"Secret Character Obscurity" Syndrome

Final Fantasy VII is somewhat unique among it's fellow games in that it purposefully includes two secret characters: Yuffie and Vincent.

Unlike their permanent counterparts, some have said that both of these characters, particularly Vincent (Being grouped with a loud mouthed girl doesn't help in making a name for yourself) have not been very well received, which is understanding given their appearance in the plot have been completely optional.

So my question is, should these characters have been given official character status, and if they did, would this have improved their standing among the pantheon of characters in Final Fantasy VII?

I mean, poor Vincent is in the same popularity standings of "Amarant" and "Kimahri". Would promotion give Vincent the relevance he craves?

Vincent got his own game. As far as he is concerned, he was recognized, regardless of the quality of that game.

True, he got his own game, but was he really recognised? Dirge of Cerberus wasn't exactly a best seller, and I don't really connect with Vincent (or Yuffie) as much as the other characters.

Since when is Vincent an unpopular character? Everyone loves Vincent.

His character development seemed more two-dimensional. At least in the original game, I barely noticed Vincent when he was in my party.

I do realise my argument is akin to flogging a dead horse. Everyone seems to disagree entirely!

No, I understand where you're coming from. You get very little input from him during the main story, you have to go through more optional content like Lucrecia's cave to get more out of his arc.

At Shinra HQ he doesn't really have much to say and even on top of the Sister Ray, he doesn't say a lot to Hojo.

Around here people like Vincent, but he's not nearly as recognizable as Barret, Red XIII, or the incredible character design that was Cait Sith. :nibbles:

Don't get me wrong, I do like Vincent as well, but what I'm saying is exactly what you've just said, you have to go through alot just to understand him. Of course, this may just be part of his whole "enigmatic man of mystery" type character, but the game takes this as licence to force the player to sort of piece together Vincent's backstory.

Vincent Valentine should star in Final Fantasy: Sleeping Dogs.

I think they did a good job balancing the 'secretness' of the characters but also integrating them into the plot and gameworld in an interesting way. But, yeah, maybe Vincent would have been better as an actual main character. It'd have been a way more interesting 'who's the spy in the party?' moment if everything was going to hell and the team finds out Vincent is ex-Turk. Well, better at least than having Cait Sith or anything related to Cait Sith in the game at all.

I think if they had to replace a character as the second secret, they should have chosen Cait Sith. Perhaps have him a an secret sidequest in the Gold Saucer where he's the last opponent in the battle square, or something. I don't know. Vincent is so important to the underlying thread of "Shinra and Hojo is evil" yet he is underused. His whole ex-turk status could have been used better.

I quite liked Cait Sith!

I always thought Yuffie and Vincent were relatively popular amongst fans. I think the fact they were optional extras generally meant people made the effort to recruit them, and that they were generally perceived to be among the cooler characters. That probably applies to Vincent moreso than Yuffie though. They were never entirely integrated into the plot, but given that they're optional character's I'd have thought that was par for the course. I actually felt that Vincent's back story elaborates upon some of the Sephiroth/Jenova backstory, and Vincent himself has that a revelation of sorts if you take him with you to confront Hojo on disc 2, when he realises that Hojo is guilty for what happened to Lucrecia.

Cait Sith... ... balls! And he didn't do a good job.