| Yuffie Kisaragi | |
|---|---|
Yuffie Kisaragi in Final Fantasy VII |
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| Series | Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts |
| First game | Final Fantasy VII (1997) |
| Designed by | Tetsuya Nomura |
| Voiced by (English) | Christy Carlson Romano (Kingdom Hearts and FFVII Advent Children)[1] Mae Whitman (Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus)[2] |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | Yumi Kakazu[3] |
| Fictional profile | |
| Weapon | Shuriken |
| Home | Wutai |
Yuffie Kisaragi (ユフィ・キサラギ Yufi Kisaragi) is a fictional character in the Final Fantasy video game series. She was first introduced as a secret character in the role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII in 1997 and since then also made appearances in the CGI movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, the Final Fantasy VII spinoff games Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, in the Kingdom Hearts action crossover series as well as several other video games. The character gained a high popularity, especially in Japan.
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During the game's development, the staff thought of removing both Yuffie and Vincent Valentine due to time constraints. Eventually, the two made it as hidden characters. Event planner Jun Akiyama had a close attachment to Yuffie's character and thus he was responsible for the large number of cutscenes featuring her and her actions during fights.[4] Yuffie was very different character during the early development of the game, as she was envisioned as a 25-year-old ex-SOLDIER bounty hunter seeking Cloud and Sephiroth while having a bounty put on her head herself. Yuffie's job class was originally listed as "ninja (assassin)" and she was supposed to be a daughter of the long-deceased Kasumi Kusanagi. The Wutai subquest was also entirely different.[5]
In Final Fantasy VII, Yuffie is a 16 years old ninja (her martial arts style is called "Ninjyutu"[6]) and a thief, wielding an oversized shuriken. She is a fiercily patriotic daughter of the leader of Wutai, the culture of which is based on real-world East Asia, who feels her country has lost its former glory and has become a resort town.[7] Yuffie has a spunky and tomboyish personality and obsessively steals and collects Materia; she is also tends to be short-tempered and prone to motion sickness.
One of two secret characters in Final Fantasy VII, Yuffie (as "Mystery Ninja") ambushes the AVALANCHE party in a forest. If the player defeats her in combat and then chooses the correct series of dialogue during a conversation with her, she will join the party as a player character. Yuffie is very spirited and mischievous, and can be a smart-aleck at times. Though she calls herself a materia hunter, she is, in fact, a materia thief, albeit the reason behind her thieving is for a noble cause brought to effect in a misguided manner. After Yuffie joins the party and they enter Wutai, Yuffie steals their materia and hides, only to be kidnapped by the crime lord Don Corneo. After being rescued, she returns the stolen materia and continues working with the party.[8] In another sidequest, she will prove herself by beating the bosses of Wutai's five story pagoda, the last of these battles being against her own father, Godo Kisaragi. These fights and the sequence of conversations following them enable both father and daughter to understand the other's reasoning. Godo then asks the main character Cloud Strife to take Yuffie with him on his quest. It is possible for the player to set Cloud up on a date with either her, Aerith Gainsborough, Barret Wallace or Tifa Lockhart.
In the 2004 action-RPG Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, taking place six years prior to the events of the main title, Yuffie encounters the Shinra corporation's Turks team in Wutai and they are forced to work together in order to survive. After losing to Midgar, Wutai's ruling figure Godo Kisaragi, Yuffie's father, began to turn their home into a tourist attraction for outsiders. This did not suit Yuffie who eventually began running off, stealing Materia from unaware travelers.
In the 2005 film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Yuffie reunites with the group to fight against Bahamut SIN; the box of materia Cloud kept in the church was hers, which she left behind for safekeeping. In the film's prequel novella "Case of Yuffie" details how Geostigma spread to Wutai and the measures Yuffie took to find a cure.[9] In the short story "Case of Barret", it was mentioned that Yuffie teaches wushu to the children in Wutai and she, Cid and Red XIII kept in touch with each other.
Yuffie returns in the 2006 sequel third-person shooter Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII to help Vincent Valentine and aid the World Regenesis Organization in their fight against Deepground. One year after the events of Advent Children, Yuffie leaves home and joins the WRO in charge of espionage and intelligence gathering. In the game, she is able to infiltrate Mako Reactor Zero deep within the ruins of Midgar and shut off the reactor as Vincent defeats the other members of Deepground.
The at first 9-year-old Yuffie also makes brief cameos in the 2007 prequel action-RPG Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, attempting to undermine Shinra forces' invasion of her homeland.[6] After Zack Fair encounters her, she enlists his help to find treasures in several side missions.
In Kingdom Hearts, a younger Yuffie acts as a supporting character within Traverse Town to defeat the Heartless who had destroyed her world. She also appears in the Olympus Coliseum in an optional fight with Leon or alone. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the Yuffie appearing is actually a projection from Sora's memories in Traverse Town. In Kingdom Hearts II', Yuffie aids Leon and the others as part of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee to protect her world, this time appearing in her Advent Children attire. In both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, Yuffie is also featured as an opponent in the Olympus Coliseum.
Yuffie is a playable character in the PlayStation version of the fighting game Ehrgeiz, appearing as an unlockable character alongside other characters from Final Fantasy VII. She makes an appearance in the board video game Itadaki Street Portable for the PSP as one of the playable Final Fantasy VII characters, in a chibi-style design that is similar to her model during the exploration gameplay mode of Final Fantasy VII .
Yuffie also makes a cameo appearance in the 2008 action RPG/fighting game Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor of the in-game manuals.
Two large Yuffie action figures were released by Square Enix as parts of Final Fantasy VII Play Arts Vol. 2 series in 2008 (the original game version) and Final Fantasy VII Movie Advent Children Series 2 in 2009 (the film version). Other merchandise include a small figurine of her in SD version (as she appears in Itadaki Street Portable) in Final Fantasy Trading Arts Mini Vol. 4 and a wall scroll in Final Fantasy Poster Vol. 5. Yuffie's FFVII musical theme "Descendant of Shinobi" appears in a vocal form on the album Final Fantasy Song Book: Mahoroba.
In 2007, Yuffie was given Japanese Dengeki PlayStation magazine's award as the 42nd best PlayStation character.[10] In 2010, readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu voted her as the 48th best video game character of all time.[11]
In 2008, IGN ranked the "cute" and "funny" Yuffie seventh on the list of top 10 Final Fantasy VII characters, stating that she "belongs in the Wacky Sidekicks wing of the RPG hall of fame"; althrough IGN commented that Yuffie can be sometimes "a pain in the neck", she became such an appealing sidekick character that Square would use the "Yuffie formula" with Rikku from Final Fantasy X.[12] Edge commented that Yuffie "created a new anime stereotype -- the, uh, giddy girl ninja".[13] In 2010, GamesRadar also included the appearance of the "hyper-annoying" Yuffie and the other FFVII characters in Ehrgeiz among the 55 best character cameos in video game history,[14] and 1UP.com placed her in the category "The Perky Idiot" alongside Rikku and Final Fantasy VIII's Selphie in their Top 5 Final Fantasy Character Types article.[15] In 2011, UGO Networks featured her in the article highlighting the 25 most sexy ninja girls in all media for her appearance in Advent Children, stating "That third-dimension certainly adds something."[16]
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