The Loss of Secret Characters

Best Secrect Character?

  • Vincent Valentine

    Votes: 20 69.0%

  • Yuffie Kisaragi

    Votes: 9 31.0%
  • Total voters
    29
J

JasonsBasement

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One of my favorite things about Final Fantasy VII is the use of Secret Characters. Of course I'm talking about Yuffie and Vincent. They end up playing very crucial roles in the game, but you can complete the game without them in your party. I know the first time I played the game I didn't get either character - How did you find out about Yuffie and Vincent? Did you play through Final Fantasy VII without them? Lastly, Vincent played massive roles in almost all of the spin off games - Why do you think Square chose to follow Vincent's story so much seeing how he could have been passed over in the original game?
 
Well I first played the PC version of the game which was released after the console version. The existence of both Yuffie and Vincent were spoiled for me so I knew where to find them on my first playthrough. As for why Vincent is so popular, I think it's because he had the whole solemn, supernatural vampire thing going for him. His popularity, combined with the fact that his weapon is a gun, made him the perfect candidate for the shooter game that the producers wanted to make. Despite my mixed feelings about DoC's gameplay, I was all for the creation of a Vincent game when it was announced. If SE decided to announce a Yuffie game, however, I'd probably never bother picking it up.
 
I didn't manage to acquire Yuffie on my first playthrough because I didn't even know she existed! I happened to come across Vincent by chance and ended up getting him in my party. When I replayed the game I bought myself a guide just to get as many secret items etc. as possible and ended up finding Yuffie.

I agree with Alak on the Vincent matter. His popularity probably comes from peoples love of dark, silent characters with interesting pasts. That and his golden shoes....
 
JasonsBasement said:
One of my favorite things about Final Fantasy VII is the use of Secret Characters. Of course I'm talking about Yuffie and Vincent. They end up playing very crucial roles in the game, but you can complete the game without them in your party. I know the first time I played the game I didn't get either character - How did you find out about Yuffie and Vincent? Did you play through Final Fantasy VII without them? Lastly, Vincent played massive roles in almost all of the spin off games - Why do you think Square chose to follow Vincent's story so much seeing how he could have been passed over in the original game?
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I used both of them a lot because they kicked ass-- I remember finding Yuffie by accident and then reading about Vincent online waaaay back in the day.

That said, when it comes to the original game, I don't think they add too much to the plot. They have their own little sidestories but don't add much in the way of the main plotline. Vincent's backstory can add little tidbits to the main plot to make it more interesting, but he's not necessary, I don't think.

I'll be totally honest when I say I think Vincent's story was followed simply for fanservice reasons :P he was a fan-favorite, with his cold, quiet, tormented badass attitude. People LOVE these kinds of characters. He wasn't too hard on the eyes either, so that earned him some points, too... :P
 
I knew about them both before I played the game but I never knew they were secret. I just happened to run into Yuffie in the forest and got her xD I wanted Vincent because I liked his character design the best so I looked it up online how to get him. ^_^ I hate FFVII spin-offs. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Especially when they develop one random character's story like Vincent/Zack. It has me asking if they're going to go back and create a spin-off for Tifa or Barret or Red XIII. No thank you. I actually would buy a game about Yuffie though. She was hilarious.
 
My first playthrough I found Yuffie. I was curious about her and spent a while trying to answer her questions correct before I gave up and used google :) thought I'd get an item or something, had no idea she was a playable character. Didn't find out about Vincent until I'd completed the game lol made sure to get him the next time I played though. He. Is. Awesome!

Xx..xX
 
Got Yuffie when I first reached Fort Condor in some nearby Forrest area. As for Vincent, I always knew there was something of substantial importance inside the locked door even from back when Cloud tells his story to the team in Kalm but never managed to get the safe open in the mansion when I reached Nibelheim and it frustrated the life outta me.

Back then you couldn't simply jump on your PC and browse google for the answers as you most likely didn't have one to browse.. God I feel old now.

