out. She's been the constant figure throughout the Telltale games & it was honestly amazing to see her grow as a person. And before you ask, yes, she is black. Not only was Clementine's ethnicity outright confirmed by Jessica Brezzo (basically a Word of God situation), but there's even a family photo that shows both of her parents from before everything went to shit. To be more specific, Sean Vanaman & Clementine VA Melissa Hutchison (more on her later) mentioned that she's of mixed ethnicity (half black, half asian). But as I've said before, you won't catch me questioning one's blackness. So with that cleared up, let's get to her story. And given how the story is set up for The Walking Dead, said story is actually really important. But I'll try to summarize it in a way where it doesn't drag on forever, especially since there are a lot of branching paths regarding the story.
Here's the family photo I mentioned earlier.
Born to a black father (Ed) & a mixed ethnicity mother (Diana, half black & half asian), Clementine had a pretty happy life with her parents alongside her pet goldfish (Peanut) & hamster in Georgia. Even at a young age, Clementine showed her intelligence when 1st grade proved to be too easy for her. She spent a lot of her time making up complex stories & reading books up in her treehouse (she also did watch TV, albeit not as often as most kids her age). It was actually during her parents' trip to Savannah that the zombie outbreak happened (with Clementine being under the care of babysitter Sandra). It was from here that she met Lee Everett, who Clementine stuck with both for his offer to help Clem find her parents as well as Lee somewhat resembling Clem's own father. Along the way, the two get to bond & Lee teaches Clem quite a few survival skills (skills that would serve Clem well later on). But unfortunately, their time together was cut short when Lee was infected, forcing Clementine to either kill Lee at his request or leave him to turn. Like with most of the games' story beats, the choice is left up to you. But either way, Clementine has to leave the city without Lee, beginning a long cycle of Clementine going from place to place, never finding a real home. This puts Clementine in a difficult position to lead the group of Omid & Christa (who Lee told Clem to meet up with before he died/turned). Not only did her carelessness lead Omid to his death, but Clementine was also separated from Christa over a year later & into a new group (though she did find out that Kenny survived by going with this new group). From there, shit gets wild. Not only did they manage to kill the man who was tracking the group (William Carver, the father of group member Rebecca's child), but they had to go through both the death of Kenny's girlfriend as well as Rebecca dying from childbirth & reanimating as a walker……the latter of which happened during a standoff against a group of Russian immigrants. Clementine's group managed to come out on top, but Clem ends up getting shot later when she saw Arvo (the sole survivor of the Russian group) & some others try to escape. While it seems like the story will change wildly if you choose to go with Kenny (who has the further choice of splitting off from Kenny or continuing on with him) or going with Jane, all it ultimately amounts to is different scar placements on her face & either an AJ brand or a missing finger on her left hand (her companion either way ends up dying) as she tries to care for AJ. After joining & being subsequently booted from the New Frontier for trying to steal medicine for AJ (who was ill at the time), she travels with Javier (who she just recently rescued) to Richmond, not far from where AJ was being kept. Years later, Clementine & an older AJ (still a young boy, mind you) come across a bunch of kids at an abandoned boarding school, with whom Clem bonds with thanks to her time in grade school before everything went to shit. Turns out, the kids were trading their own to a group of raiders in exchange for their safety, one of which is Lilly (one of Clem's old acquaintances). With Marlon dead by AJ's hand, Clem had to deal with Lilly on her own. Clem did try to help get as many kids out as possible, but some ended up getting kidnapped anyway while AJ was wounded by a gunshot. Enlisting James' help, Clem track down Lilly's group to a ship where the kids & AJ were being held. And while the kids were freed, AJ is left with a choice to either kill or spare Lilly. Either way, a bomb that James placed ends up going off, one that Clementine & AJ narrowly escaped from. Knocking on heaven's door after her betrayal & the explosion, Minerva shoots Clementine in the leg during a walker ambush, with a walker biting said left leg right afterwards. She & AJ do survive the ambush, but Clementine had to have AJ amputate the leg in question. In the end, Clementine would finally find a home after years of wandering as leader of Ericson (who had previously treated AJ for the gunshot wound from earlier).
If I was a kid in a zombie apocalypse, I also wouldn't really be concerned with fashion.
