Yuffie

Yuffie is a spirited ninja introduced in , and originally taken from the Square Enix game Final Fantasy VII. She travels with Leon, whom she often refers to by his real name, Squall, much to his annoyance. She sometimes refers to herself as the "Great Ninja Yuffie", and wields a large fuma shuriken as her weapon.

Development
Yuffie's role was originally filled by Rikku, but due to the fact that there was already a major character named Riku in the series, they decided to replace her with Yuffie. Traces of Rikku's intended attire remain on Yuffie during Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. By Kingdom Hearts II, Yuffie wore the clothing she had on in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Yuffie, along with Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Cid, and Leon were originally set to appear in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. However, in the final release, they were removed from the game because, according to Nomura, there were too many plot lines already, and it would have gotten confusing.

Before Kingdom Hearts
Yuffie lived in Radiant Garden along with Aerith, Leon, and Cid. Maleficent took over her world with the Heartless nine years before the events of  and since then she has lived in Traverse Town with her old friends.

Kingdom Hearts
Yuffie appears shortly after Sora's battle with Leon and drags the two of them back to the motel. When Sora wakes up in the motel, he mistakes Yuffie for being Kairi as he is still only semi-conscious and refers to her as such, leading Yuffie to remark that Leon "might've overdone it". Afterwards, Yuffie and Leon tell Sora about the Keyblade while inside the Traverse Town motel.

Later on after Sora, Donald, and Goofy has put an end to Maleficent and her councils of villains, Yuffie along with Leon, Aerith, and Cid finally returns to their home world.

In the fight cups at Olympus Coliseum, Yuffie is fought numerous times by herself and alongside Leon. She fights primarily by throwing small shuriken and swinging her larger one as a weapon, but she is also able to recover lost health if she is not interrupted.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
A replica of Yuffie, based on Sora's memories of her, appears within the Traverse Town floor of Castle Oblivion. She doesn't remember Sora at first, but the links in his heart help her to start recalling bits and pieces, which she notes as strange yet convenient. Later in the conversation, she is bemused by Sora's claim that their town exist within a castle.

Kingdom Hearts II
Yuffie is featured more prominently in this game than the previous two, appearing in her Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children attire. She is the first person to meet Sora as his party enters Hollow Bastion and leads them to Merlin's house. There, she introduces the familiar friends from Traverse Town and the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee (the latter of which she is a member of).

She explains about the town's defense system to Sora, Donald and Goofy and, later on in the game, fights alongside Sora in the Ravine Trail during the invasion of Hollow Bastion. Once she and Sora clear the area of enemies, she leaves to assist Leon and the others. As in Kingdom Hearts, she is available to fight in the tournament cups in the Underworld at Olympus Coliseum.

Kingdom Hearts coded
After Data-Sora collects every Ending Card in Castle Oblivion, Data-Roxas allows him to open the final door and learn the truth behind the hurt. Right as Data-Sora moves to open the door, illusions of Leon and Yuffie appear to congratulate him for keeping Traverse Town safe, explaining that something urgent came up that they had to deal with. They express a wish to someday work alongside him, and give him a Debug Device: Y and a Heat Sink Belt before departing.

Kingdom Hearts manga
In the manga, Yuffie's scenes are often expanded on and her childishness is shown in more detail, though she is shown to become much more serious at the mention of Maleficent.

Design
Yuffie is sixteen years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, and seventeen during the events of Kingdom Hearts II.

Yuffie's appearance in Kingdom Hearts resembles her look in Final Fantasy VII, though she lacks her leg brace and arm guard. Yuffie has short, black hair and wears a metal headband with two green tassels. She wears a yellow scarf (which was never present in her Final Fantasy VII designs; it is a leftover from Rikku, who was originally to fill Yuffie's role), a green tube top two blue belts holding it up (as opposed to her original turtleneck), tan short-shorts with another loose, blue belt around her waist, white socks that reach about mid-thigh, orange shoes, and mesh sleeves on her arms that disappear into orange, fingerless gloves with black bands constricting the ends. She is also seen wearing this outfit in Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Yuffie's appearance changes to match her look in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Her eyes are violet in this game, as opposed to the blue-grey they were in the first game. Yuffie switches her original forehead guard for a regular black headband with white lining. She wears an unzipped, dark grey combat vest with a black strap dangling from the right pocket overtop a navy blue tank top with white floral designs. She wears a white wristband on her right wrist and a grey, fingerless glove on her left arm. Her shorts are slightly darker and have another black strap dangling from the left side. Yuffie also wears black, over-the-knee socks with white stripes at the top underneath dark tan sneaker boots that are knee-high in length. In both of her appearances, Yuffie uses her 4-Point Shuriken from Final Fantasy VII as her weapon.

Personality
Yuffie is hyperactive, but tires out easily due to her high energy and quick movement. She is hard-working and determined, set on repairing her home of Radiant Garden and aiding Sora in his campaign against the Heartless and other foes. She is usually friendly, cheerful and mischievous. She is, however, lacking the original's signature traits of sneakiness and selfishness.

Abilities
In Kingdom Hearts Yuffie uses slashing and throwing attacks similar to those of her Final Fantasy counterpart. She also uses "Greased Lightning" to jump into the air and throw a shuriken. She can even heal herself by using her ability "Clear Tranquil". When enraged she will use "Doom of The Living" where she throws a gigantic, magically infused shuriken at her opponent.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Yuffie can teleport leaving smoke and blowing leaves behind. She uses her shuriken exclusively as a close range weapon this time around and has a powerful attack where she charges her Shuriken up with magic and lets it fly around her. Yuffie is non-affected by most elemental magic.

Origin
Yuffie Kisaragi originally debuted in Final Fantasy VII as one of the two secret characters that could be recruited to the party if certain conditions were met, though she later on joins the main cast in the Compilation. A ninja born in the western continent, Wutai, Yuffie lives her life hunting Materia, having developed an obsession with it early in her childhood.

Notes and references
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