The Entire Life of Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy 7 In-Depth Explanation)

the case of Vincent Valentine is a rather interesting one as despite being an optional character in Final Fantasy 7 he was actually quite easy to miss out entirely he has still managed to become an extremely popular character and not just that specific cast but also well beyond that and as a case in point he was often selected alongside other prominent Final Fantasy characters to take part in the game if a ques character battle and he often only missed out on placing in the top ten well ahead of other popular characters like T fer lightning and squall and the funny thing is that he almost didn't even exist as a character as we previously ran through in our Vincent Valentine facts video there was a serious movement internally during the development of Final Fantasy 7 to cut Vincent from the game due to time constraints as the project was getting into it's crunch time but after numerous discussions the compromise of making him available as an optional character was reached something which unfortunately then meant he'd end up with a diminished story as a result due to his popularity though Square Enix decided to expand Vincent's story further in the compilation of Final Fantasy 7 and amend that Haruki Chiba who is one of the key staff members responsible for a lot of Vincent's story in the original game could get to work on creating the rich and meaningful character that he had probably always envisioned Vincent to be Durga Cerberus where Vincent was promoted to acting as the main protagonist was the cherry on the cake in this regard as it not only helped to flesh out Vincent's backstory but it also served as the impetus for a brand new character arc it also served to thrust Vincent further into the spotlight and despite dirge of cerberus perhaps not being a critical darling due to its gameplay the narrative was a very different kind of story and it's why I wasn't too surprised that we've been getting a significant number of requests for us to cover Vincent Valentine in our final fantasy origins video series because there's just so much that happens to him throughout his tale there's love loss pain suffering and redemption and I cannot wait to get started before we do though I just want to remind everyone that even if you are already subscribed to our channel May sure you hit that notification button to make sure you get notified when we publish new content also make sure you throw in the comments section who you'd like us to cover in the next origins video so let's get started Vincent Valentine was born as the son of grimoire Valentine on the 13th of October 1950 in the MU era and on the surface at least Vincent had a relatively normal childhood things would gradually change though as his father would become more and more dedicated to his research within the Shinra science department which was amongst other things focused around chaos and omega2 ancient entities born at the planet who would later on become intertwined with Vincent's fate with grimoire spending more time on his research the relationship between Vincent and his father became somewhat strained and just before he passed away grimoire expressed regret around this with his final words he asked his research assistant Lucrezia crescent to tell Vincent that he was sorry but Vincent did not ever receive this message and perhaps due to wanting to understand more about what had happened his father to learn more about his dealings with the science department or just the wider company that he worked for Vincent ended up joining shinra's department of administrative research otherwise known as the Turks when he was in his 20s after undertaking numerous jobs where he was partnered up with Turks like Feld Vincent ended up being assigned as a security detail for professor gasps professor Hojo and Lucrezia cresent as well as other scientists at Shimer who were working on the Genova project Vincent was completely unaware that they were all familiar with his father and his work and none of them chose to disclose his information to him however upon meeting Vincent for the first time Lucrezia was visibly shook she tried her best to hide it but the truth was that she still bought terrible guilt about the death of Vincent's father she felt that it was her lack of patience during experimentation on chaos that was the primary reason that grimoire had died a meeting his son therefore brought back horrible memories of his demise despite this pain and his presence serving as a constant reminder of grimoire did though managed to compose herself and due to Vincent's kind nature the pair actually started to become quite close even sharing picnics during their time away from the lab things change though when after reading a filed was left over on Lucrezia's computer Vincent found out that she knew his father he wanted to talk to her about it as he wanted to learn more about his father but at the time the whole thing was just too emotional for Lucrezia and she cruelly told Vincent that it was none of his business as time passed Lucrezia was able to open up to Vincent about what had happened but at that point it was too late talking about it did not heal her wounds it just made them cut deeper and despite Vincent telling Lucrezia that he didn't hold her responsible for what had happened to his father the magic that existed between the two was lost with Vincent noting that from that day forward the light had left Lucrezia's heart realizing that she could no longer be with Vincent Lucrezia instead chose to be with professor Hojo it was something that was very difficult for Vincent to take but there was little he could do about it he had already attempted to console and make her feel more comfortable with what had happened in the past but she just wasn't ready to look past that and instead wanted to focus on herself and her work albeit with a newfound self-destructive streak this saw her agree to an extreme experiment as having become pregnant