Clementine grows as a person over the course of the series, in part thanks to the harsh environment she had to grow up in & the fact that she had to face said hardship as a little girl. She starts off as polite girl who was pretty mature for her age. But as the deaths pile up & the situation becomes more bloody, she becomes more isolated & brash, believing that it's safer to go it alone. She would eventually become more than capable of making her own choices by the end, as well as being more in touch with who she is both in terms of her beliefs as well as her bisexuality. This rapid character growth makes sense given that she's one of the few constants over 4 seasons of choice-based adventures, her character fits the environment she was created under (both in a literal sense for the game & a narrative sense for her world). She's very much a well-rounded character who makes perfect sense within her context. No objectification, no colorist stereotypes for black women, nothing along those lines. Clementine is just written as a person in a shitty world, & that works perfectly. As for Clementine's design, there's not much to it (hence why I blended it with the personality section). There are a few changes along the way, be it cutting her hair if Lee asks her to before his death or a scar on her face or even a missing finger depending on your choices (either that or a brand on the hand in question). But the one constant seems to be the hat that belonged to her birth father, which Lee gave to her in Season 1 & was worn ever since. It makes sense that she doesn't really have a consistent design, as she had to get by with whatever clothes she can find. So there isn't really much to talk about here beyond the fact that she (thankfully) isn't being sexualized even in her older years since that'd not only be creepy, but also a colorist approach to black women in games. So yeah, bullet dodged there.
They grow up so fast. ;_;
As for critiques about Clementine, I don't really have any regarding her actual character. That said, I do have a gripe about her voice actress, Melissa Hutchinson (who also voices Monster Hunter in MvCI). She does a fantastic job, mind you. But I wish that they got a black actress to voice Clementine. As you can tell, this a recurring problem in games, but one that seems to be changing for the better. Outside of that, I have nothing but praise for her character. Seeing her grow over the years was nothing short of amazing, & I have to give Telltale Games props for nailing it with Clementine. She more than earned her spot on this thread.
DAY 27: DOC LOUIS (PUNCH-OUT)
Like Barret, Doc Louis is one of the most prolific black characters in gaming with a legacy that's even older than Barret's (dating back to the NES). He was basically non-negotiable regarding the choices I made for this thread. But weirdly enough, I don't see a ton of people bring him up when it comes to prolific black characters in gaming (let alone Nintendo's prolific black characters) in some of my social circles. Hopefully they can see this thread & be reminded of how Doc Louis persevered over the decades. So enough with the prelude, let's get to the rest of the write-up.
Doc Louis has always been in Little Mac's corner since we first met them. And given his experience, Mac is lucky to have him as a coach.
Originally hailing from Brooklyn (much like his student, Little Mac), Jerome "Doc" Louis is a former heavyweight boxer who was the champion of his class during the height of his fame around 1954. Not a whole lot of Little Mac's rogues gallery were active during Doc Louis' time in the ring, but one of the ones who were was Bald Bull. In fact, it was also implied that Doc Louis may have been the Bull's trainer for a time. Either way, Doc Louis made quite a name for himself during his boxing career, even creating the Star Punch technique (or at least he claims that he did). After he became a coach for the sport he once dominated decades later, he would come across a starry-eyed Little Mac with dreams of reaching the heights that the Doc once got to. Doc Louis agreed to train Little Mac, teaching him everything he knew from his time in the ring. Even during fights, Doc Louis puts his time-tested mind to good use, helping Mac point out weaknesses & strategies that can be used to take down whoever his student is facing. Hell, Doc Louis may taunt Little Mac's opponent (typically with bad jokes) to help boost Mac's morale (it sure helped me during the especially-tough fights in Punch-Out!!! Wii). Doc Louis is just a generally supportive guy who wants to see his student succeed. He even respects the new guard in the ring, especially Mr. Sandman (who became the champ in Doc Louis' absence). That's not to say that Doc Louis doesn't still have some fight left in him, as he can still give Mac a run for his money in Doc Louis' Punch-Out!!! (a WiiWare-exclusive game that's basically standalone DLC for Punch-Out!!! Wii). But these days, Doc Louis mainly backs up Little Mac, & does a damn good job of it. The two are basically in separable, to the point where Doc Louis shows up alongside Little Mac in his victory animations in Smash.
There's something of a simple elegance to Doc Louis' design. Though something about his Smash model rubs me the wrong way (more on that later).
