Vincent Valentine Lore: Why Was He in a Coffin? – Final Fantasy VII

The second chapter of Final Fantasy VII remake, Rebirth, is on its way and you know what it means: it’s Vincent Valentine’s time! 
Ok, let’s all calm down.
It has been confirmed that Vincent Valentine will indeed be in the game, but the bitter sweet news is that we can’t play him: it will, instead, be controlled by AI. Seriously, Square Enix? Why am I still throwing money at you?

Vincent Valentine is the epitome of the badass, brooding character wielding a badass three-barreled gun. I mean, we discover Vincent while he is sleeping inside a coffin. 

A coffin, dammit. 

Talking about weapons, in this article I researched the biggest weapons in real-world’s history!

So, how did Vincent Valentine become the vampire-like creature with a metal claw that everybody loves? Let’s shine a light on the events that will lead Vincent to be discovered by Cloud’s party. 

The Turbulent Past: Vincent Valentine’s Shinra Days

Born in 1950, he is the son of Grimoire Valentine, a scientist working for Shinra who discovered two entities, Chaos and Omega, which can potentially lead to the end of the world. Grimoire Sr. Will later die in mysterious circumstances. 

At the age of 25, Vincent joined Shinra’s Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department: The Turks.

As part of a mission, the Jenova Project in Nibelheim, his duty was to protect a group of researchers led by Hojo, an unlikeable scientist with a slimy ponytail, who was conducting experiments on the body of the “Calamity from the skies”, which single-handedly has almost caused the extinction of the Cetra, an ancient civilization.
The funny part is that the researchers believed this alien, named Jenova, to be one of the Cetra! 

Part of this research was made of experiments of dubious morale, including the creation of a Human-Cetra hybrid in order to “save humanity”. Shinra’s just being Shinra, pretty much. 

Vincent Valentine’s Love for Lucrecia

Vincent later falls in love with one of the researchers, Lucrecia Crescent, who will become a big deal for both Vincent’s story and for everything that will happen in Final Fantasy VII.  

They enjoy each other’s company for a while, but the time passes, and one day Vincent discovers some documents in which it was written that Lucrecia was Grimoire Valentine’s assistant in the Chaos research. After talking to her to understand more about this, Lucrecia, overwhelmed by guilt since she was responsible for Grimoire’s death, runs away from Vincent and in the disgusting, slimy arms of Hojo. 

She will end up being pregnant with Hojo’s child, which will later become our favorite villain ever: Sephiroth. 

After a couple of months, Vincent finds out Hojo’s true intent for Project Jenova. They were indeed creating a hybrid, but for military purposes: a Human-Alien genetic combination with improved agility, strength and speed called SOLDIER. 

He also discovers that Lucrecia was convinced by Hojo to experiment with their unborn child by injecting in him Jenova’s cell, hence why Sephiroth will become that strong later on. 

Vincent, angry and disgusted, confronts Hojo about all of this, who will reason with him by shooting Vincent and leaving him almost dead.  
To add insult to injury, he will use Vincent’s body to conduct various experiments which will give Vincent the ability of metamorphosis.  

This did not stop Vincent from dying, and after considering his experiments on his body a failure, Hojo gets rid of him. 

The Death and Rebirth of Vincent Valentine

Out of love and guilt, Lucrecia tries to resuscitate Vincent by injecting him with Mako containing Chaos’ genes. Chaos, though, is one of the most powerful beings in the world and does not like to be confined in Vincent’s body.
In order to placate it, Lucrecia implants the Protomateria (in this article, Screenrant explains why the Protomateria is so important) in Vincent’s chest. This unique Materia should give Vincent the ability to control Chaos… to a certain extent. 

Injecting Chaos in Vincent does stop the body from decaying but seems to not be enough to resurrect Vincent.  
After falling into complete sorrow due to Vincent’s death and his baby taken away by Hojo for further experiments, Lucrecia will flee Shinra Mansion to never return. 

It is not a spoiler to say that Vincent is not dead, otherwise we would not be able to play him in FFVII.  

What happens later seems to be taken out straight from Shakespeare: he wakes up; discovers what happened to Lucrecia and her baby; he feels responsible for not stopping any of this; locks himself in a coffin for 20 years to make amends for his sins.  

His sleep will eventually be interrupted for a little bit, while it will be awoken by members of the Turks when searching for the Zirconiade Materia. He will help them fighting members of AVALANCHE first generation, which were not as kind as the AVALANCHE members that we will later come to love, only to return to his slumber when the Turks secured the Materia.  

Conclusion

Vincent Valentine’s story is incredibly intricated and lasts for much longer than the events of Final Fantasy VII. He will end up becoming one of the strongest beings on the whole planet, and he will discover Lucrecia’s fate. 

But I am not here to spoil this for you, this time. My objective was to prepare you, or refresh your knowledge, before rejoining our hero presumably early 2024. 

If you are interested in Vincent Valentine’s complete story, you might want to read his wiki page… or you can do the right thing and play “Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII”, which I personally really liked despite not being a fan’s favorite. In a way I can understand, since the whole Deepground faction is based on a weak concept, but it is worthy of a cheesy character like Vincent. 

If you are waiting for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, chances are the you are waiting for Silksong as well. Here’s a little refresher about the lore of Hollow Knight, in case!

For now, I bid you farewell, and I’ll see you in the next article!