Vincent Valentine
Template:FFVII character Vincent Valentine is one of two hidden characters in the PlayStation RPG Final Fantasy VII, the other being Yuffie Kisaragi. He has also appeared in the fighting game Ehrgeiz and is the main character in the upcoming game Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. He also serves as a supporting character in the CGI follow-up to Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, where is voiced by Shougo Suzuki in the Japanese version and Steve Blum in the English version.
He appears as a tall, brooding man with long, unkempt black hair wearing a ragged red cloak over black clothes. His left arm below the elbow is covered by a metal gauntlet terminating in formidable claws.¹ His cloak covers the lower half of his face and is held closed by a series of buckles. His eyes are distinctly coloured red. As of Advent Children, his weapon of choice has been retconned to a triple-barrel gun named "Cerberus," reflected in the silver chain that hangs from the hilt of his gun shaped in the form of the mythological creature of the same name. He is also a popular example of a bishounen.
To obtain Vincent as a playable character, players must follow a series of clues in the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim, allowing them to first acquire the combination to a safe located in the mansion. Upon opening the safe, the party must fight a difficult monster called "Lost Number." Once Lost Number is defeated, the player obtains the Odin materia and a basement key. The player can then speak to Vincent in the basement and convince him to join the party.
Background
Vincent was once a member of the Turks. When he was assigned to supervise a project spear-headed by his father Grimoire, he fell in love with a scientist named "Lucrecia Crescent," an assistant to his father. However, despite their feelings for one other, the two parted ways when Grimoire died saving Lucrecia's life. Vincent would later meet her for a second time while assigned to supervise the Jenova Project in Nibelheim, where she was serving as an assistant to Professor Gast. There, Vincent tried expressing his feelings to her, but she rejected him out of guilt over Grimoire's death, ultimately entering a relationship with her associate Hojo instead. Lucrecia became pregnant afterwards, supplying a test subject for the Jenova Project's intentions to investigate the effect of Jenova cells on an unborn child.
Vincent objected to the use of humans—especially Lucrecia and her unborn child, whose parentage he was uncertain of—as live test subjects. Even so, in the interest of science, Lucrecia proceeded with the treatment and suffered various ill effects as a result. Outraged, Vincent confronted Hojo in the Shinra Mansion's underground laboratory and a heated argument ensued. Hojo ended this confrontation by pulling a gun from his lab coat and shooting Vincent down in cold blood. Vincent's body was placed in a large experimental capsule for use in Hojo's experiments based on Lucrecia's research of the Lifestream, originating from the time of her assistance to Grimoire. While Hojo's experimentation resulted in Galian Beast, Hellmasker, and Death Gigas (creatures he can transform into) becoming part of Vincent's anatomy, Lucrecia exposed Vincent's body to G Substance, a contaminated form of mako, and he became Chaos, an entity intended to pave the way for Omega WEAPON by killing all living things.
Under the influence of Chaos, Vincent became consumed in feral rage and broke out of his confinement. Lucrecia then used a materia that could control Chaos' power to calm Vincent and place him in a deep slumber. By the time Vincent reawakened on the operating table—with Hojo and Lucrecia nowhere in sight—he responded to his modified body with both anguish and rage. Later, during the time frame of the game, Vincent is discovered by Cloud's party in a locked room in the basement of the mansion. Here, he had been slumbering inside a coffin for some 23 years as a self-inflicted punishment for his inability to prevent the Jenova Project, which Vincent referred to as his "sin."[1] He then joins AVALANCHE in their quest to stop Sephiroth.
Characteristics and abilities
Vincent, while not the most physically powerful character in Final Fantasy VII, is a skilled gunslinger and can cast magic well, making him an ideal distance fighter. His weapons include various firearms, each described in-game as "Long-Range Weapon".
Due to Hojo and Lucrecia's anatomic reconstruction of Vincent, he does not age² and possesses a number of supernatural abilities, including metamorphosis and the ability to fly. In Final Fantasy VII, Vincent transforms into four different creatures as part of his limit breaks: a bipedal version of a Final Fantasy VII Behemoth, the Galian Beast; the Frankenstein's monster-like Death Gigas; Hellmasker, an homage to Jason Voorhees; and the bat-like Chaos. After transforming, Vincent enters a berserk rage and performs extremely powerful attacks. In Advent Children, Vincent also assumes a previously unseen amorphous red form, evocative of his cloak. In Dirge of Cerberus, the Galian Beast was remodled into a more humanoid form, and Chaos was altered to give Vincent more demonic features, such as white skin, yellow eyes, spiked hair, and frayed bat-like wings.
Theories
- A once popular fan theory held that Vincent is actually Sephiroth's biological father. However, the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega guide explicitly states that Hojo is the real father, debunking this.[2]
- Another unsubstantiated theory speculates that Vincent may be a vampire of some kind, though there is nothing but superficial evidence to support this notion. Vincent's mannerisms and appearance are reminiscent of a stereotypical vampire—for instance, he is first found sleeping in a coffin—but he displays no aversion to sunlight nor any other characteristics closely associated with vampirism.