Doc Louis' design is simplistic like a number of designs that I covered, but it gets its point across quite well. It screams "trainer" from his red track top to his blue sweat pants to his white sneakers. This kinda gives off an American flag iconography, albeit not as overt as T.J. Combo's designs (especially his earlier ones). he also rocks brown boxing gloves whenever he's doing mock fights with Little Mac, likely a holdover from his boxing days. And of course, how could I not mention his iconic mustache. Clearly this design works for him, as it hasn't really changed since his debut on the NES. But there are various small-but-appreciated changes Next Level Games made to be more respectful with regards to how Doc Louis is represented, namely his top lip being darker than the bottom one & his palms actually having less melanin. It's sad that I have to mention these points, but it's still nice to see.
Thank god Next Level Games updated Doc Louis' design for the Wii game, especially regarding his lips.
A lot of my issues with Doc Louis come from his appearances outside of Next Level Games' Punch-Out!!! Wii. For as many stereotypes that can be found in the game, they at least improved Doc Louis in a major way in terms of his design & personality. From the properly colored lips (an issue that plagued Doc Louis in prior games) to actually having less melanin in his palms, Next Level Games made sure to do right by the Doc. They even added onto Doc Louis' character in small but meaningful ways, such as his love of chocolate & bad jokes. Hell, NLG made sure to get a black actor to voice Doc Louis (Riley Inge). That said, Doc Louis' Smash iteration feels…..off for some reason. I want to say it's the shape of his head, but I'm not sure that's all there is to it. I guess he isn't the first instance of characters not transitioning to Smash well, as Shulk's Smash Ultimate model also looks weird. But it's still disappointing to see considering that Little Mac was served pretty well in his transition to Smash. But that's about it. Doc Louis is a long-standing black character in gaming who only got better over the years, namely thanks to Next Level Games' take on the character. I know this write-up is a bit on the short side, but that's because there isn't a whole lot of lore to bite into. But all the same, I can't help but love the guy.
DAY 28: VIVIENNE DE FER (DRAGON AGE)
Gotta give Vivienne credit, she worked hard to get to where she was when you meet her.
Born in Rivain to two merchants, Vivienne de Fer was one of the youngest of the fully realized mages, so much so that she ended up transferring to the Montsimmard Circle when she was 19. Vivienne proved to be one hell of a scholar & had early promise at the Game. But despite all of this, she didn't join any Fraternity after she became a full-on enchanter. Vivienne was later invited as one of the envoys from Montsimmard to be at the Imperial Wintersend Ball, where she was courted by Duke Bastien de Ghislain, which started to become a regular thing as time went on…..a scandalous one. A number of bards weren't exactly happy with this relationship. But despite them wanting to make an example out of Vivienne, half of the ones who tried to attack her came back frozen solid. Said attacks eventually stopped when Empress Celene (who was only recently crowned at the time) chose Vivienne as her court enchanter, a position Vivienne transformed from what was basically a court jester to a legitimate advisory position through her own hard work (which went against the ban on mages holding political power). It was all uphill for Vivienne from there, be it her newly-gained moniker (Madame de Ver, the Lady of Iron, which is where the "de Fer" part of Vivienne's name comes from) or her being voted First Enchanter of Montsimmard. And when it came time for the Circles to rebel, Vivienne was the one to become the Loyalists' leader against the mage rebels. In-game, you can recruit Vivienne as one of your companions in The Imperial Enchanter quest. As for what she looks for in an Inquisitor, she prefers one who supports the Circle system & isn't fond of those who supports the rebels. She also has a soft spot for The Grand Game & hopes for her Inquisitor to do the same, or at least pretend to like it. She also wants to follow someone who puts some semblance of an effort into how they appear to others, which makes sense given how hard Vivienne had to work to get to where she was before being recruited as a companion. If you don't take her advice or reject the Game, she'll quickly disapprove of you, so be careful. So yeah, Vivienne is pretty ruthless & cold in her thinking, hardened by the morals she developed over the years & doesn't waver in them.
Vivienne definitely has quite a few subtle-but-notable variations of her design.
A lot of her designs are the same take on white-on-gray. As for what she wears when you first meet her, it's basically the one in the 2nd image. Vivienne rocks a massive collar, an elegant mask with horns on the sides, large shoulder pads with white & gray stripes, & an unfortunate boob window front-&-center (though I guess she isn't super-objectified, so I'll count my blessings there). The entire design has bits of gold laced throughout, fitting of her royal position. Fortunately, upon recruiting her, you can change Vivienne's design to one of the options in the first picture (plus retaining the helmet if you so choose, namely without the mask). As for her actual appearance, it's not often you see dark-skinned black women in games, let alone one who cuts her hair short, so I'll give credit there where it's due. As for the variations of her armor that I prefer, it's actually like the one showed at the bottom. The helmet & collar are really striking to me, as are the uniquely-shaped knee pads and the white-&-gray stripes throughout her design. But she swaps the boob window for a protective chest plate & ditches the mask. Granted, it's yet another instance of white clothes to pair against dark skin, a common trend for black characters in games. But the whole design is just so striking that I don't mind all that much. Plus it becomes more practical upon recruiting Vivienne.
