In the backstory to Final Fantasy VII, Vincent is a Turk assigned to guard the scientist Lucrecia Crescent, whom he falls in love with.

After a series of scientific experiments involving the cells of the extraterrestrial lifeform Jenova, Crescent gives birth to the game's antagonist, Sephiroth, with Hojo being the father.

Due to time constraints, Vincent was originally not intended to be playable in Final Fantasy VII, but was ultimately made an optional character.

Despite his optional status and lack of concrete detail regarding his background, he proved to be popular with both fans and critics, and his history was expanded upon in other installments of the Compilation, primarily Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus.

Director Yoshinori Kitase was in charge of the cutscene, in which Vincent joined the party, while scenario writer Kazushige Nojima wrote his backstory.

[5] When the game was in development, Nomura and his staff considered removing Vincent and Yuffie Kisaragi since they did not have enough time to work them into the story properly.

[6] Vincent was chosen as the protagonist of Dirge of Cerberus due to his strong connections to the setting of Final Fantasy VII and the potential for expanding on his background.

Players can unlock Vincent by the halfway point of Final Fantasy VII, when Cloud Strife and his allies find him sleeping in a coffin in the basement of Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim.

While serving as Lucrecia's bodyguard, he fell in love with her, but she ultimately decided to remain faithful to Hojo, who persuaded her to use her unborn baby in his experiments.

Hojo reveals that his plan is to awaken Omega WEAPON, who will absorb the Lifestream and leave the Planet, resulting in the death of all living things.

[24] Outside the Final Fantasy VII series, Vincent appears in the fighting game Ehrgeiz as an unlockable character, with his Turk uniform as an alternate costume.

[33] IGN has praised for his "striking" character design, as well as the fact that "FFVII's 3D engine made his shapeshifting Limit Breaks some surprisingly scary stuff".

GameSpot writer Greg Mueller regarded Vincent as one of "the more interesting characters from Final Fantasy VII" and liked how Dirge of Cerberus was focused on him and explained his origins more clearly.

[37] His character design and abilities have been praised by GameSpy's Justin Speer, who felt that with such traits he "capably steps into a leading role" of Dirge of Cerberus.

[39] Eurogamer's Rob Fahey criticized Vincent for not being familiar enough to players, even to those who played the original Final Fantasy VII, to warrant his role as protagonist in Dirge of Cerberus.

[40] Although RPGamer's Michael "CactuarJoe" Beckett said that Vincent was one of the "less well-developed" characters from Final Fantasy VII, he found his development in Dirge of Cerberus to be satisfying.

[45] GamesRadar was disappointed that Vincent's role in Rebirth would not be as active as in the original game, comparing him to the early inclusion of Red XIII as AI controlled rather than playable.