~ Clothing ~ Here follows a guide featuring Vincent's various clothes and their different designs, as well as what's been said about them in different interviews. The character designer Tetsuya Nomura has said in old interviews that Vincent's black and red clothing, especially the crimson mantle, represents how he carries a heavy burden of death from his past. - The Mantle - Vincent's red mantle has changed it's appearance a lot since Tetsuya Nomura first designed it for Final Fantasy VII (and in Amano's design he didn't even have a mantle, but rather a coat instead). The number of straps differ from appearance to appearance and their design has become more and more refined. Also, in the beginning the mantle was less ragged than it is later on. Final Fantasy VII Straps: 5 (three buckled, two loose) In game (battle animation): 1 (buckled) In game (sprite): - The two collar straps differ from the three other ones. Not only are they a lot smaller than the rest, they also appear to have more massive, square buckles that fasten them to the mantle. The two loose straps are fastened to the right side of the mantle, and buckled in the middle, but they do not seem to be attached at the opposite side of the mantle, like the ones above. So it looks like they may be broken. (Collar strap) (Ordinary strap) Appearance: The mantle is whole and not very long, reaching a little further than the top of Vincent's boots. Ehrgeiz Straps: ? (the only ones visible on the portrait are the two collar straps. But I would guess that the mantle looks pretty much the same as in Final Fantasy VII. Also, the game guide uses the same character picture by Nomura that was used for Final Fantasy VII.) In game (battle animation): 3 (buckled) The two collar straps look almost exactly like they did in Final Fantasy VII. The others are not visible on the portrait picture. (Collar strap) Appearance: The mantle looks like it did in Final Fantasy VII. Whole and not very long. Before Crisis Straps: ? (as with Ehrgeiz, the only picture availible is a portrait of Vincent, with only the two collar straps visible. But here too the design of the mantle seems to be almost identical to the old Final Fantasy VII design.) In game: ? (it is really hard to see since the animation is so small...) The straps are beginning to show a newer design and look more like they do in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus instead of as in Final Fantasy VII and Ehrgeiz. (Collar strap) Appearance: The mantle appears whole but seems to be a bit longer. Advent Children Straps: 6 (four buckled, two loose) The straps have their new cross design. All straps are now clearly attached to both sides of the mantle and are fastened to each other by being buckled in the middle. The mantle has one more strap than in both Final Fantasy VII and Dirge of Cerberus. In the prolouge, during the reminisence of the battle against Sephiroth (which ocurred during the time of Final Fantasy VII, two years before Advent Children), Vincent first moves to quickly and then turns the other way, so I cannot see any of the straps clearly. Appearance: The mantle is long and ragged. It seems to change it's length and appearance from time to time. The mantle looks the same way in the prolouge as it does in the rest of the movie, long and ragged. Vincent seems to be able to completely hide himself in the mantle and move around without appearing to actually be there (which he does when he saves Cloud from Kadaj and the others). While doing this he can still do things like fire Cerberus and pick up Cloud. Dirge of Cerberus Straps: 5 (three buckled, two loose) There are two Dirge of Cerberus artworks by Tetsuya Nomura where the number of straps differ from the game. One is the picture where Vincent stands on a Cerberus skeleton and the other one is the group picture with the more Chaotic Vincent. In the Cerberus skeleton one he has four straps (all buckled), and in the group one only two buckled straps are visible. The mantle has the same number of straps in both Lost Episode and Dirge of Cerberus PlayOnline, as well as in the game's prologue (which takes place during the time of FFVII), as in the main game. In his Galian Beast form the collar straps are open and the other straps are buckled. The straps look like they did in Advent Children (except that there is one strap less) with the cross design. Appearance: The mantle is long and ragged, like it was in Advent Children. It also looks the same in the prologue. When Vincent is in his Galian Beast form the mantle appears around his waist. (In the prologue, at the time of Meteor Fall) (In DoC: Lost Episode) - Shirt - Final Fantasy VII A black shirt which seems to have at least six silver-coloured buttons. Long-sleeved, though Vincent has gathered up the right sleeve at the elbow. Turk: Vincent is wearing a white shirt. Ehrgeiz The same design as in FFVII. Turk: The white shirt looks like it did in FFVII. Before Crisis The same design as in FFVII. Advent Children A new design. Like the trousers, the shirt appears to be made of leather. Vincent no longer wears his right sleeve gathered at the elbow and his shirt is no longer fastened with buttons, but by five straps located slightly to the left (four on the torso and one at the high collar). The shirt seems to sit a little tighter on Vincent too. Dirge of Cerberus The same design as in AC. Turk: A white shirt as in previous designs. Galian Beast: A few shreds remain of the black shirt. Chaos: It's hard to say what is dark skin and what is clothing. - Coat - Final Fantasy VII The coat that is a part of Vincent's Turk outfit looks like the one Tseng is wearing: Deep blue, has three pockets on the front and is closed with a zipper. Ehrgeiz The coat looks like it did in FFVII. Dirge of Cerberus Vincent's coat is a darker hue of blue and it no longer has the third pocket on the left side of the chest. Also, a small Shinra pin has been added to it's collar. - Tie - Final Fantasy VII Vincent is wearing a black tie as a part of his Turk outfit. Ehrgeiz Vincent is wearing a black tie as a part of his Turk outfit. Dirge of Cerberus The tie has changed it's appareance from the previous design and is now deep blue instead of black. A tie pin has also been added to it. - Trousers - Final Fantasy VII Black and loose. Turk: Deep blue and with pockets. Look like the ones Reno is wearing. Ehrgeiz Look like they did in FFVII. Turk: Look like they did in FFVII. Before Crisis Look like they did in FFVII. Advent Children Vincent's black trousers are now clearly made out of leather rather than some kind of cloth. Also, they are less loose. Dirge of Cerberus The trousers look like they did in AC. Turk: Vincent is wearing a pair of dark cloth trousers. Galian Beast: The trousers are in shreds and only reach the knees. Chaos: What remains of them looks very chaotic. - Belts - Final Fantasy VII Vincent is wearing two belts. Ehrgeiz The belts look like they did in FFVII. Before Crisis The same design as in FFVII. Advent Children The belts have a new cross and fleur-de-lis design. Dirge of Cerberus The belts look like they did in AC. Galian Beast: The belts looks like they do in his ordinary form. - Gloves - There are two different designs for Vincent's gloves: The old one where Vincent's right glove is short and fingerless, and the new one used for Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus where it's long and strapped. Final Fantasy VII Right glove: Short, black and fingerless. Left glove: The black glove on his left hand isn't fingerless, but you can't see if it's a long or a short glove. Turk (sprite): Both gloves are short and gray. The trading arts Vincent Turk statue doesn't have any gloves at all, though (like Vincent's Turk animation in DoC). Ehrgiez Right glove: Short, black and fingerless. Left glove: As in FFVII. Turk: Both gloves are short, black and fingerless. Before Crisis Right glove: Short, black and fingerless. Left glove: Presumably as in FFVII. Advent Children Right glove: The new design. Long, black and with three straps. Left glove: Apparantely also long and black. Dirge of Cerberus Right glove: As in Advent Children. Long, black and with three straps. Galian Beast: Long, black and with three straps, but now also with claws. Chaos: Short and black. What once were the three straps are worn around the arm. Left glove: Apparantely also long and black. Galian Beast: Nearly the same as in Vincent's ordinary form. Chaos: Black. Maybe short to match the right one? - Boots - At an early stage Vincent's boots were rendered as round and not pointed, but Yoshinori Kitase asked for them to be made as they are. Final Fantasy VII Vincent wears a pair of armoured brown boots. The armour of each boot consists of three layered parts and a ring just above the wrist. In this design the armour does not cover the upper part of the foot. The armour is made of a metal with a dark, brass-like colour. Ehrgeiz The design and colour of the boots look like they did in FFVII. Before Crisis The boots have their old design from FFVII. Advent Children The boots now have a new design. They are black rather than brown and the armour looks different. The armour still consists of three parts, but they do not lie in layers and reach from the tip of the boot to the ring above the wrist. Also, the metal is of a lighter hue. Dirge of Cerberus The boots look like they did in Advent Children. Galian Beast: The only remains of the boots are two parts of armour on each paw, one around the wrist and the other across the middle of the paw. Chaos: The boots and the armour have a whole new shape. The boots cover less of the back of the legs, but stretch above the knees on the front. The armour on the feet is more split up and wing-like spurs extend from the heels, the ring is not much different though. Also, the knees are also covered with armour. - Shoes - Final Fantasy VII The shoes Vincent used to wear as a Turk were grey and quite large. Ehrgeiz The shoes Vincent wears as a part of his Turk outfit are brown instead of grey. Dirge of Cerberus Vincent's shoes look much like the Ehrgeiz design, but they are now black. - The Bandana - Final Fantasy VII The bandana Vincent uses to bind up his hair is of the same deep red colour as his mantle. Ehrgeiz The bandana looks like it did in FFVII. Before Crisis Looks like in FFVII. Advent Children The bandana has a new look and it's colour is now of a much bleaker hue, different from the deep red colour of the mantle. Dirge of Cerberus The bandana looks like it did in AC (even if Vincent seems to wear it a little bit differently). Chaos: Then bandana is really chaotic and stretches down from his head to his chest, as well as spiking up into his hair. - Death Gigas - Vincent's second limit break is wearing a bandage instead of the bandana, a pair of gigantic, purple trainers, more bandages, a belt, a dark pair of trousers and various pieces of metal. - Hellmasker - Vincent's third limit break is wearing a hockey goalkeeper mask and matching red gloves, a pair of thick, dark boots, a ragged, purple and yellow shirt with the text "LIVE-ING-DEAD" and a pair of equally ragged brown shorts. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children - Reunion Files - STAFF NOTES Nomura: We designed simple costumes for the other characters, but I thought it would be strange to give Vincent a different set of clothes than he had in the past, because it would conflict with his personality. So he's the only character who has a costume made up of various, complex parts. Putting togehter his gauntlets and boots took a lot of effort, and his cape has organic features which made it difficult to create. We have "swaying objects" in the CG world such as cloth, and it's common knowledge that the larger a swaying object is, the more difficult it's going to be to get it just right. Vincent's scenes were especially hard to create because of all his complexities. CG STAFF NOTES The fruits of our labor can be seen when Vincent's on camera. Nozune: The scene where Vincent comes to help Cloud was a major headache to get right. His organic cape practically looks alive, and we worked hard to convey it's elusive nature of seemingly having shape, but not. We made so many different variations, and kept tweaking them until six months before the deadline. We also worked on his mouth movements a lot, but most of that couldnt't even be seen in the end because the collar of his cape got in the way (laughs). Such a shame. - On Fire! - In Advent Children, during his fight agains Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo, the gunfire made Vincent's mantle catch fire. But since Vincent's clothing too seems to be immortal, this is not a problem at all. - Dusty! - Surprisingly enough, Vincent's clothing too can become a bit dusty. Even his hair can look quite messy! This is shown in Advent Children Complete. Although, he looks as usual again in the end of the movie. - Similarities between Vincent's and Cloud Strife's KH outfit - The outfit Cloud Strife is wearing in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has several similarities to Vincent's clothing. Cloud is wearing a red, ragged mantle (KH came out before Advent Children, so at that time Vincent clothing had not gotten it's new design and therefore his mantle was still whole), the various belts he carries looks like the one of Vincent's, and his left glove has claws of a metal of similar colour as Vincent's armour. Cloud even has the cross design that is later used on Vincent's straps on his belt buckle. Also, the spike on Cloud's demonic wing looks a lot like the Cerberus pendant's tail. The thruth is, Vincent was originally supposed to be in KH, but in the end he was replaced by Cloud. But since Cloud was fighting for the dark side, some of the elements of Vincent's clothing remained. - Similarities between Vincent's and Grimoire's clothing - Vincent is wearing pretty much the same outfit as his father, Grimoire Valentine, used to wear. Yoshinori Kitase, the producer of Dirge of Cerberus, even stated that the bandana is the very same as Grimoire used to have, and that it "somehow" became Vincent's later on. The black trousers, belts, shirt and gloves look nearly exactly the same as Vincent's, with only a few minor differences (like the shirt missing it's straps and the gloves having brown straps instead of black). The boots are of a lighter hue and are strapped, and do not have any metal parts added to them, but apart from that they too aren't that different from the ones Vincent wears. The mantle has the same amount of straps but is much wider and dark instead of the colour of blood. Kitase said the following about the similarities of the bandana and mantle in the interview "The Birth of Dirge of Cerberus": "This is about Vincent's mantle. It seems that it's the same mantle that is seen on Grimoire. What is the origin/concept of this mantle?" Kitase: "Oh right. So when I was talking to Nomura about the design, I said, "Make something that people could see on the first sight and recognize that they are father and son". From then on, it became a discussion about whether if using mantle is a good idea. Grimoire's scarf somehow became Vincent's turban [the hairband], it’s basically the same thing, but it's worn in a different way. And that's why we think that if we put something that can relate those two together, when people see it, they will go, "Oh! This is the father!""