Vincent Valentine - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has explained that Vincent's character shifted from that of horror researcher, to detective, to chemist, and finally to the figure of a former Turk with a tragic past. Director Yoshinori Kitase was in charge of the cutscene in which Vincent joins the party, while scenario writer Kazushige Nojima wrote his backstory. Nojima had a great deal of trouble with Vincent's dialogue, as he very rarely speaks. In the original script of the game, Vincent was introduced in a similar fashion, but was a handsome, sarcastic personality. He joined Cloud's group after learning they were in pursuit of Hojo, but he had no knowledge of the results of the experimentation to which he was subjected. Additionally, he was also privy to more information regarding Shinra's involvement with the creation of Sephiroth, and it is he who explains to Cloud the story of Sephiroth's origins. When the game was still in development, Nomura and his staff considering removing Vincent and Yuffie Kisaragi altogether, as they did not have enough time to work them into the story properly. As a result, Vincent and Yuffie ultimately appeared as optional characters in the game.

Vincent is a tall, lean young man with long black hair and a ragged red cloak and mantle over black underclothes. He wears a metallic, golden gauntlet on his left forearm. Vincent's cloak covers the lower half of his face and is held closed by a series of buckles. His eyes are naturally red. His crimson cloak was added to symbolize the idea of Vincent carrying a heavy weight connected to death. He has often been labeled a "vampire" due to his physical appearance and mannerisms, such as the fact that he "slept" in a coffin.

While other characters were given simple costumes in Advent Children, Vincent was given something more complex. Nomura felt that changing his design to something complicated would "conflict with his personality," which is relatively straightforward, and he was thus given attire consisting of "various, complex parts." His cloak was difficult to animate due to it being very organic; the overall complexity of Vincent's design led to his scenes being "especially hard to create." These scenes were constantly being adjusted so as "to convey elusive nature of seemingly having shape, but not." These adjustments continued until six months before the completion of the project.

Vincent was chosen as the protagonist of Dirge of Cerberus due to his strong connections to the setting of Final Fantasy VII and the room available for expanding on his background. Due to the staff's desire to make Dirge a shooter, Vincent was also chosen because of his weaponry, while his transformations into different type of beasts in the original Final Fantasy VII was something the staff wanted to work into the gameplay. For the game, Nomura redesigned Vincent's gun in the same way that Cloud's Buster Sword was redesigned for Advent Children, so as to demonstrate that Vincent is the protagonist of the game. The gun was named Cerberus in reference to the multi-headed hound with the same name from Greek and Roman mythology; the gun has three barrels as Cerberus has three heads.

Vincent's Japanese voice actor, Shōgo Suzuki, explained that he tries "to hold back as much emotion as possible when playing Vincent," noting that Vincent is "a bit of a loner" and "appears cold on the surface." Nomura wanted Cloud and Vincent's voices to contrast with each other due to their similarities in terms of personality. He felt Vincent was older and more mature than Cloud, and as a result he cast Suzuki, who has a very low voice.