But of all of said variations, I definitely prefer this one.
Besides the aforementioned bit of sexualization (which goes into the colorist trends for black women in games that I mentioned on Day 1 with Twintelle) & the colorist stereotype of her not being able to be soft in any occasion (a topic covered plenty in the colorism thread), my main complaint is that Vivienne isn't voiced by a black actress. That's not to say that Indira Varma doesn't do a good job (& she isn't white, being half Indian), not to mention being a fellow musical theatre actor. But it would have been nice to have a black actress in the role. Likewise, I do appreciate that she keeps a cool head with her own likes & dislikes, rather than be serious or angry 24/7 (which, again, is a colorist stereotype for black women). I wish I had more to say for this final character section, but that's about it. Vivienne is easily my favorite companion in Dragon Age: Inquisition & the developers did a pretty good job with her. This has been one hell of a ride, & I thank all of you for joining in it with me.
- Honorable Mentions
- Sazh Katzroy (Final Fantasy)
- If we lived in a weird reality where Barret didn't exist, Sazh would have gotten the Final Fantasy spot. And hey, how could I not love the guy. He's a loyal party member, a lively guy in general, & just a great of a father to his son. In fact, he's probably my favorite party member of FFXIII's cast. A shame that he had to compete with one of the most prolific black characters in gaming within the same franchise for the spot in this thread.
- Olivia (Pokémon)
- The rock-type gym leader of the Alola region (Sun/Moon) & eventual member of the Elite Four. Pokémon definitely has quite a few black trainers who made a name for themselves in recent years, & Olivia is no different. She is objectified to a degree & had a white actress (Julia McIlvaine) before TPCi pivoted to Marisa Kennedy for the anime. But I did enjoy Olivia's character in Sun/Moon & the anime in question, so I had to give her a shout-out here.
- Basilio (Fire Emblem)
- Fire Emblem doesn't exactly have a ton of black characters, something that should definitely be corrected in future games. But I have to give credit where it's due, namely with Basilio in Awakening. And his arc was actually pretty interesting, Basilio teamed up with Chrom's group to defend his people. And despite being later dethroned by Flavia, Basilio's life was ultimately saved by Lucina (Chrom's grown-up daughter from the future) to the point where he's willing to wait for Lucina to grow up in the present before taking back said throne (even having her mask ready for her). It was a nice change of pace, if only he had a black voice actor (no hating on Patrick Seitz, but PoC characters voiced by white characters seems to be a recurring problem for Fire Emblem.....& Nintendo in general).
- Ekko (League of Legends)
- I'm not much of a League guy personally, but I can appreciate black excellence from afar when I see it. Especially considering that it's not often that you see black engineers in gaming, let alone young ones. I would give him a go, but my 2014 MacBook Pro isn't exactly the best PC out there for gaming (that plus I'm waiting for my replacement O key as of when this was written). So the least I can do is give Ekko an honorable mention here.
- Mr. Sandman (Punch-Out)
- The most recurring champion of the Punch-Out series, Mr. Sandman was directly inspired by fellow Philadelphian Joe Frazier. The man is laser-focused on taking down Little Mac, to the point where you can't really fake him out. Hell, it took me months to finally beat him in the Wii game. That alone is worthy of an honorable mention, not to mention the fact that he's a recurring black character that Next Level Games improved upon for the Wii game.
- Sazh Katzroy (Final Fantasy)
Thanks for taking the time to read this thread. Please let me know if there are any other topics you want me to cover. Remember, there's still an entirely poll left to do for this week.
Last edited:
I personally love how ruthless Vivienne is. My Inquisitor didn't agree with a lot of her beliefs, but I can respect she knows who she is and what she wants out of life in Thedas. No pretenses with her in regards to her convictions. Ngl, I initially found her extremely appealing due to that confidence. Also, she has some excellent back-and-forth with certain other members of the Inquisition should you choose to bring them along with you.
I really don't give a shit what people say, I love Inquisition a lot, and most of that is due to its cast. They're right up there with some of the other greats for me.
