There are a total of nine party members inFinal Fantasy VII. Two of them were optional in the original, butRebirthsees that every member is forced into the story. This is great for anyone who felt their favorite member didn’t get enough screentime, as the forced moments included which party members react during side quests, unlike before, when you had to be lucky enough to think ahead about who you picked at certain times.
As such, while I saw a lot of scenes with Barrett, Tifa,and Vincent ValentinewhenI played FF7 recently, I only got a handful of moments with characters like Red XIII and Yuffie. Still, what I knew of Yuffie, I enjoyed. She brought a specific energy to the team, and I was lucky enough to stumble into her side quest that explains her backstory. Said side quest, and Yuffie herself, are quite divisive, so when Yuffie first appeared in Rebirth, I had a sneaking suspicion that the negative reaction to her would result in a personality rewrite — one that I would have felt was needless.
Which is why I’m happy to say that, no, Yuffie was not remotely scrubbed of her original rougher personality traits. If anything, Rebirth celebrates them!
FF7 Rebirth Just Doesn’t Capture The Same Atmosphere As The Original
Everything is so vibrant, yet lifeless.
The World’s Greatest Ninja
Yuffie originally was a random enemy spawn in the forest areas. You had to beat her up and then convince her to join up in the following moments. This time around, she justshows up in Under Junon, saved by the dolphin after being attacked by a sea monster. She’s rescued by Cloud, and despite an awkward start, acts incredibly cheerful and thankful for the whole situation. This was honestly an alarm bell for me. Everything about it seemed like the game’s director staring me in the face and going, “See!? She’s much nicer this time!”, which was not a good sell to me.
There’s a term in writing called “character assassination.” In short, this is when an established character is completely reworked in a way that removes everything that made them a character in the first place. It’s the death of their personality, if you will. And if Yuffie was going to become just a nice girl, just like Aerith, then what we would have had was a ruined character compared to the original Yuffie. Even if you still hate her, you may see my point.
However, when it comes to Yuffie and assassinations, the only connection those words have is that Rebirth Yuffieisan assassin.
The kind personality she showed Cloud turned out to be a complete rouse. Her actual plan was to lure the group into a hotel room, get them surrounded by Shinra guards so the Mayor of Under Junon could get their bounty money, and then earn that bounty money as payment for assassinating the new President of Shinra. It was wonderful to witness; a moment I truly enjoyed being completely duped. I was outsmarted by a child who even found the time to showcase her ego while it was happening.
Her ego checks out for a teen, as does her cowardice whenever it’s clear she’s out of her element.
I wish she had managed the assassination attempt too. Heidegger thwarts her at the last second, but the Remakes have shown to not be afraid to change a few things, so taking Rufus out of the picture early on, so that other villains like Scarlet took his place instead, would have been incredibly interesting. But for what else it is, it perfectly showcased how Yuffie is an underhanded egomaniac with pretty simple goals on the surface. However, she’s not fully unlikable either, as, despite this moment, she still manages to be on the party’s good side enough that sheofficially joins up only one chapter later.
Her ties to the Wutai are also mentioned much sooner, showing her tragic side, and how little chance she had to be much else other than an underhanded thief thanks to Shinra’s attacks. She’s well-rounded, which is a bonus over the original Yuffie, who did admittedly come across as little more than a joke character plenty of times. Yuffie still has her quirky bits, like her constant motion-sickness, but the way she speaks has a lot more weight and thought put into it this time.
Tifa And Aerith Are The Heart And Soul Of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
The pair elevate the narrative into something more nuanced.
Just A Bratty Teenage Girl
There’s something else that needs to be addressed, and that’s a hang-up I have with some of the game’s writing in one specific aspect. There’s a relationship mechanic in the game, and it revolves around how Cloud reacts to what party members say, as well as if you do the side quests that align with them. Many times, this works as intended, but I’ve found some interactions fall flat, especially when a character is talking to someone other than Cloud.
Take Tifa and Aerith, who both have clear feelings for Cloud but go about it differently. Tifa treats him like an old friend, as opposed to Aerith, who openly teases him just to provoke a reaction. Both are great. But when it’s just Tifa and Aerith talking with each other, that’s where things get a bit different, such as the scene below deck of the Shinra 8, where Aerith says “Let’s talk business! You know, boys?” which made me roll my eyes near violently. It’s such a teenager thing for a grown woman to say.
But this accidental capturing of what a teenager would say may be a strength of the writers after all, as Yuffie is only 16 and shealwayssounds like a teenager. Her ego checks out for a teen, as does her cowardice whenever it’s clear she’s out of her element. It’as even there in scenes like Barrett’s homecoming, where she’s the only one of the party too young to understand why Barrett keeping his head down and letting the town hate this guts is the right thing to do. She wants to crack heads, and her reasoning makes emotional sense, but it takes an adult to realize it’s not the right call. And everyone in the party knows this, except the teenager.
Yuffie could have turned out much worse, and I even expected her to be — a bratty and morally gray character that fans weren’t keen on. That usually calls for a makeover. Instead, she’s even more of a bratty teen and even more morally gray. They doubled down on everything that made Yuffie, well,Yuffie, and I’m so happy this version of her is the one joining the party.
Shiva Will Always Be My Favorite Summon In The Final Fantasy Series
No one will ever snap their finger as devastatingly as Shiva!
