Vincent Valentine Guide: The Devil In I

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Murillo Zerbinatto

Murillo is a writer of Final Fantasy informer, a job that his teenage version never imagined he would have. He played - or observed - his first Final Fantasy when his brother rented Final Fantasy III for SNES (which was actually Final Fantasy VI), but since it was the Japanese version, they understood zilch and soon gave up. Sometime later - and some English RPGs in-between - they rented Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy IV, yeah, it was a mess) and began to delve into the incredible world of Final Fantasy and never to get off it.

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Square Enix isn’t exactly short of the broody, antisocial, and borderline depressive characters. If I ask you to name one character that meets these criteria, I’m sure you have one on top of your mind.

Although some simply act that way because their mom said they have a strong personality. Others have a background story that really makes you understand how they got there. Here we have Vincent Valentine, one of the most tragic Final Fantasy characters.

Besides boasting a fabulous name, our man, Vincent Valentine, hosts in his body the demonic/WEAPON creature Chaos, granting Vincent otherwordly powers besides his sharpshooting skills. Like our protagonist Cloud, he has a cool vibe, but I dare say he would make an even better leading man than our spiked-haired amnesiac.

Vincent Valentine is a character with many layers. He was born as an entirely optional character but still earned his own spin-off. I hope the information I am about to throw in this Vincent Valentine guide shows you all the remarkable aspects and magnificence of this spherical character.

Vincent Stats

Vincent level when you unlock him is calculated by a formula which sum your average party member level plus 3. Usually, a party is around level 25 when reaching Nibelheim.

Gameplay Style

In Final Fantasy VII, Vincent uses his firearms as a standard attack. All of them are long-range, which means he can be placed in the back row to take less damage while causing full damage. Vincent has mediocre status, possessing strengths in Magic, MP, and Spirit.

However, his ultimate weapon, Death Penalty, does more damage as Vincent kills more enemies. This becomes the game’s most lethal weapon when you have the patience to grind for it, causing maximum damage with every shot. Exploiting a bug, it can even kill Emerald Weapon in one attack.

Vincent Limit Break is not one of the best, though flashy. He only has one Limit Break per level, and each one transforms him into a different monster boasting two attacks. Each monster increases certain stats exponentially, while some are reduced. The issue is that these monsters are uncontrollable until the battle is over or if Vincent dies during the Limit Break. Against ordinary enemies, the transformations pay off.

But against bosses, whose battle duration are usually longer, he becomes more of a liability than a powerhouse. Once I used his Death Gigas Limit Break against a boss that absorbed lightning. All his attacks were healing rather than damaging the boss. Traitor.

Games Starring

Vincent Valentine is absurdly an optional character from the original Final Fantasy VII. Later on, he would star on the lackluster spin-off Dirge of Cerberus as the protagonist. The sharpshooter also does a brief appearance on Before Crisis as a boss, a cameo on Crisis Core, and is a playable character in several Final Fantasy mobile games. Vincent stars in the Advent Children movie, helping Cloud from the shadows.

Optional Character

As you will see me grumbling many times, Vincent Valentine is an optional character in Final Fantasy VII. The first time I played the game, it was super interesting to discover secret characters. But as other Final Fantasy VII games and media were released, you could see that their initial plans didn’t include our gunslinger as a missable feature.

Nomura said there was a time when people considered cutting Vincent and Yuffie altogether because they were on crunchy time. Those two wouldn’t make it into the game, albeit many cutscenes were already recorded. Luckily they managed to keep them, but with the optional characters caveat.

I firmly believe that in Final Fantasy VII Remake, Vincent will be crucial to the story and won’t be an optional character. Perhaps like Yuffie, he will be introduced in a DLC sharing his past before the current plot events.

Appearance and Attire

Standing roughly six feet tall, Vincent was a Turk when he was around twenty years old. He wore the group’s traditional black suit attire with a white shirt and had short hair with bangs that caressed his cheeks. His eyes were already deep red then – a characteristic I always thought derived from his demonic self.

Years later, after forcibly resigning from the Turks, given that he died, Vincent takes on his iconic appearance that endures to this day. He has long black hair with red eyes, a red scarf, a worn-out red cape covering his shoulders and neck with leather straps, a black shirt and pants, a gold metal glove on the left hand and golden sabatons, and a holster strapped to his right leg to store his gun.

Vincent’s Limit Break changes shapeshift him into monsters. Galian Beast looks like a bipedal behemoth, Death Gigas a kind of Frankenstein, Hellmasker resembles an American horror character with his mask and chainsaw, and Chaos, a traditional humanoid devil. In Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent fuses perfectly with Chaos, and his human appearance becomes more sinewy and devilish.

Personality

Grim and burdened by his past sins, Vincent harbors many regrets and secrets. Despite his cold personality, he discreetly cares about others. Cloud accuses Vincent of not caring about the Planet but apologizes eventually. Valentine still has feelings for Lucrecia and describes her as a beautiful woman when he meets the party in FFVII.

He accompanies the group trying to stop Hojo’s immoral deeds out of personal hatred for the scientist. Vincent rarely speaks, but when he does, everyone listens. His personality is similar to Cloud’s, but he’s wiser and less headstrong since Valentine is older and mature.

Through experiments performed by Hojo on his body, Vincent has acquired the power to transform into mighty and monstrous creatures. Attention should be drawn to the most extraordinary: Chaos, a powerful winged demon. In Dirge Of Cerberus, it’s revealed that this transformation was not a monster, but a WEAPON, who acts according to the wishes of another WEAPON – Omega. The legend of Chaos and Omega’s existence as WEAPONs, which the Planet invokes in times of threat, was discovered by Dr. Lucrecia Crescent and Dr. Grimoire Valentine, Vincent’s father.

Their purpose is the execution and transferring all life when a period of great catastrophe and destruction on a global scale comes. Chaos must then absorb all the remaining Lifestream into Omega, who leaves for another planet to begin life anew.

Story

Life as a Turk

Vincent Valentine was born in 1950. He’s the son of Grimoire Valentine, a Shinra Electric Power Company scientist in the company’s science department. One would assume Grimoire was researching how to prevent energy outages or how to spend fewer watts per lamp. This is a JRPG, so of course, nothing so mundane would ever happen. Grimoire was researching Omega and Chaos, powerful and ancient WEAPONs born from and for the Planet.

Due to this research, Vincent and his father grew apart. Grimoire had an assistant named Lucrecia, which he treated tenderly. However, in a research accident, an explosion occurred, and shielding Lucrecia from it, Grimoire Valentine dies. He asked his assistant to apologize to Vincent as his dying wish. Unfortunately, the message never reaches his son.

Vincent, desiring to know more about his father and his research, joined the Shinra on the Department of Administrative Research – later known as the Turks – to get closer to the studies that separated them. Not much is disclosed about his early years as Turk.

Still, given his successful track record, Vincent turns a personal bodyguard for the Jenova project scientists. Professor Gast, Hojo, and his father’s former assistant Lucrecia are among these scientists. Lucrecia recognizes Vincent but, racked with guilt over Grimoire’s death and for never relaying his message, tries to stay away from the Turk. But despite her struggles and attempts to avoid Vincent, his kind nature got through her, and their chemistry was evident.

However, Vincent comes across a file on Lucrecia where he discovers that she knew his father. Confronted with this information, the woman flips, but Vincent tries to ease her anguish, full of understanding. He fails, which causes the two to grow apart and Lucrecia to approach the scientist Hojo. Vincent could not do anything and only observed from the sidewalk as his love went further and further away.

Overcome with her guilt complex, Lucrecia agrees to participate in inhuman experiments. One of these, injecting Jenova’s cells into her and Hojo’s unborn son in what would be called Project S. Or project Sephiroth. So far, Vincent ignored the scientists’ absurd experiments.

But this one, involving Lucrecia, stirred him to the point where he vocalized his frustrations with Hojo. However, to Vincent’s surprise and disappointment, Lucrecia took Hojo’s side. Vincent’s worries faded into nothingness as his heart broke, and he gave up trying to reverse the situation.

Death and Rebirth

After some time, Vincent continues to serve as security for the scientists, turning a blind eye to their heinous experiments. However, once Sephiroth is born, Lucrecia continues to suffer mentally and physically from having Jenova’s cells implanted in her body. Vincent confronts Hojo once again, who, foreseeing the Turk’s fury, decides to eliminate him from the equation once and for all. He shoots Vincent, who falls ripe to the ground. But Hojo had other plans for the man and started to operate on his dying body.

Hojo infuses Vincent with monsters, granting him metamorphosis’ powers. In the game, you recognize these as Vincent’s Limit Breaks. Although strengthened by Hojo’s experiments, Vincent was still debilitated by the gunshot and could not recover from his catatonic state. Hojo deems the man a failure and stocks him on a mako tank. Finally, Lucrecia is struck by some common sense and decides to help Vincent.

Rather than following traditional methods, she turns to her and Grimoire’s research, inserting Chaos into Vincent’s body. Vincent resisted Chaos taking over because of Hojo’s previous experiments. Still, the devil would not be easily controlled and would eventually dominate Vincent’s body. But with the use of Protomateria, created by the Planet to control Chaos and Omega, Lucrecia was finally able to stabilize Vincent and his internal mutations.

These mutations granted Vincent superhuman powers, regeneration, immortality, an impeccable sense of style, and many others features. A long time passes before Vincent awakens. He wakes up on the operating table alone, unaware that Lucrecia had sealed herself in the Crystal Cavern and Hojo was assigned to other experiments. To punish himself for not stopping Project S, Vincent locks himself up in the basement of the Shinra Manor, suffering recurring nightmares as a consequence.

Before (Cloud) Crisis

Unbeknownst to many, Vincent did not wake up only when Cloud found him. Before that, he had a brief appearance in the mobile game Before Crisis. Veld, the Turk leader at the time and Vincent’s former co-worker, finds him at Shinra Manor.

The leader was looking for a Support Materia to help his daughter and stumbled upon Vincent in the casket, who gives him hints about the Materias at Shinra Manor while avoiding any topics about himself. Shortly after, Vincent returns to his slumber, only to have him interrupted again by our amnesiac hero.

Vincent Meets the Crew

Before diving into the main story of Final Fantasy VII, there is a moment in Crisis Core when Zack is visiting Shinra Manor that the player can visit Vincent’s casket. Zack comments that he can hear someone snoring and even removes the lid, but when he sees the sleeper, he considers it best to leave him alone.

Back to the Final Fantasy VII era. After doing a challenging puzzle in a time when guides weren’t just a click away on the internet, the player was able to get a key that led to a hidden basement. Interacting with the coffin in the basement, we meet Vincent, who refuses to talk until Cloud mentions Sephiroth.

Vincent shrugs it off and goes back to his nap. Soon after, as the group is leaving Shinra Manor, Vincent appears and asks if the party will encounter Hojo. Since the party probably will, he decides to join, deadset on taking revenge on the scientist for his past sins.

If we visit the Crystal Cave with Vincent in the party, he interacts with Lucrecia. A flashback recounts the past between them. Lucrecia confesses that she tried to kill herself several times, but Jenova’s cells prevented her.

To end her suffering, she decides to lock herself away in crystal form. She questions Vincent about Sephiroth, who lies, saying he’s dead to spare her further heartache. The woman disappears, and after some in-game battles, the player finds the Death Penalty and Chaos, Vincent’s last weapon and Limit Break, respectively.

Later on, we meet Hojo on the Sister Ray, attempting to aid Sephiroth. The scientist confesses that he used Lucrecia only as baggage to bring Sephiroth into the world and further enrich his research. Hojo’s endgame was to turn himself into Omega, planet Gaia’s strongest WEAPON. Vincent boils with rage, and the party beats Hojo down.

After defeating Sephiroth, Vincent and Yuffie return to Midgard to help the citizens evacuate the disaster caused by Meteor. On instinct, Vincent goes to a Sister Ray, where they fought Hojo, and finds the man alive as suspected. About to eliminate him for good, a thunderbolt strikes Sister Ray, and Hojo mysteriously disappears. As Sasuke did after Naruto became Hokage, Vincent then decides to split from the party and help the Planet through the shadows.

Advent Children

In his journeys around the world, Vincent arrives in the Forgotten City. He finds Tseng and Elena being tortured by the strange Sephiroth procreations, led by Kadaj. Not long after, he saves Cloud from the trio. These events take place in the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. While Vincent helps the party face Bahamut Sin, when Sephiroth returns, he suggests everyone let Cloud deal with him independently.

Deep into the Ground

After Sephiroth is defeated a second time, Vincent resumes his world questing, helping those in need. Little did he know that the next conflict would come directly to him. At Sister Ray, Hojo didn’t die. Instead, he transported his existence into the Worldwide Network. When Weiss, the commander of Deepground – a secret Shinra military organization does a Synaptic Net Dive on the Worldwide Network, Hojo embraces the opportunity to invade and control his mind like a puppet.

Mind controlling Weiss, Hojo goes on a brutal offensive against the Planet, murdering the masses to deceive the Planet that a threat exists and summon Omega. But to control Omega, Hojo needs the Protomateria. The scientist believes Vincent knows Materia’s’ whereabouts.

One of these Deepground attacks occurs in Kalm, where Vincent is leisurely watching a parade. Incapable of stillness in the face of adversity, Vincent shot the hell out of the Deepground soldiers. After shoving the enemies, he’s approached by Blue and Shelke, who query him about the location of the Protomateria. Soldiers from the World Regenesis Organization – WRO for short – appear, and they retreat. The WRO leader, Reeves, requests Vincent’s help facing the Deepground.

Vincent realizes that the situation is more critical than imagined and decides to help the WRO. He goes to Edge, a town under attack. Reeve updates him on the Tsviets, an elite unit similar to SOLDIER but with Genesis Rhapsodos genes.

At Edge, Vincent meets Shalua Rui, a WRO scientist, and Rosso, a Tsviet. The latter pesters him with the same question about the location of the Protomateria. Vincent turns into Chaos to face her, revealing that the Protomateria is within him. With this new information in hand, the Tsviets approach becomes increasingly aggressive toward Vincent.

The Tsviets attack the WRO headquarters, knowing that they are housing Vincent. Vincent manages to defeat Shelke – who Salua is surprised to identify as her sister – and Azul. But the clash leaves Vincent with more questions about his past. Afterward, he visits Shinra Manor in an attempt to learn more about his father and Lucrecia’s research. Rosso finds him and, after a tough fight, manages to rip the Protomateria from Vincent. Without means to control Chaos, Vincent crashes down defenseless but is rescued by Yuffie. He awakens, master of his own body, at least for now.

Upon return to the WRO headquarters, Vincent learns that Azul managed to escape and caused severe damage. Azul’s new mission was to eliminate Shelke, who became worthless to Tsviet but still holds Lucrecria’s information within her. Salua Rui sacrifices herself to save everyone and her sister. Before she dies, she pleads with Vincent to take care of Shelke.

Battle For Midgar and Chaos

After a surprising pep talk from Vincent, Reeves decides to take the fight to the Deepground. Doing a Synaptic Net Dive, Shelke provides the WRO with information about Deepground’s true intentions: sacrifice people untainted by Geostigma to summon Omega and control it.

Before the battle, Vincent loses control of Chaos but manages to recover by glimpsing Lucrecia. So begins the infamous Battle for Midgar, where the companions from Final Fantasy VII join Vincent as he invades the Deepground and prepares to face the remaining Tsviets.