I really don't give a shit what people say, I love Inquisition a lot, and most of that is due to its cast. They're right up there with some of the other greats for me.
Last edited:
Thank you for your write-ups, Neoxon. And thanks to everyone else who brought up their own examples.
Last edited:
I haven't been commenting, but I have been following the thread. Thanks for making it and for all the updates.
OP
OP
Just curious, would you all like me to cover various things that the industry can improve on with regards to their representation of black characters as extra credit until the Week 4 poll results are finalized, or should I save that for next year?
Also, since Cherry Hunter (narrowly) won the action character poll, here's the new banner.
Also, since Cherry Hunter (narrowly) won the action character poll, here's the new banner.
Last edited:
Unless you feel like you need a break after the marathon effort you wrote over this past month, it would be nice to read your thoughts now rather than in a year.
It could be useful to look back on in a year to see if there were developers that made improvements or touch upon any of the thoughts you have.
If you're up for it then I say do it but I'm okay with waiting as well. You put a lot of work into this thread and we appreciate everything you've done over the past month.
Edit: I ended up voting for Barret in the poll but I'm actually currently replaying DA:I and I'm actually enjoying Vivienne's character a lot more. I still have some problems with her (like the mistress thing) but I think this time I'm just accepting the character as she is instead of what I wanted her to be going in.
Edit: I ended up voting for Barret in the poll but I'm actually currently replaying DA:I and I'm actually enjoying Vivienne's character a lot more. I still have some problems with her (like the mistress thing) but I think this time I'm just accepting the character as she is instead of what I wanted her to be going in.
OP
OP
In a 3-2 vote across Era & Discord, I've decided to split the difference by doing shorter write-ups on each topic that I'd like to see improved. This isn't to say that next year will 100% for-sure cover the topic of how to improve black representation in games. But in case I don't go for that topic, I'd like to at least touch on these points of potential improvement now. So yeah, let's mark the first day with a recurring problem with a number of the characters I wrote about last month.
DAY +1: HAVE BLACK CHARACTERS BE VOICED BY BLACK ACTORS
I'm sure you noticed a trend with a solid chunk of the characters on this list that said characters tend to be voiced by non-black characters. Nadine Ross is probably the most infamous example of this (& one I've mentioned before), being voiced by Laura Bailey (all due respect to Laura, but Naughty Dog should have recast the character as soon as Nadine's design was finalized). In Nintendo's case, most of their PoC characters are voiced by white actors, which is disappointing to see. That's not to discredit the work the actors put in to bring these characters to life, a lot of them did great work. But in an industry that tends to prioritize white actors, it'd be a great effort to give black actors a chance to shine with the few black roles that exist. Of course, this isn't to say that black actors should only voice black roles. My point is that there already aren't a ton of black characters in games. The least the industry can do is to offer such black actors the few black characters that are there, as there isn't nearly enough room to do otherwise with the characters available. This also extends to other PoC roles. Going back to Nintendo, Fire Emblem: Three Houses had a number of Arabic-coded characters, but all those roles were given to white actors. Of course, this isn't a trend that's exclusive to Nintendo, as even the likes of Clementine & Demoman are voiced by white actors. So it's generally something that I hope improves going forward. Looking at Guilty Gear Strive, I hope that Nagoriyuki & Giovanna are voiced by black actors. But given how they made sure to get a black VA for Venom in Xrd Sign, I'm not too worried on this front. Though you get my point overall, let these talented black actors get their time in the sun.
Last edited:
These were some great reads, Neoxon. Thank you for making this thread. Admittedly I'm not familiar with most of these characters outside of the Nintendo ones, but it was a great read nonetheless. Hope more devs read it and take it into account for future games.
In case it missed being a topic of future improvement of black representation, let me throw in my suggestion that I will always stress about forever:
*ahem*
MORE AFROCENTRIC HAIRSTYLES IN CHARACTER CREATORS!
And No, just having nasty cornrows, a comical clown-like afro, and one style of dreads is not enough.
*ahem*
MORE AFROCENTRIC HAIRSTYLES IN CHARACTER CREATORS!
And No, just having nasty cornrows, a comical clown-like afro, and one style of dreads is not enough.
Hire black people. That 1% shit is pathetic.Just curious, would you all like me to cover various things that the industry can improve on with regards to their representation of black characters as extra credit until the Week 4 poll results are finalized, or should I save that for next year?
Also, since Cherry Hunter (narrowly) won the action character poll, here's the new banner.
