Henry & Sam

Henry

Gender	Male
Race	Human
Age	25[1]
Known Relatives	Sam (brother) †
Status	Deceased
Location	Hartford(Formerly) Pittsburgh

Sam

Gender	Male
Race	Human
Age	13[1]
Known Relatives	Henry (brother) †
Status	Deceased
Location	Hartford(Formerly) Pittsburgh

When I started playing Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us”, I had no idea that it would have any African-American characters, let alone three. Given the post apocalyptic them, I believed the only [living] characters in the entire game would be the two central characters Joel and Ellie. With a title like; “Last of Us”, You would think that to be true.  Turns out, there are tons of others. The game is full of Humans that you will get to meet; good and bad(mostly bad though).  The atmosphere of the game puts you in the mind of television’s “The Walking Dead”; mankind’s moral compass has gone to hell and there are things out there that like to feed on humans. However,  Clickers are a lot faster and stronger than Walkers(these things literally fights back). Towards the end of the game(mid-Summer season), Joel and Ellie cross paths with the Big Brother-Younger Brother duo, Henry and Sam.

To consider these brothers minor characters is a bit much.  They are only a part of the game for one chapter. Even though they appear just for a short time, Henry and Sam are some of the best portrayal of  African-Americans in video games I have seen in a while.  Some developers and writers have a difficult time making minority characters seem…..well…. authentic.  They are either not ethnic enough or too stereotypical (We get it Square! Barret and Sazh are BLACK!). That’s not the case for these two, in fact, they break a lot of stereotypes. Though little is known about them, Henry, 25, comes off as someone who has had a proper upbringing. He talks about his family’s BBQs and showcases a non-ruthless behavior. Which is rare considering the state of the world the game takes place in. He even showcases more of a moral code than both Ellie and Joel by forbidden his brother to “steal” from abandoned buildings and dead bodies.

The characters, though originally intended to be white, appear to be modeled off of the voice actors;                                                  Brandon Scott(Henry) and Nadji Jeter(Sam)

Can't really find any Cosplay of them, but found a cool drawing

[SPOILER ALERT:] Only negative thing I will say about them is the way they exist the game. It's like they were brought into the game just to die. Unlike the other [good] characters our protagonist  meet during their adventure, the brothers provide nothing to the story-line, other than heart-breaking endings. The death of Henry&Sam would have cracked my top 5 Saddest Videogame deaths had they showed more. As soon as Henry drops dead, the screen goes black and then the time is forwarded to the Winter season.

Sazh Katzroy

Kana	サッズ・カッツロイ
Rōmaji	Sazzu Kattsuroi
Age	40 (Final Fantasy XIII) ca. 42 (Final Fantasy XIII-2) ca. 542 (Lightning Returns)
Weapon	Vega 42s (Two pistols)
Ultimate Weapon	Total Eclipses
Eidolon	Brynhildr
Height	6' 2" (189 cm) (Including afro) [1]
Laterality	Ambidextrous
Home	Unknown
Crystarium Color	Orange
Primary Roles	Commando, Ravager, Synergist
Exclusive Skill	Cold Blood
Japanese Voice actor(s)	Masashi Ebara
English Voice actor(s)	Reno Wilson
Final Fantasy XIII Character

Speaking of Final Fantasy, Sazh Katzroy is next

Needless to say I’m not the biggest Final Fantasy 13 supporter or of its characters. I literally play for about 30 minutes and then stopped. Wasn’t a fan of the story nor its lead character(Lighting) and as everyone knows, a Final Fantasy game is only as good as its lead character and story.

Unlike Barret, Sazh is not as strong or as arrogant; in fact he provides comic relief. Rumor has it that the personality of the character was modeled after Eddie Murphy and physically was modeled after Lionel Richie. 

However, like Barret he comes with a heavy dose of black stereotypes. Like Barret he's a single father and comes off as least educated or least aware than the other characters. Let's not forget he's 40 and is more "youthful" than the teens and 20-somethings" on the game's roster.

Originally Sazh started out as a white(or at least lighter skinned) character named “Baz”. After a few more drafts, we got the character we see today.

Sazh is voiced by actor Reno Wilson

Wilson also provides the voices of Killer B and SSGT Damien Knox

Barret Wallace

First game	Final Fantasy VII(1997)
Designed by	Tetsuya Nomura
Voiced by (English)	Beau Billingslea[1]
Voiced by (Japanese)	Masahiro Kobayashi[2]
Fictional profile
Weapon	Gun arm
Home	Corel

Barrett,whom I changed name to Bubba, Wallace was the first African-American character in the Final Fantasy series. It's been rumored that we was modeled after Mister T.

