Barret Wallace is a playable character in Final Fantasy VII. He is voiced by Masahiro Kobayashi in the original Japanese publications of the Compilation and by Beau Billingslea in the English dubs. In the original game, Barret is the leader of the paramilitary organization known as AVALANCHE. He is opposed to the use of Shinra’s mako technology, which he believes to be killing the planet. Barret also has a gun-arm, which replaced the hand he lost after an attack by the Shinra Company.
Barret grew up in the small, coal mining village of Corel. He advocated cooperating with Shinra to build a mako reactor in Corel, as he believed that it would lead to an easier life for Corel's people. After the reactor was built — much to the dissatisfaction of Barret's best friend, Dyne, however — anti-Shinra terrorists (also known as "AVALANCHE") attacked the reactor, and — believing that they may have been operating within Corel — Shinra responded to the incident by indiscriminately burning down the town of Corel, killing many citizens, including Barret's wife Myrna. He and Dyne were not in the village as the attack began, and when they tried to return, they were attacked by Shinra troops led by Scarlet. Though Barret survived, his right forearm was hit by gunfire and rendered useless when he tried, in vain, to prevent Dyne from falling off a cliff. Assuming Dyne to have been killed, he adopted Marlene, Dyne's daughter, and then traveled to Midgar. He also had a gun prosthetic grafted to his arm and began seeking revenge on Shinra, eventually becoming the leader of the second incarnation of AVALANCHE. However, he remained ignorant of the full extremity of the former AVALANCHE.
At the beginning of the original Final Fantasy VII, Barret is the leader of a para-military organization known as AVALANCHE. However, the group soon breaks up and Barret chooses to continue his mission to save the planet by joining with Cloud in the battle against Sephiroth. As the game proceeds, Barret maintains his hate for Shinra and what it is doing to the planet, but he also begins to regret his actions as the leader of AVALANCHE and mourns the loss of its members in Midgar.
Following the defeat of Sephiroth and the end of Meteor's threat, Barret traveled the world aiming to rebuild the planet's infrastructure and find new power sources to replace Mako. In Advent Children it is revealed that these efforts led to the discovery of oil. Barret also joins in the fight against Bahamut SIN. He later plays a part in aiding the World Regenesis Organization as shown in the game Dirge of Cerberus.