OP
OP
Funny enough, that's actually the topic of today's discussion.
DAY +2: IMPROVE OPTIONS FOR AFROCENTRIC HAIR STYLESThis can be interpreted in one of two ways. I'll get the obvious one done first, there should be more attention paid to the available options with regards to afrocentric hair styles. We don't all have straight hair, short curly hair, a big afro, & cornrows. We all have a wide assortment of hairstyles that should be taken into consideration. And some games feel content in only giving us the bare minimum, if anything at all. Hell, it took an update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons to give us more than a couple of options with regards to potential hair styles (afros weren't even available at launch). On this front, I have to give Capcom credit for expanding the number of options for black hair styles in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Urban Scholar actually goes into further detail on the topic (as well as skin tones, something I'll go into detail on later this week) here.
Though while I'm on the topic of hair & black people, there's one other thing I'd like to address. *ahem*, UNLESS THE CHARACTER IS OLD, CUT IT OUT WITH THE CONSTANT USE OF WHITE HAIR FOR BLACK CHARACTERS!!!!!! I get that Japanese games like to do non-realistic hair colors for everyone, from blue to green to red to purple. But it says a lot when a solid number of the characters in this thread have white hair while still being young. At least with the likes of Leroy Smith from Tekken & Sojourn from Overwatch, they're pretty old, so their white hair makes sense. But I don't see why the likes of Twintelle or Shinobu couldn't have brown or black hair. And if I may go off-topic for a bit, please give black characters brown eyes more often. That's not to say that black people can't have blue or green eyes, but they're far from common. It just sticks out to me for the likes of Sojourn, Twintelle, Nagoriyuki, & many more.
Dear Video Games Character Creators You Still Need Work
When you’re a person of color, creating an avatar with your skin and hair is often frustrating. Why is that? And are there answers to this?jrous001.medium.com
Yes the fact that Black folks make up 1-2% of the industry is where A LOT of the problems start and stop.
It'll be interesting to see if the industry really does improve things as per their promises from 2020
That's what baffles me honestly. It's become known that some character designers look up various fashion/style magazines to get inspiration for how their characters look. Just add at least a couple black focused magazines in that stack.
That would literally require the following. Talking and actually listening to Black people. And talking to barbers and people. Have yall seen that? Because I sure as hell haven't.
And this is a great point Red
Fucking character creator, the options are slim pickings typically with your traditional fro or braids and that's it...few games have a fade that looks good, and the options are even slimmer if you're a black woman. When these games are made they need to consider multiple options for all races.
Hijacking this thread a bit as a white person, but I too am disappointed by non-black actors voicing black(-coded) characters. Some I can think of are:
Barrett (FFVII Remake, Japan; fixed in English dub)
Marina (Splatoon 2, all regions. Single voice for all regions by a Nihonjin woman)
Urbosa and Riju (BOTW, all regions. Ambiguously black or Arabic but voiced by a Nihonjin/Caucasian either way)
Twintelle (ARMS, all regions. Single voice for all regions by a white French woman)
It's disappointing to see how much rightful backlash titles from the USA like Uncharted (Nadine) are getting, but people are quick to ignore, forgive, or not even know about the mistakes made by games like the four above. I'd say this goes double for E10 games like Zelda, Splatoon, or ARMS, which is a REALLY bad demographic to be teaching the lesson that a person can imitate a voice that they have no cultural ties to and get paid to do so.
(This is less important, but why is it okay for Nintendo to hire an American-Canadian to do Princess Zelda's British accent? Her voice sounds like an American cartoon's attempt for an American to do a British voice, yuck. Didn't we on this side of the pond reject our ties to British royalty? That's not our culture anymore, and even if it was it sounds like a childish imitation on par with your parents doing the voices in bedtime stories, when perfectly fine British [or recently immigrated British to US/Canada] actors exist and know the exact same language. I know that US-to-British racism (culturism?) is negligible but it's still not great how these voice actors' castings encourage tired accent imitations and more jokes like bad teeth, bowler caps, tea-time etc. when Americans should appreciate how they have quite a few overseas cultures who they can communicate with and that any differences from the American way are not ripe material for jokes.)
(Also, sorry for the romanized Japanese terms, but my phone was playing havoc with trying to copy the kanji down.)