Other than him being black, and being the leader of AVALANCHE, I really didn't care for him much in FFVII. He was too tough on Cloud(the main/controllable character). Also, he was strong but weak i battle(at least for me seeings has I hardly ever had him in my party).

But in "Advent Children" he got a much need makeover

and was voiced by actor Beau Billingslea

and was far more likable.

Some bio:

Final Fantasy VII

First seen in Final Fantasy VII in 1997, Barret is introduced as the leader of the eco-terrorist organization AVALANCHE. Situated in city of Midgar, his group opposes the ruling company, Shinra, and their use of "Mako" energy as a power source, believing it to be killing the Planet. To this end, AVALANCHE bombs their Mako reactors, with the specific goal of saving the Planet.^[11] When the game begins, they have just hired the mercenary Cloud Strife at the behest of his childhood friend and AVALANCHE member Tifa Lockhart,^[13] nicknaming him "Spiky" in reference to his hairstyle.^[14] After the deaths of several members of AVALANCHE, Barret follows Cloud out of Midgar in pursuit of the game's villain, Sephiroth.^[11]

Along the way he encounters a former friend of his, Dyne, armed in a manner similar to him, who forces Barret to fight him. Upon Barret defeating Dyne, Dyne kills himself. Through flashbacks it is revealed that Shinra had wanted to build a Mako reactor in his home town of Corel, an idea Barret advocated. However due to an accident at the plant, Shinra razed the town, killing Barret's wife in the process, and causing Barret and Dyne to flee with Dyne's daughter, Marlene. Cornered, Dyne slipped off a cliff and Barret grabbed his hand, but Shinra soldier's opened fire, and destroyed Barret's and Dyne's right and left hands respectively, causing the latter to fall to his presumed death.^[11] Barret adopted Marlene as his own daughter, had an "adapter" graft to his arm to interface with prosthetic weapons to aid in his combat against Shinra, and founded AVALANCHE.^[15] Dyne's death causes him to admit his grudge with Shinra is solely for revenge, with his earlier claims of "saving the world" meant only to convince himself he was fighting for the greater good. Barret eventually shifts his goal to actually wanting to save the Planet, doing so for Marlene's sake, and he helps Cloud and his allies defeat Sephiroth to prevent the Planet's destruction.^[11]

Early drafts of Barret's background featured subtle differences, such as Marlene intended as Barret's biological daughter, and his wife executed in front of him by a then-undecided Shinra executive. The attack on Corel was initially written to be due to the discovery of Mako energy and Shinra's desire to keep its existence a secret. His reunion with Dyne was also different, written to culminate in a duel between the two in Corel's ruins, while Cloud and the others fought investigating Shinra soldiers.^[6]

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

Barret appears in Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, a 2005 mobile phone-based prequel to the events of Final Fantasy VII, which shows the events prior to Corel's destruction. He helps the game's protagonists, the Turks, defend the Mako reactor, believing it to be the town's future.^[11] It is revealed that the reactor is under attack by the original AVALANCHE group, who are the cause of Shinra's attack upon the town. Unaware of their involvement, Barret uses their ideals to form his own branch of the group.^[16]

In 2005, Barret appeared in the CGI film Advent Children, which details the events two years after Sephiroth's defeat. Barret places Marlene in Tifa's care, travelling the world to rebuild the planet's infrastructure and find alternate power sources to replace Mako.^[14] He returns later to assist in combating the film's villains, the Remnants and fight the summon creature Bahamut SIN. He later appears in a small role in the 2006 video game Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, set one year after Advent Children, where he helps the protagonist Vincent Valentine prevent Omega WEAPON from destroying the planet.^[11]

A novella entitled "Case of Barret" was released in 2007 exclusively for the "Limited Edition Collector's Set" DVD edition of Advent Children. Written by Kazushige Nojima as part of the On the Way to a Smile series, it details the events between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, examining Barret's reaction to his weapon and his belief that it made him a monster. At the conclusion of the story, Barret visits the creator of the adapter on his wrist and receives the prosthetic hand/gun combination seen in the film, reasoning that although he needs a hand, he also still needs a weapon to prevent others from having to fight. He then decides to return to Marlene.^[15]

Some, Cosplay Barrets

Probably the best