with Hojo's child the pair decided to submit their unborn fetus to the Genova project for an experiment called project s or project Sephiroth when Vincent found out he was horrified he had come into the Genova project having no idea that such a vile experiments were being undertaken but even after understanding more during his time with the scientist he had chosen to turn a blind eye this new experiment no it crossed the line for him due to the proposed use of Lucrezia as a human test subject and he ended up voicing his concerns to Hojo he likely knew that Hojo would not be swayed from his course but he did not expect Lucrezia to respond in such a cold-hearted manner to his concern for her he was hoping to at least change Lucrezia's mind to make her see how mad this all was but after realizing that she was no longer interested in his feelings for her Vincent decided not to stand in the creepiest way any longer he just sat back and watched as the experiment tore her apart and his decision to not intervene at this stage would plague him for years to come it was the sin that he carried with him as he should have been able to put a stop to the experiment before it even began some years later following the successful completion of project s Lucrezia continued to suffer from the experiment in both a mental and physical capacity not least because she was never even allowed to see her child Sephiroth at this point Vincent decided that he could sit in silence no more and he chose to confront Hojo in his lab but Hojo he was done playing games he surprised Vincent shooting him in the chest for his troubles and then proceeded to experiment on his half-dead body as punishment for his insolence but also because he was just genuinely curious to see what suffering he could put Vincent through in the name of science Hojo proceeded to subject Vincent to heinous experiments as he wanted to see how much the human body could endure he also tested out metamorphosis to see if human bodies could cope with transforming into other forms like the Galleon beast and the death gigas these experiments did manage to strengthen Vince's body but Hojo started to lose patience due to that initial gunshot wound Vinson was in a perpetual state of debilitation and it meant that while there was some success many of Hojo's plans didn't lend themselves to positive results Hojo therefore decided to cast Vincent aside as a failure but Lucrezia took it upon herself to try and save Vincent as time had passed she had become aware of just how asinine her previous actions were and now seeing more clearly she realized that her true feelings were for Vincent as Hojo had just used her to further his own career what she felt was guilt and she wanted to try and make amends lucrezia initially tried more conventional means but success was limited and she became more desperate from her previous research she knew of the power of chaos and based on this she concluded that by using chaos there might be a chance to save Vincent but there was also an ulterior motive as an added she could also try to prove her thesis it would see the Mack oh that Lucrezia had previously recovered with grimoire from the Crystal Cave infused directly into vincent's body and the results were quite unexpected due to Hojo's previous experiments Vincent's body was able to successfully withstand the torment that chaos now placed on it but there was no way to control it becoming even more desperate in her attempts to save Vincent Lucrezia then remembered about the protomateria during their excavation grimoire had found it in the crystal cave and had hypothesized that the planet had created it as a means to control chaos but the opportunity to test a theory had never presented itself until now realizing that this might be her last chance Lucrezia therefore placed the protomateria inside Vincent's chest and found the theory to be true as Vincent was at least able to subconsciously control the chaos inside him over time along with the side effects from Hojo's experiments the protomateria would essentially lead to Vincent being morphed into an immortal super human being but in a rather cruel twist of fate when Vincent regained full consciousness nobody was around the mansion was empty Lucrezia had left seeking isolation from the world that she no longer wanted to be part of and Hojo had moved on to greater and grander experiments Vincent therefore chose to see his new body as punishment for allowing project s to happen and he held himself responsible of what had happened to Lucrezia - as she had previously done with grimoire as penance for his sins Vincent then proceeded to lock himself in a coffin inside the basement of the Shinra mansion to sleep in solitude for all eternity and this is where he stayed undisturbed for over 20 years until he became embroiled in a conflict between the Turks and the original incarnation of Avalon that was led at the time by fajita Velde the former leader of the turks entered the Shinra mansion in search of support materia hoping that he could remove the life sapping materia that was within his daughter's body thinking the materia might be inside one of the coffins in the basement they stumbled upon Vincent and the pair instantly recognized each other having been partners in the past before Vincent joined the Genova project as so much time had Feld was extremely curious as to how and why Vinson had not aged and he surmised that it must have been Hojo's doing but Vinson refused to entertain any conversations about this topic and after giving them the information they required he went back into his slumber but only a year would pass until he was disturbed once again this time by Cloud Strife and his allies Vincent was a gained dismissive of this interruption instantly asking them to leave but when cloud mentioned Sephiroth he was keen to learn more he dangled the carrot in revealing how he knew Safarov in exchange for the same information from cloud but of the learning of sephiroth's evil deeds it only served as a further reminder