- It is somewhat ambiguous precisely what happened between Vincent's awakening in the laboratory and the beginning of his extended slumber. In a note written by Hojo—the first clue provided for locating Vincent—he claims to have put Vincent to sleep in the basement himself. However, Vincent's own attitude towards his slumber implies that his slumber was voluntary rather than imposed. One possibility is that after Vincent awakened to find himself alone, he retreated to one of the coffins in the basement, and all Hojo—returning at an unspecificed time—then needed to do was lock the door and hide the key. This explanation would give Vincent time to assemble his trademark attire—which closely resembles that worn by his father—a detail not easily accounted for otherwise.
- Aside from his connections with Lucrecia, Gast, and Hojo in Nibelheim—as illustrated in flashbacks in Final Fantasy VII and Dirge of Cerberus—Vincent will comment upon seeing Yuffie for the first time that her weapon looks familiar to him. This has lead some fans to a belief he may have had connections to Wutai at some point, whether in his official duties as a Turk during the Midgar-Wutai conflicts or, perhaps, as a point of origin.
Other appearances
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Vincent serves as a supporting character in the film, playing a larger role than many of the other main Final Fantasy VII characters who make appearances. In the two years since the end of the game, Vincent has been traveling the world alone. He first appears to rescue Cloud from an ill-fated battle with the three primary antagonists in the forest outside the Forgotten Capital, and reveals to him that he rescued Tseng and Elena of the Turks after their torture at the hands of Kadaj's gang. He further reveals the nature of Geostigma, a disease from which many suffer, and that he's learned that the Shin-Ra have discovered the remains of Jenova, which Kadaj and his gang are desperately seeking. He later participates in the battle against Bahamut SIN.
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII takes place one year after Advent Children. The game details Vincent's past and more on his anguish and sorrow, as well as focuses on a new group of antagonists—the Deep Ground Soldiers—who seem to have some connection to Lucrecia. The rest of the original surviving cast of Final Fantasy VII also appear, though their roles range from small supporting appearances (Cloud, Barret, Tifa and Red XIII) to larger roles (Yuffie, Cid and Reeve Tuesti).
Vincent is able to transform in Dirge of Cerberus, as he did with his limit breaks from the original game, though only the Galian Beast and Chaos forms appear in the game.
Ehrgeiz
Vincent is a playable character in the PlayStation version of Ehrgeiz along with Tifa, Cloud, Sephiroth, Yuffie and Zack, though—like the other Final Fantasy VII characters featured in the game—he has no storyline in the game. His alternate costume is his Turk uniform seen in flashbacks in the original game.
Trivia
- The brooding, lovelorn Vincent is believed by some fans to have been named after Vincent Price and Saint Valentine, the former being a horror film legend while the latter was a crusading martyr who has come to be associated with romance.
- Vincent's love, Lucrecia, is believed by some fans to have been named after the mythical historical figure Lucretia, who was raped by a Roman prince and subsequently committed suicide. Classical legend claims that it was her death which brought about the bloody Roman civil war that transformed Rome from a monarchy into a republic. The Lucrecia in Final Fantasy VII was also exploited to great and tragic effect by the Shin-Ra Corporation; incidentally, the second kanji in "Shin-Ra" is often used to represent Rome in Japanese.
- Due to the fact that Vincent and Yuffie Kisaragi are optional characters, they are not featured in any FMVs, including the ending sequence. Nomura stated in an interview that Dirge of Cerberus would reveal a reason for their asbence, with the explanation being that—while Cloud and the others remained on the Highwind after the final battle with Sephiroth—Vincent and Yuffie oversaw the evacuation of civilians within Midgar as Meteor approached.
- The phone Vincent carries in Dirge of Cerberus is a reference to a couple of points of comedy relief in Advent Children, in which Cloud tells the phone-less Vincent that he'll give him a call, with Vincent later asking Tifa where he can find a phone salesman.
Footnotes
¹It has been previously suggested that this is an entirely mechanical prosthetic, but the refined character design used in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus shows that there is an ordinary, albeit gloved, hand underneath the golden claws, presumably attached to a similarly ordinary arm. It is also interesting to note that brass claws are an ancient Greek chararacteristic typical to monsters (such as gorgons, with brass claws and wings), which would be in line with Vincent's monstrous associations.
²Vincent's age, as provided in official materials, never changes: It remains fixed at 27, which is presumably how old he was when Hojo altered him. In contrast, the other main characters do age, which can be easily confirmed by comparing their ages in the game to those provided for Advent Children, which occurs two years after Final Fantasy VII. Further, Vincent's character designer, Tetsuya Nomura, has stated that Vincent was left immortal due to the experimentation conducted on him.[1]
References
External links
Template:FFVII character external links
- Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Translations FAQ - Translations from the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega