Agreed with everyone above. First play through he was one of my favorite characters. In all reality, like others, never realised he was black for a while, just concentrated on his character instead. After I realised... I still didn't care, he's a very well thought out character.

As to the Token Black guy... Eh, who really cares. Besides, if anyone, the guy from earlier would be the Token guy, after all, his Pixles showed so, much more than Barret and his love for a child not his own... though like avin, after he called Cloud "fool", I just imagined him with a mister T voice...

You know what? Who cares if he was stereotypical. Its a video game. EVERYTHING in games are stereotyped. Everything in real life is stereotyped.

If anyone was offended by Barret and how he acted, they need to unwad their panties, and realize that everyone gets stereotyped, and everyone HERE stereotypes whether you realize it or not.

Other then that, Barret IS my favorite character in Final Fantasy VII.
How can he be stereotypical when he has a freakin gun for an arm? How many black guys do you know have THAT!