that he should have put a stop to protect s when he had the chance he therefore decided that more time in isolation was required to repent their sins and he wanted to regress back into his slumber but after having a short time to reflect Vincent decided as he had done previously that the time for silence was over he needed to act once again and after stopping cloud and learning that the group were going after Hojo he decided to go with them seeking some kind of vengeance for the atrocities that have been committed soon after Vincent managed to find his way to the crystal cave where Lucrezia and grimoire previously excavated materials relating to their research around chaos and Omega Vincent was shocked to finally Kretz he inside will be it in crystal form but as he attempted to get closer to her she warned him to stay back she revealed to him that following everything that had happened she had tried to kill herself but it was to no avail as the Jenova cells within her had made it impossible seeing how much she had suffered and was continuing to suffer will Lucrezia inquired as to whether Sephiroth was still alive Vincent therefore chose to save her from the pain of knowing what he had become and lied telling her that Sephiroth had died five years prior in nipa home Vincent then proceeded with his quest to stop Hojo and when they learned that he had surfaced in Midgar and was appearing to help Sephiroth the group launched an assault Hojo's time had arrived when they confronted him at the controls of the sister ray Hojo was typically self-absorbed barely concerned with the lesser minds who were attempting to speak and reason with him and something he said during his grandiose explanation struck a nerve with Vinson the two had serious animosity as it was after all Vincent had long been opposed to Hojo's experiments and had also been shot by the guy but when Hojo refused even acknowledged Lucrezia simply referring to her as the woman that he used to further his own cause Vincent was incensed and it was in this moment that he realized it shouldn't have been him repenting all those years it should have been Hojo Hojo though continued to be dismissive as he was already planning his next move yes he was trying to help several but only so he could set his next plan in motion to become the most powerful force on the planet having learnt about chaos and Omega from the research of grimoire and Lucrezia Hojo hoped to summon and become Omega weapon the ultimate weapon on Gaia that could absorb the life stream he had therefore injected himself with Jenova cells something he'd done to try and perfect his body in preparation for merging with a mega weapon but it failed to take and he was preparing his back-up plan when he was interrupted and subsequently defeated left to slump over the sister rate controls later as cloud and his allies prepared for their final assault on Sephiroth at the northern crater Vincent and youth they were tasked with heading back to Midgard to help citizens escape from the impending arrival of meteor and it was during this time that Vincent decided to check on the sister Rey he wanted to see what had become of Hojo and unfortunately his suspicions were correct Hojo was still alive making his way to the top of the tower Vincent was determined to finish the job but just as he was about to pull the trigger lightning struck the sister II he recovered to find Hojo no longer there as he had uploaded himself to the worldwide network and realizing that there was nothing more he could do Vinson returned to helping evacuate people from Midgar including Rufus Shinra after the defeat of Sephiroth and successful evacuation of Maga Vincent chose to distance himself from his comrades he no longer felt the need to place himself in complete isolation as he had done before but instead of attempting to become closer with the heroes he'd saved the planet with he instead chose to travel around gaya alone looking to help people who were in need and it was during this time that Vinson would hear rumors relating to strange goings-on in the Forgotten capital upon investigating he was able to rescue Tseng and Elena saving them from certain death following their torture sessions at the hands of the remnants of Sephiroth not too long after Vinson was again called into action in the Forgotten capital this time rescuing cloud after he was bested by the three remnants in combat but with the conflict then beginning to center around the city of edge Vincent left the Forgotten capital and actively joined the fight against the remnants of sever earth he played a vital role in helping his friends defeat bahamut's in which have been summoned by kadaj but following the fight he withdrew to the Shira Sid's new airship here he watched on as clouds squared off against a reborn Sephiroth many of the others wanted to help but Vincent dissuaded them stating that cloud was capable of winning this fight on his own as he knew that this was a personal battle that he needed to get through himself after the defeat of Sephiroth for a second time Vincent's next challenge would hit much closer to home but he wouldn't initially realize this a year later the worldwide network would be restored and when vice the immaculate was performing a synaptic neck dive into it Hojo took the opportunity to seize control of eyes allowing him to act as the commander of deep ground a secret military organization that shinra kept locked away underneath mokou reactor zero now in control of a considerable military force Hojo commanded deep ground forces to launch a huge offensive on the world's population with two objectives one abduct those who weren't affected by geo stigma so that they could be sacrificed to create pure livestream therefore tricking a mega weapon into awakening early and to find Vincent Valentine as he knew the location of the protomateria which they would need to control a mega weapon once it awakened and merged with vises body they started this offensive at the village of Kampf which is where Vincent just