Even so, I liked it better that way. I think if I simply looked up the answers back then it would've ruined my experience of the game. I relished being challenged, and FF's gave me that in abundance. It was so good infact that me and my friends would challenge each other to get materia, items, etc over the other. Then Chris ended up with 2 Odin's which stumped me for years as he refused to tell me how he got it... Anyway I'm ranting now aren't I? Apologies.

I eventually obtained Vincent in my second playthrough by reading through the notes wich had the safes clues in them and in terms of his story being evolved into spin-offs I thought it was a rather good idea. Vincent was a likeable character that was cool, dark and mysterious who you felt knew ALOT MORE than he was giving off, and that in-turn made you want to know more about him. Wether Squaresoft intentionally done this I don't know. But it worked if you ask me.

I do think his story could've been brought about in a better fashion in Dirge of Cerberus but my complaints in that department are minimal.



 
Climhazzard said:


Back then you couldn't simply jump on your PC and browse google for the answers as you most likely didn't have one to browse.. God I feel old now.

Even so, I liked it better that way. I think if I simply looked up the answers back then it would've ruined my experience of the game. I relished being challenged, and FF's gave me that in abundance. It was so good infact that me and my friends would challenge each other to get materia, items, etc over the other. Then Chris ended up with 2 Odin's which stumped me for years as he refused to tell me how he got it... Anyway I'm ranting now aren't I? Apologies.

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The ability to not get the answers right away to these questions changed the way I played. I had no clue who either of these Characters were the first time through. I completely missed them. Once I found Yuffie I of course had no clue how to ACTUALLY get her in my party either. So I had the conversation part like 10 times to get it right.

I'm the only one who voted for Yuffie?! Lame!
 
My favourite of the two is Yuffie. Vincent's alright, but his limit takes away control.
I didn't have a clue about any of the game when I played first time. I had a random encounter against Yuffie entirely by accident and kept answering questions until I got them right (it took a while).
As for Vincent, I finished the game without knowing about him. I found the whole sidequest and everything, but stopped at the safe because I thought the reward for the sidequest was just Odin and...that other item in the safe. I thought that was the end.

I think Vincent was in so many spin offs is because he was a fan favourite for so many people. Also, he did have quite an interesting back story and was just interesting in general, I think.
 
I didnt even realise Yuffie was an opional character as my first play through I just came across her by chance relatively early on, I think I just got really lucky and she was the first encounter when I wandered in a forest near fort condor

Obviously I choose the wrong conversation combination and she swanned off on me a couple of times before I finally got her in my party. But I just assumed this was part of the story and that I had to get her. DidNT occur to me I could have just let her go and be on my way. When I went to Wutai, I didnt realsie that was all optional either. I was stuck there for AGES my first play through. She is one infuriating cow

Vincent I had no idea about. that was one for the guide unfortunate4ly.

I like both characters, despite them being optional, i think they were given good back stories - and I think they have chosen to concentrate on vincent in future installments because there was a lot of potential there to work with. His story was interesting. I liked Yuffies too, even if it was a little less in depth, it was still interesting and tied her very nicely into th3e story rather than just feeling like she was com[pletely random
 
I think Vincent clearly has the more interesting back story but I preferred Yuffie as an actual character. Theres only so much negativity you can stand; Vincent is just dull and his limit breaks are shit so I never really used him in battle either. Yuffie brought a cheeky spark to the party but here backstory wasn't much, especially as she is so young.

Like many others; I found Yuffie on my first playthrough through trial and error and found Vincent on my second when I was a bit older.

I wouldn't mind a return of stuff like that. People say that all FF games are linear but you don't see as many minigames and extras like hidden characters that lessen the linearity in modern FFs. I think voice acting limits how easy this is. If you have 2 secret characters that's 2 new cutscenes you need to make.
 
I found Yuffie completely random my first playthrough and I was like "wtf is with this Indian girl asking me questions?" Vincent I never got until my 2nd or 3rd playthrough of the game because I never really payed any attention to the safe in the Shinra mansion so I always just overlooked it. I can remember how infuriating that boss fight was with that purple/red dude. God damn that thing was an absolute pain in my arse and was on par with Demon Wall for being my toughest boss fight.

