Square Enix / Trophygamers (YouTube)

Think about that for a second. Most dad stories in games (shit, in general) are about people who have to overcome their baggage in order to be better fathers for their children. It would have been too easy, expected even, for Barret to fall into that same trap. But Barret did the reading from day one and said the inherited trauma stops with me.

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There’s also a prevailing myth of the absent Black father that states Black dads are more likely than others to abandon their children. But Final Fantasy said “nah” to that bullshit, depicting a Black man utterly devoted to a child that wasn’t even his own blood way back in 1997. And yet, for all that, he’s barely mentioned in nearly every glowing post written about “good video game dads.”

Long before gaming culture at large obsessed over dads (and daddies) Final Fantasy quietly created two revolutionary, Black fathers that broke molds. I know I’m several months early for a post about dads. But it is Black History month and I do think we need to show a bit more love to these Black fathers.