Vincent Valentine

History

Vincent was once a member of the Turks, then known as the Shinra Manufacturing Department of "Administrative Research" having relatively shorter hair than his current appearance and wearing a black suit.

Vincent has a dark past, one that he carries with him every single day of his life. As a turk he underwent and took care of a lot of business, maybe even more than he wanted to see in his lifetime. One of his last missions was to supervise the Jenova Project in Nibelheim. It was here where he met a scientist who would then complicate his life, Lucrecia Crescent the only woman he ever loved. It was here where they decided to share a future together, but as a scientist her work came first. She decided to be injected with Jenova cells as an experiment and carry this child.

Over time, she began to see visions of what her son would become and became very sick in the process. Her son being the one they call Sephiroth. Vincent confronted Hojo on the matter, which would result in him getting shot by the mad doctor. A down and unconscious Vincent was then used in a certain experiment by the Doctor. This resulted in a few drastic changes giving him the abilities of immortality, strength, stamina, healing, as well as the will or curse to transform into powerful beasts. This left Vincent in a lifeless state, and the experiment was labeled as a failure.

After regaining consciousness in the mansion and left for dead, Vincent was to remain there with nothing to do but sleep and relive the nightmares in his dreams with every passing moment. With a fondness of the darkness he remained in the basement of the Shinra mansion only to find that he has taken drastic changes from his last memories known to be human. Vincent became shocked at what he had become. He regretted not taking the situation before with a higher regard. Vincent believed that this was payment and his sin, not being able to save his love, Lucrecia.

To further his punishment, he locked himself in one of the coffins in the Shinra manor basement to sleep to be some sort of atonement for what he had done. He decided to stay there and sleep away the rest of his life as a way to repay for his dark sin of letting the one named Sephiroth into the world. Alone in a coffin with just his nightmare, he is awoken one day by a man named Cloud Strife and is convinced to join them in bringing Sephiroth and the company that made him this way to an end.

Appearance

Vincent is a man physically in his late 20s, and stands roughly six feet tall. He has crimson eyes and long black hair that streams about wildly at times. He wears a red band over his head with his fringe emerging over it. Vincent's most distinctive feature is his tattered red cape, held in place over his shoulders and lower face by several buckles. Underneath his cape, Vincent's attire is black with several straps and buckles. Vincent wears a holster for his gun against his right leg, and pointed metallic boots. He also wears a golden gauntlet on his left arm. His weapon of choice is the Cerberus, a three-barreled revolver. Vincent has kept this look in all his appearances, with subtle variations.

In Advent Children, Vincent's cloak was meant to have an organic feel to it and was difficult to animate. Furthermore, the developers decided that changing his costume would be conflicting with his character, so Vincent was the only living character in the film to appear the same as he had in Final Fantasy VII, although there are still minor changes, such as a full bodysuit and a glove completely covering his previously partially bare right arm.

In Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent's Galian Beast and Chaos forms incorporate his design into them; Galian Beast, for example, is wearing a shorter version of Vincent's cloak as a kilt, while Chaos's feet resemble Vincent's boots.

Personality

Dark and brooding over his past "sins", Vincent carries many burdens and secrets. Despite his cold personality, he is not uncaring: at a point where Cloud admits he thought Vincent was cold and did not care about the Planet, Vincent casually brushes off the remark. He also has a soft spot for Lucrecia, referring to her as a beautiful lady. He fiercely despises Hojo for his various immoral actions, and it is the promise of meeting him that stirs him to accompany the party in Final Fantasy VII. Vincent is reluctant to speak, although when he does, he typically has something important to say.

Nojima has noted that Vincent is naturally a loner, and had he not been a former ally of Cloud and his friends, he probably would not have joined them to fight Bahamut SIN in Advent Children. His voice actor, Shougo Suzuki, noted that Vincent's few appearances had a profound impact each time they occur, and that Tifa's remark "they're our friends", after Vincent's arrival, shows his underlying warmth. He was also noted to be similar to Cloud, only more mature and older, which influenced his character and voice work. Vincent was originally intended to appear inKingdom Hearts with Cloud, but it was decided to remove him due to similar brooding personalities. Because of this, aspects of his design were worked into Cloud's new design for the series, which has been used for all of Cloud's appearances in the series thus far, excepting Kingdom Hearts II.

Abilities

Vincent is a strong fighter and holds some of the most memorable Limit Breaks in the game or at least the most unique. His abilities are connected to genetic experiments that altered his body forever, and involve him transforming into a variety of powerful and dark creatures.

Vincent's weapon of choice is the Cerberus as well as a wide array of pistols that are shot from long range. His dark past torments him frequently as the plot of the game unfolds. His dark powers makes him a great companion and a formidable fighter. Also skilled with a wide variety of different materia, he can make for a strategic fighter being able to attack his enemies with great force.

Final Weapon - Death Penalty

Limit Breaks

Level 1:

Galian Beast

Automatically activated. Vincent morphs into a beast-like creature. He has two attacks which you cannot control.

1. Berserk Dance - Vincent hits a single enemy with a few slashes.

2. Beast Flare - He Jumps up and fires some bomb-like things at all enemies. Changes - HP, Dexterity, and Defense % increase.

Level 2:

Death Gigas

Activated after killing 60 enemies with Vincent. Vincent morphs into a sort of Frankenstein thing. Has two attacks that you cannot control.

1. Giga Dunk - Kinda like Berserk Dance but it does more damage.

2. Livewire- Uses a form of fire damage on all opponents.

Changes - HP & Defense increase. Dexterity & Magic Defense decrease.

Level 3:

Hellmasker

Activated after destroying another 60 enemies with Vincent. Vincent morphs into a weird looking monster with a chainsaw and hockey mask which also has an attack that, yes, you cannot control.

1. He attacks enemies 5 times and puts status ailments on them too.

Changes - Defense increases.

Level 4:

Chaos

You can get this on Disk 3 only. Get Vincent in your party and go to the Waterfall ring on the second continent with either a chocobo or Submarine. Go inside the waterfall. You’ll see Lucrecia and a whole little storyline will be shown. You then leave the waterfall. (that part can be done on Disk 2 but it’s quicker on Disk 3) Go back into the waterfall straight away and walk up to the alter. Vincent will say something and you’ll receive his final limit and final weapon. Chaos turns Vincent into a winged being which looks pretty cool. It attacks with two attacks, which you can’t control.

1. Chaos Saber- A powerful fire blast to all enemies.

2. Satan Impact - Looks different but still does fire damage to all enemies.

Changes - Defense, Magic Defense and Dexterity increase.

Voice Acting

In the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII projects in which Vincent appears and is voiced, his English voice actor is Steven Blum and his Japanese voice actor is Shōgo Suzuki. His Japanese voice actor inEhrgeiz isKazuhiro Nakata.