Yuffie Kisaragi is one of the characters that fans often think of when remembering characters fromFinal Fantasy 7. This is likely due to her prominent role in otherFinal Fantasyrelated material such asFinal Fantasy 7’sAdvent Childrenmovieand theKingdom Heartsgames.
While Yuffie is a party member in the originalFinal Fantasy 7, fans who haven’t played the original may not know that she was in fact an optional party member. Players in fact could go through their entire playthrough and never have Yuffie join along for the adventure.
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The role of being anoptional party memberisn’t limited to Yuffie alone. Another famousFinal Fantasy 7character, Vincent Valentine, is also completely optional despite his fanbase. Due to Yuffie’s fanbase, it is unlikely that she will remain optional in part 2 ofFinal Fantasy 7’s remake.
How Yuffie Was Originally Obtained
In most games, optional characters for the player’s party can be recruited via story decisions or via completing side quests. Yuffie however is a bit of a complicated case where players will need to first get into a random battle with her in the woods. While defeating her isn’t much of a challenge, players will be put in a clearing where they can talk to her afterward.
During this encounter, players need to be careful not to make any mistakes, as this will force players to try andfind Yuffie through a random encounteragain. Mistakes include opening up the menu, using the save point, or choosing any of the wrong dialogue options when talking to her. The dialogue is different depending on which character is leading the party, but the actual choice numbers remain universal among all party members.
After selecting all the right choices,Yuffie will join the partyfor the rest ofFinal Fantasy 7. While she does have dialogue to contribute to many major scenes, she doesn’t make appearances in the pre-rendered cutscenes due to her optional nature.
How Obtaining Her Might Change in Final Fantasy 7 R Part 2
After bringing Yuffie into the party, players gain access to quests that allow them to learn of Yuffie’s story. As players initially meet her as a thief trying to rob them, players learn that Yuffie is a Materia hunter that is looking to restore her home to how it was before theShinra Electric Power Companytook over and turned it into a tourist resort.
While Yuffie’s personal story has no real bearing on the main plot, her iconic status as one of the party members ofFinal Fantasy 7would likely remove her optional status from the next part of theFinal Fantasy 7remake. The encounter with her in the woods would likely be reworked from a random encounter into a cutscene with an interesting boss battle that players have to overcome.
After the battle, players could be put in a similar situation where they need to make the correct choices like in the original, but without the risk oflosing Yuffieand having to find her again. For example, opening the menu in the original game would cause Yuffie to steal the player’s gil. This could happen again in the remake, but with Cloud and the rest of the party immediately hunting her down and starting the decision making from the beginning without restarting the fight.
Another way it could happen would have players be forced tofight Yuffieagain if they make the wrong choices, but Yuffie gradually gets weaker with every fight so that players don’t have to worry about getting wiped out by her. It has the potential to make for a very comedic scene with the player’s party forced to go on a wild goose chase for their gil without the player needed to get tired of looking for Yuffie themselves.
One other possibility could be that theparty’s meeting of Yuffiecould simply be played out completely differently with different story threads leading to their meeting. This one seems very unlikely however due to theFinal Fantasy 7remakes generally being very faithful to the beats of the original game.
Yuffie Affecting the Main Story
As mentioned before, Yuffie didn’t have much impact on the main plot ofFinal Fantasy 7due to her status as an optional party member. However, if she was made to be no longer optional in the remake, the developers would likely make her more involved to prevent her from being just a person that takes up space during important events.
One part ofFinal Fantasy 7’s story that is available after the unlocking of Yuffie is the assumed end of Don Corneo, who made very prolific appearances in the first part of theFinal Fantasy 7Remake. This happens afterYuffie steals the party’s Materiaafter they arrive in Wutai, causing them to chase her down.
Don Corneo however captures Yuffie andTurk member, Elena, planning to make one of them his bride. However, he is confronted by the party and threatens to kill the two of them. This however leads to his assumed end after Rude shoots him with a silencer.
While quests only available after getting Yuffie normally would become required story quests, Yuffie would also likely have more to say and interact with the rest of the party. Many fans were pleased with theinteractions between the party membersin the remake, so letting Yuffie slowly get closer and closer to the party would make her feel less like an optional character the developers forced to become mandatory.
Yuffie would likely also have more impact on main story events with her being able to talk about and interact with the plot as much as the other characters. Due her status in the original, she didn’t always have something to say like other party members, but she should hopefully soon get the chance to have more of an impact during some of the more intense scenes that many players are looking forward to see in the next part.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2is in development.
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