Barrett (FFVII Remake, Japan; fixed in English dub)
Marina (Splatoon 2, all regions. Single voice for all regions by a Nihonjin woman)
Urbosa and Riju (BOTW, all regions. Ambiguously black or Arabic but voiced by a Nihonjin/Caucasian either way)
Twintelle (ARMS, all regions. Single voice for all regions by a white French woman)
It's disappointing to see how much rightful backlash titles from the USA like Uncharted (Nadine) are getting, but people are quick to ignore, forgive, or not even know about the mistakes made by games like the four above. I'd say this goes double for E10 games like Zelda, Splatoon, or ARMS, which is a REALLY bad demographic to be teaching the lesson that a person can imitate a voice that they have no cultural ties to and get paid to do so.
(This is less important, but why is it okay for Nintendo to hire an American-Canadian to do Princess Zelda's British accent? Her voice sounds like an American cartoon's attempt for an American to do a British voice, yuck. Didn't we on this side of the pond reject our ties to British royalty? That's not our culture anymore, and even if it was it sounds like a childish imitation on par with your parents doing the voices in bedtime stories, when perfectly fine British [or recently immigrated British to US/Canada] actors exist and know the exact same language. I know that US-to-British racism (culturism?) is negligible but it's still not great how these voice actors' castings encourage tired accent imitations and more jokes like bad teeth, bowler caps, tea-time etc. when Americans should appreciate how they have quite a few overseas cultures who they can communicate with and that any differences from the American way are not ripe material for jokes.)
(Also, sorry for the romanized Japanese terms, but my phone was playing havoc with trying to copy the kanji down.)
OP
OP
Unfortunately, getting Japanese-speaking black actors to do the Japanese lines probably isn't realistic. I'm sure there are Japanese-speaking black people out there (speaking personally, I'm nowhere near fluent enough to do the job despite my acting background), but those who are in the voice acting business are few & far between. That's why I mainly focus on the English voice actors, because there are enough options out there to get black actors for black roles.
Also, the Gerudo people are based on Arabic culture. So the likes of Urbosa & Riju are Arabic-coded, not black. I definitely would've done a write-up for Urbosa if she was black. Though to be clear, representation for minorities in general is never a bad thing.
OP
OP
As for today, another things that's bothered me about how some black characters are depicted in gaming.
DAY +3: TAKE THE TIME TO DEPICT BLACK PEOPLE PROPERLYI've brought this up a few times throughout this thread, but one of my biggest pet peeves is how artists (especially for Japanese games) depict black people with lighter unicolor lips & the same skin tone for their palms. The latter of which is more of a recent annoyance for me when it was pointed out to me not too long ago, but it's begun to stick out like a sore thumb. And so far, only Arc System Works (at least of the Japanese developers that I can immediately recall) put in the effort to include these features......& only for Nagoriyuki for both (Giovanna has a darker top lip, but no lighter palms). And even then, Nagoriyuki's lips were only fixed after they got (justified) criticism for how his lips were originally. Us speaking up about how we actually look is important, as the Nagoriyuki fix proved that the developers do listen. But what's equally important is to put in the proper research to get this stuff right from the get-go. Perhaps there should be more black people in the industry to help draw attention these things ahead of time, but I'll get to that in due time. Anyway, in the case of the lips, said bright unicolor lips are typically a remnant of an offensive racist caricature that's better left in the past (not forgotten, mind you, as people need to remember to never do that again). But the palms part is mostly a thing that goes a long way towards making black people feel properly represented. Of course, these aren't the only things that should be done (hence why this bonus week exists), but they're definitely on the list.
ALL CREDIT FOR THESE IMAGES BELONG TO SUGARYACID (who's no longer on Twitter) & SHORTYBAT FROM TWITTER & DEVIANTART RESPECTIVELY!!!!!
Last edited:
Shit, I need more than that. Some brothas like me wear their hair long.
OP
OP
That's actually the topic of today's discussion.
Special thanks to celes for helping me with the research for this topic.DAY +4: HIRE MORE BLACK EXECUTIVES & DEVELOPERSAs you can probably tell, Sarah Bond is the only prominent recent example who I could immediately recall when I started writing this yesterday (3/3/21). And Sarah most certainly deserves the praise she's gotten thus far, especially given the success of Xbox Game Pass. There are other examples as well, such as former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé (though I'm not exactly fond of his pro-police rhetoric), Ramone Russell from Sony (he works on the MLB games), Andrew Augustin (formerly of EA, but he went on to create Notion Games), Tim Lewinson (development director for Apex Legends over at Respawn), & Dinga Bakaba (director for Deathloop). But it shouldn't be only them. Hell, a lot of the issues with black characters in games (both covered so far & soon to be covered going into the week) can stem from the fact that there aren't a ton of black people in positions of power throughout the industry. I don't just mean executive positions like Sarah, but also in development positions. Looking at the Overwatch 2 behind-the-scenes presentation at BlizzConline, I only recall seeing one black developer. Of course, this is only a snippet of the entire development team. But my point is that we should have more diverse people in positions of power (not just black people, but other people of color as well) to make sure that said minorities are properly represented & that our voices remain heard. And in general, more diversity in the workplace is never a bad thing. This ties back into the thing about the need for more afrocentric hair styles. As was pointed out in this thread, having more black developers & executives would likely result in suggestions like checking barber shops for ideas. This also ties into tomorrow's subject, but I'll leave that for then. All the same, I'm sure you get my point.