Vincent faces Rosso and Azul once more. The first without the aid from Chaos and the second with Chaos brutality, whom he managed to handle for a short while. Soon after, Vincent meets Nero, who is somewhat similar to Vincent. Nero was injected with Chaos cells and can control the darkness.

But since Vincent is pretty much Chaos, the darkness is useless against him, and Nero retreats. Vincent faces Nero once again, and once the enemy is defeated, he runs to his brother, Weiss. The second mercilessly runs his hand across Nero’s stomach and discards it like used toilet paper.

Hojo confesses he’s controlling Weiss’s body and has finally fused with Omega, becoming an imposing threat. Vincent is overpowered by Weiss/Hojo, and as he begins to resort to Chaos metamorphosis, an image of Lucrecia appears through Shelke.

He manages to retain the devil’s power, but in human form. With this newly gained power, Vincent overpowers Hojo. Nero reappears, still kicking, and takes advantage of Weiss’ body weakness to merge with his brother. This causes them to become a bizarre new entity, eliminating Hojo. However, the fusion rejected Omega’s power, fully allowing the WEAPON to emerge.

Omega’s resurgence triggered Chaos to resurface as well, consuming Vincent. Shelke performed another Synaptic Net Drive, this time inside Omega. She steals the Protomateria and returns it to Vincent. In the meantime, Vincent is walking in a dream world with Lucrecia. She apologizes for all her past actions but is glad to see Vincent moving on. Vincent faces Omega head-on with a newfound resolve as the party composed of Cloud and Co. destroy the reactors empowering Omega.

Omega tries to escape into space, but Vincent chases it down and destroys it, apparently disintegrating alongside the WEAPON. Later on, we learn that Vincent survived and is in the Crystal Cave, thanking Lucrecia for saving him. Shelke goes to meet him, and the story ends with the two of them sky-gazing.

Phew, that was a lot. As you can see, it’s an atrocity that Vincent began his participation as an optional character. His story is much more fleshed out than the others – almost more than Cloud’s – and he has direct involvement in the plot since his past mistakes helped create Sephiroth.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Gameplay

Dirge of Cerberus introduced a third-person shooter RPG gameplay. Vincent fires his gun at the enemy in a semi-automatic targeting system, and his shots vary according to the weapon equipped. He can also customize the guns with attachment, making them lighter, holding additional ammunition, or more powerful. Vincent can perform melee combos and defend or deflect enemy attacks.

Using Limit Break, Vincent transforms into the Galian Beast, increasing his attack, defense, and shooting homing fireballs. The game had an experience system that could be used to level up our protagonist or trade for Gil.

Theories

There are some crazy theories around the Internet forums involving Vincent. Particularly, I have never even considered them. But the amount of work and research they put into it rewarded it as a subtitle topic.

The first theory is about Vincent being Sephiroth’s real father. Although Dirge of Cerberus blatantly dismisses this, this theory made more sense at first and before this game. The assumption is that before Lucrecia spurns Vincent, they get embroiled in a quick romance.

This affair further increased her guilty conscience, causing her to throw herself at Hojo. Then the experiments began, and their romance was never spoken of. The theory was based on the similarity between Sephiroth and Vincent’s appearance and their more compassed, solitary, and taciturn personalities.

The second theory is much whacky. It claims Vincent is Cloud’s mysterious father. Let’s start chronologically. It was never known exactly how long Vincent was dormant before the events of Final Fantasy VII. While the general agreement says it was more or less twenty years – which would rule out the theory given Cloud’s age – others say it was less.

After being dumped by Lucrecia, Vincent goes to the city – Shinra Manor is in Nibelheim – and finds Cloud’s mother. They have a fling, and Vincent returns to his duties. As a result of a man and woman tenderly love, Cloud’s mother gets pregnant, and months later, the protagonist is born. Since Vincent is on an operating table, he never returns to town and is branded an absentee father.

I know, quite the stretch. But what if.

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