The Final Fantasy series will celebrate its 30th anniversary later this year, and seeing as the latest release, Final Fantasy XV, seems to be another home run for Square-Enix, it’s clear the series is still going strong. But with how long the series has been around, did you know about the first playable black character in the franchise?

Barret Wallace appeared in Final Fantasy VII and was the first playable character of color in the series. He was first introduced in the game as an eco-terrorist bent on revenge against the Shinra corporation, who had inadvertently killed both Barret’s wife and best friend. While he leads his group, AVALANCHE, against Shinra, he eventually teams up with Cloud and company in order to pursue the villain Sephiroth and save the world.

Barret was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, and was one of the first three characters created for the game (the other two being Cloud and Aerith). His name was based on the Japanese transliteration of the word “bullet” – which makes sense, given that one of his arms is a gun. His appearance in Final Fantasy VII drew both praise and a lot of criticism, with many people thinking that he looked too much like Mr. T or was otherwise a stereotype of the black community. The heavy slang that was used in his dialog certainly didn’t help things; however, his personal storyline drew a lot of positive attention. The criticism regarding Barret’s original design led to a redesign for the Advent Children film, which was better received.

Despite some mixed reception regarding what Barret actually looked like, Final Fantasy fans have taken a shine to the character, and he remains one of the more popular supporting characters in the franchise. And with a remake of Final Fantasy VII announced and in the works, it’s clear that Barret’s day in the spotlight isn’t quite over yet.