Last edited:
See, Neoxon, this is a particular point which would put me in quite a pickle, somewhat in combination with VA point. When targeting global audience on indie level in area where black population is rather invisible, where would you look for black staff?
Like most things, you start by just asking.
Start by by putting out a call to professional Black voice acting talent. Let most things, people have networks and know people all over.
Start by by putting out a call to professional Black voice acting talent. Let most things, people have networks and know people all over.
OP
OP
This is the big one, time to address the big-ass elephant in the room.
Another special thanks to celes for her help with today's topic.DAY +5: CUT IT OUT WITH THE STEREOTYPESSince celes already wrote an amazing thread on the topic of colorist stereotypes, I won't go into too much detail on the topic as she already beat me to it back in January. In case you don't feel like checking the Twintelle write-up, I'll provide a link here. I'll also throw in another article on black women being able to be soft, as it also ties into the topic of today & is generally a great article.
Colorism in video games (Open spoilers)
Before I start: I just want to make it clear that you can like a character, game, an artist, a publisher, etc. in isolation while still acknowledging that looked at within the greater context, that thing you like might be contributing to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes or imagery that...www.resetera.com
These colorist stereotypes do plague the industry, from the hard-as-stone black woman, darker-skinned women always being sexualized to the point of taking away from their characters, & the whole "darker skin = evil" stereotype found in the likes of Kingdom Hearts, NieR: Automata, & even Persona 5 Strikers. But a solid chunk of the characters talked about in this thread are also plagued with a colorist stereotype of some kind. This is especially true with Vivienne, whose hardcore personality & inability to show any sort of softness is very much rooted in the "tough as nails black woman" stereotype. Vivienne far from the only one plagued with these kinds of stereotypes, as Nadine Ross is yet another prominent example of this. But they're just but two example that was covered in the thread (seriously, read it, it's fantastic). Of course, that's not to say that black women can't be tough, but showing more range of emotions would be appreciated. The main solution to this would be to, as mentioned yesterday, get more black developers, writers, & executives (especially black women). While Project Athia has me excited for one of the few leading black ladies in a AAA project from a Japanese developer, the fact that it's being written by a white guy has me concerned for if it'll avoid the aforementioned stereotypes. It doesn't help that there are so few major female writers in the industry, let alone black women. So yeah, the topic of yesterday is pretty much the overarching issue for a lot of this. And of course, I also mean straight-up racist stereotypes, like the racist spirit battles in Smash Ultimate that still haven't been addressed (especially now that the Pyra/Mythra update proved that base game spirits can be altered, something that was left for debate when Spring Man & Twintelle's spirit battles weren't updated with the then-newly-added ARMS tracks). Even if the Villager one was due to a last-minute change to said Villager's alt and the DK one was a result of him & Mr. Sandman being bosses in Punch-Out Wii, they should have taken the time to fix it. And there's really no excuse for Diddy being the rep for Dee Jay. Of course, Smash Ultimate isn't the only example of racist stereotypes, but it's one of the most prominent ones in recent memory (especially considering that it's the only modern fighting game besides DBFZ without a black character, which makes matters worse). But seriously, cut it out. It's annoying.
Yes, Black Girls Are Allowed To Be Soft
“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.
OP
OP
You were probably the first person I could think of, especially considering your work on the colorism thread. Also, here's more information on Smash's racist stereotypes amongst its spirit battles.
Racist Stereotypes in Smash Bros. Ultimates Spirits Mode
I had made a thread about the lack of representation in Smash, but over the past weeks, I've seen some incredibly... suspect (quite frankly, just racist) things in the games spirits mode via twitter/images online that I feel warranted its own thread. It's one thing to have little to no diversity...
www.resetera.com