happened to be as he was attending a festival that was taking place to celebrate the restoration of the worldwide network with so many forces in play and with Vincent actively fighting back they therefore didn't take deep ground forces too long to him this attracted the attention of these Fayette's an elite group of soldiers within deep ground forces and it meant that Vinson was accosted by shock the transparent and azul the cerulean but before things could get too tasty Hulk fainted and they were forced to withdraw as the conflict waged throughout calm Vincent was approached by Reeve his former ally who is now the leader of the world Regenesis organization he was keen to ask for assistance but Vincent was initially resistant as he had done previously Vincent was instead keen to disappear back into the shadows and remove himself from the world to wider conflicts deep grounds continued attacks they left him with little choice and after he helped Takeo calm Vincent then mentioned to edge as there had been reports of fighting there too when he arrived though the city was deserted deciding to investigate Vincent stumbled upon Cholewa Rui a wro scientist who was looking for her sister and after venturing further into the city he came face-to-face with another member of this Viet Rosso the Crimson tossed with the same mission as shulk and Azul she pressed Vincent for the location of the protomateria but after Vincent refused to divulge any information Roseau turned aggressive and caught Vincent off guard with her raw power it forced Vincent to transform into chaos in order to defend himself which led Rosso to withdraw but it also revealed to her that their protomateria was housed inside Vincent's body with their target now fully acquired thus Viette became much more aggressive with their attempt to acquire the protomateria it led to them storming the wro headquarters as they knew Vincent had been taken there to recover following the skirmish with Rosso the assault this time was led by shell and Azul but despite doing considerable damage to the complex Vincent was able to sedate shark and subdue as all after the conflict Vincent was left with many unanswered questions about his past he was obviously aware that experiments had been performed on him after his fateful encounter with Hojo decades prior but he knew very little about his powers and how he could control them he therefore decided to venture back to the Shinra mansion in search of answers as he hoped to learn more about a mega and chaos by sifting through the research that was conducted by Lucrezia his father whilst there he managed to find a hologram of Lucrezia that she had left behind but his search for knowledge was interrupted by Rosso and she played Vincent for a fool distracting him with a meaningless fight Rosa was able to rip the protomateria from Vincent's body by catching him unawares and with the mechanism that Lucrezia given him now gone Vincent was unable to control the chaos within him leaving him defenseless lying on the floor fortunately he was rescued by yuffie and after being able to recuperate the chaos within him was contained for now but there was little time for him to reflect on what had happened as the threat from deep ground was only just beginning to manifest as all awakened within the wro headquarters and it was attacked once again Vincent returned to provide aid but the WRO suffered severe losses including Cholewa who before sacrificing herself so that shot could live made Vincent promise to look after her she Lewis sacrifice affected everyone significantly and Reeve considered giving up as he didn't believe they could even compete against deep ground but Vincent as he had done with cloud the previous year knew exactly what was needed to help Reeve get through this emotional hardship he reminded him that three years prior he was taught that it was best to move ahead and this simple statement especially as it came from Vinson inspired Reeve and he started to draft up plans for an assault on Midgar it also showed that Vincent had become committed to seeing this conflict through to the end although he wasn't exactly sure why part of him had hoped that it would help to put an end to the man is surrounding his life but he was still quite lost inside himself with Reeve now reenergized the WRO hoped to deactivate the various macro reactors before storming macro reactor zero in order to stop deep ground forces from killing any more people thus preventing the summoning of a mega weapon Vincent was crucial to these plans as he would be made responsible for defeating the four remaining members of the sets as all Rosso Nero and Vice but on the eve of the battle Vincent started to lose control of the chaos inside him it was an uncomfortable sensation that he wasn't used to feeling but after seeing a vision of Lucrezia he was able to bring it back under control despite gaining assistance from his former comrades cloudberry and Tifa deepground were prepared for the assault and their defensive efforts force Vincent to miss his intended landing zone nonetheless he was able to proceed on foot his designated location and he was able to defeat Rosa the crimson at the third time of asking without needing to rely on the power of chaos soon after though chaos did rear its ugly head but Vincent was able to control it temporarily at least until his fight against us all turned sideways Vincent was able to defeat us all to a point but after the tide turn chaos appeared destroying us all at the very core it wiped Vincent out but after recovering he continued on to deep ground itself but inside he was sucked into the darkness by nero he was hoping to consume Vincent as he had done to many other countless victims but he failed to understand the source of his own powers and his strange relationship with Vincent Nero was the only successful candidate from an experiment that was based on grimoires a mega reports and it led to him being subjected to chaos and fused maco while still a fetus in his mother's womb with chaos