I will say in combat that I will always prefer Yuffie over Vincent. She was an absolute beast whenever you got in fights and was strong as hell, whereas Vincent I found to be quite garbage myself. Especially his ultimate weapon the Death Penalty. You'd think with that name that weapon would be pretty bitchin right? WRONG! I read of something that said to up his damage you have to kill a certain quota of enemies with that weapon? Ain't nobody got time to run around and kill weak monsters to up damage.

Combat wise: Yuffie>Vincent
Story wise: Vincent>Yuffie
 
I prefer Vincent Valentine because I think his Limit Breaks are pretty badass. I had to use a walkthrough guide to help me get him on my second playthrough though; I had no idea about the safe code and secret boss and everything.
 
I'd keep Yuffie... even though she made me hate her. Heck, I'd almost be willing to have her as a secret boss since I wanted to beat the crap out of her after that whole Wutai incident. I never liked Vincent too much. His story seemed kinda weak (he let Hojo knock up the woman he was in love with) and you couldn't control him after his limit breaks. Yuffie brought more emotion into it, and Vincent seemed kinda boring to me.
 
I always liked Yuffie. She is has the best base magic (after Cloud, who usually becomes my tank, and Aeris, who, you know...), so she has always been one of my main three that I always use.

One thing I don't like about the optional characters is how little they contribute to the bigger scenes in the story. Obviously, the script has been written in such a way so that without their lines, the big group scenes would still make sense. Personally I don't think it would have been that much of a problem to rewrite the bigger scenes slightly to make Yuffie/Vincent's contributions a little more important if the player had picked up those characters.
 
I did managed to get them both in one of my safe files. I voted for Vincent over Yuffie because of a few reasons. He is a long range character, has a unique ultimate weapon and his storyline was quite interesting. Don't get me wrong, I also used Yuffie for stealing items and morphing monsters do to her high dexterity. She is the perfect character for the job.

But still, Vincent is my top choice. Yuffie was a bit harder to obtain because you had to select the right answers for her questions in order for you to add her to your party. Also her sidequest was a bit longer than Vincent's.
 
I was thinking about this recently, the thing is, the characters are pretty accessible - Yuffie being found in a random bush ( I usually get her near Fort Condor) & Vincent at the bottom of the Mansion where you go for a story part anyways. I just can't imagine playing through Final Fantasy VII without them - Yuffie's side story in Wutai being one of my favourite parts of the game!

I then look at VI which also had secret characters and to be honest all the characters which are noteworthy are very accessible - I'd say Shadow is the only one you really have to go out of your way to get. There are characters like Umbro & Gogo... but their characters lack any sense of relevance or presence to the story that I usually don't bother.

So when it comes to secret characters... I don't think I would want them. The last thing I would want for Final Fantasy is for it to be like an early Star Ocean game in which you can miss out on so much of the games depth and party members from it's obscure Private Action system. After playing Star Ocean 2 and then look at all the content I missed out on I was pretty peeved.
 
I found Yuffie the first time by accident. When I started playing, a friend of mine down the street also had the game and was also playing it. I watched him get Vincent. So, I went and got Vincent. To this day, I still have that locker combination memorized. I've actually considered getting it tattooed.
 
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I can't imagine missing Yuffie at all. Vincent at least has some relevance to the overall backstory, which adds some interest to his character. I've never felt like Yuffie had any kind of relevance to the game at all, even when you take the Wutai side story into account.

I can't remember how I knew about them both way back then but I did know they were available. Took me ages to be able to beat the boss in the safe to get Vincent, which just made getting him all the more rewarding. But getting Yuffie (the first time at least) was an exercise in annoying repetitiveness. Her character didn't get any better either; I never warmed to her and just found her irritating. In battle I always used to quite like Vincent, probably because he had a gun, which was oddly different for the world, but also because his limit break was so different to everyone else's. Looking back his limit break is just pointless as it effectively weakens your party, but I guess that adds an extra bit of a challenge to it all. But Yuffie, again, has absolutely nothing going for her. Her ultimate limit break wasn't even her strongest one! What on Earth is the point of her?
 
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