About
Vincent Valentine (ヴィンセント・ヴァレンタイン, Vinsento Varentain?) is an optional player character in Square Enix's console role-playing game Final Fantasy VII. Designed by Tetsuya Nomura, he also appears in various titles from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, a series of prequels of and sequels of Final Fantasy VII, and is the protagonist in the third-person shooter Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and its mobile phone tie-in. The English voice actor of Vincent is Steven Blum, while the Japanese voice actor is Shōgo Suzuki.In the backstory of Final Fantasy VII, Vincent is a genetically modified human assigned to guard the scientist Lucrecia Crescent, who gave birth to the game's antagonist, Sephiroth, in one of Shinra Corporation's experiments involving the cells of an extraterrestrial life form called Jenova. Soon after, Vincent himself became subject to experiments performed by a Shinra-affiliated scientist named Hojo. If the player unlocks Vincent, he will join Cloud Strife's group to stop Sephiroth, as well as to seek revenge on Hojo.
Due to time constraints, Vincent was originally not meant to be playable in Final Fantasy VII; however, he was ultimately made an optional character. However, Vincent's character is developed greatly in other installments of the Compilation. Critics and players have received Vincent positively, and his popularity as a character encouraged Square to make him the protagonist of Dirge of Cerberus.