residing as a prominent part of Vincent he was therefore immune to Nero's powers and after realizing there's Nero chose to retreat confused when they next met nearer attempted to manipulate the darkness to help him defeat Vincent but once again he was unable to succeed and retreated again to his brothers side Vincent then entered into vice his throne room to see and now a mega infused vise sucker-punched Nero as he had absolutely no clue that he was actually Hojo not vise that he had been supporting throughout this conflict Hojo then revealed himself to Vincent as well as his plans and proceeded to brutalize Vincent to test out his new all-powerful body Vincent then transformed into feral chaos but his attempts to attack Hojo were futile due to the power of Omega that now resided within Vice however after receiving words of encouragement from the Kratt Zia via Shelke as a proxy Vincent was able to use his mind to draw upon the protomateria and control chaos while maintaining his human form it put them on a level playing field and Vincent was able to best Hojo in his weakened state Nero who had now somewhat recovered there took the chance to merge with Vice creating an impure host that not only rejected omegas power but killed Hojo once and for all the unfortunate side effect was that it removed the conduit and a mega weapon was now born in its full form this also activated true chaos and Vincent lost control of himself becoming the pawn that would be tasked with sending all remaining life into the life stream for a mega to collect shulk realizing what was happening used her abilities to perform a synaptic net dive into a mega weapon allowing her to connect with Lucrezia and retrieve the protomateria for Vinson using fragments from within the network that she'll confound Vinson was then able to get a degree of closure around everything that had happened with Lucrezia he connected with her as in the fragments she left behind Lucrezia apologized for all the suffering that she had caused him throughout the years from the death of his father to manipulating and hurting him emotionally and then using him to complete her thesis and lastly above all she conveyed that she was just happy that he was able to survive these words inspired Vincent and he resolved to defeat a mega weapon and save the planet and he was aided in this mission with the help of his friends who were able to destroy the various macro reactors around Midgar with a mega weapon then looking to escape and ascend into space Vincent chose to sacrifice himself to force it to stop but he was able to survive albeit at the loss of his chaos powers his friends were desperate to learn if he had survived following the conflict and cloud were not searching for any sign of Vincent but Vincent had somewhat regrets days for myself and chose to keep his status a secret at least until he had visited the crystal cave in order to thank Lucrezia for saving his life and ultimately allowing him to save the world and that neat little conclusion brings us to the end of Vincent Valentine's story no doubt when the Final Fantasy 7 remake releases things will be fetched out quite considerably but I just really hope they flesh out his rivalry with Hojo I think it's very easy to feel sympathetic towards Vincent as a character his time on the Genova project caused severe damage to him mentally and both the Kretz he and Hojo very much responsible for this but after his self-imposed exile he was able to somewhat integrate back into society ultimately fulfilling an extremely useful role in the fight for humanity's survival and I think it's this frailty that makes Vincent such an endearing and popular character sure the way he behaves does give him an allure of mystery but once you dig deeper and understand more about his past it's difficult not to see him for what he truly is an outsider who just wants to belong but doesn't really know how anymore it's why the ending was quite satisfying for me as it showed that even without an impending crisis on the horizon Vinson was finally opening up to becoming a more active part of the group that he'd shared so much with either way that marks the end of this origins video if you made it this far make sure you give yourself that customer a pat on the back in the comments and if you enjoyed it be sure to hit that like button share this video around to all the people you know who loved Vincent and Final Fantasy 7 and why not subscribe to our channel if you haven't already also be sure to let me know what you thought and feel free to let us know what vincent means to you as a character why not also consider supporting us on patreon you get the satisfaction of knowing you happen support the channel in the creation of these kind of videos and we will reward you with amongst other things putting your name at the end of videos like these guys are I'd also like to apologize for the delay in putting this video out we always want to make sure that we're really proud of the content we produce and Vincent required a little bit more time due to all the skipping around with this story throughout the various compilation games we'll try to make sure the next one comes out a bit sooner so you two have the wait as long and as a way of apology I'll throw out a hint as to who the next character might be because they may well have a tail alright guys thank you so much for joining me on this deep dive into the lore of Final Fantasy 7 this is Daryl signing out and I'll see you next time for more Final Fantasy videos

Channel: Final Fantasy Union

Views: 803,834

Keywords: vincent valentine, vincent valentine ff7, vincent valentine final fantasy 7, vincent valentine final fantasy 7 remake, vincent valentine vs omega, vincent valentine origins, vincent valentine and lucrecia crescent, vincent valentine turk, vincent valentine history, final fantasy 7 lore, final fantasy 7 story explained, final fantasy 7 complete story

Id: RqK3M24hLA0

Length: 28min 53sec (1733 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 31 2018