She was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, and was first introduced in the 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII as a young female ninja princess and thief.

[8] Having a close attachment to Yuffie's character, Final Fantasy VII event planner Jun Akiyama was responsible for most cutscenes featuring her and her actions during fights.

[9] Regarding the use of Japanese pronouns, Yuffie uses atashi "as opposed to the other female characters who use watashi, perhaps to make her sound more cute or youthful, as she is younger than the others".

[10] Mae Whitman, who voiced Yuffie in the English versions of Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus, said she was not "aware of the extent to which people were familiar with her character already".

[16] Square Enix changed Yuffie's original design to include more realistic details while preserving its ninja aspects and Japanese style.

[1] Yuffie is introduced when she ambushes the protagonist Cloud Strife and his allies in a random encounter in a forest biome, appearing as "Mystery Ninja".

[24] However, once in Wutai Village, Yuffie steals the party's Materia and hides, but is kidnapped by a Midgar crime lord, the lecherous Don Corneo.

[34] Yuffie is featured in Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, appearing as the sole playable character in its bonus Intermission storyline, which occurs parallel to the story of the main game.

[36] In the 2005 animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Yuffie reunites with her allies to fight against the summon creature Bahamut SIN.

[37] In the 2004 action role-playing game Before Crisis, which is set six years before Final Fantasy VII, Yuffie encounters Shinra's agents called the Turks in Wutai and unknowingly[38] works with them against the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE.

In the 2006 third-person shooter game Dirge of Cerberus, which is set one year after Advent Children, Yuffie leaves home and joins the World Regenesis Organization, where she is placed in charge of espionage and intelligence gathering.

[39] A nine-year-old Yuffie makes brief appearances in the 2007 prequel action role-playing game Crisis Core, where she fights against Shinra following their invasion and takeover of Wutai.

In the first Kingdom Hearts, a younger Yuffie acts as a supporting character in Traverse Town, helping to defeat the Heartless who destroyed her world.

[42] In 2005's Kingdom Hearts II, she aids Leon and the others as part of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee,[43] and appears in her Advent Children attire.

In the 2008 action role-playing / fighting game hybrid Dissidia Final Fantasy, she appears as a tutor of the in-game manuals and an unlockable friend card.

[62] David Smith from IGN included her on their top ten Final Fantasy VII characters, stating that she "belongs in the Wacky Sidekicks wing of the RPG hall of fame"; although commenting that Yuffie can sometimes be "a pain in the neck", Smith said that she became such an appealing sidekick character that Square would go on to use the "Yuffie formula" with Rikku for Final Fantasy X.

[66] Jef Rouner of the Houston Press described Yuffie's reaction to Aerith's death as one of the five most "heartbreaking" missable scenes in the Final Fantasy franchise, which he felt rivaled the emotional impact of anything found in the main narrative.

[69] In 2010, Scott Sharkey of 1UP.com described her as being in the category of "The Perky Idiot" alongside Rikku and Selphie while discussing the top five character types in the Final Fantasy series.