Here we are with another throwback figure from the Final Fantasy vol. 2 line up of Playarts! This time it is none other than Vincent Valentine, everyone's favorite secret character from FFVII! Okay, not everyone's, but he definitely is one of my favorite character from Final Fantasy VII! How did he translate into a Playarts figure?
I remember seeing the advertisement for this wave and I was elated to find out we were getting a game version of Yuffie, Vincent, AND we get a Red XIII, and of course Sephiroth was from this wave as well! I have all four. Might do one of Nanaki and Yuffie too when I have time.
And of course Vincent is very conservative when we are talking about his accessories. An alternate hand and his handgun (the default gun I believe when you first recruit him in FFVII). He does come with the standard Playarts stand, which is still better than what Marvel Legends gives us (which, they give us NO stands).
Now I personally like the way Vincent looks. I have to be perfectly honest that a lot of his aesthetic inspired some of my idea of what my "OC" would look like during that era of my life. As how he translates as a Playarts figure, he looks amazing. The very 'anime' look of his hair was sculpted well, the gold gauntlets and boots have a very defined look to them, and the rest of his outfit definitely says "Vincent" all over it. The trademark cape is just flawless to how Vincent looks in the game.
The paint work is also great. The right combination of red and black is always nice; the gold looks rustic, and the black, though minimal to no variation of color still looks nice. There is shading on his hair that comes out brown--lighting effects of course. Sculpt is nice too so I can't really complain about Vincent's aesthetics.
So for some face comparison here. Definitely accurate to his game counterpart. His cloak does cover his mouth in the original game so that stayed true.
And this is his AC look.I don't have any qualms with the look since it is accurate to the movie. I do like his video game aesthetics better though.
Now when talking about his articulation, this is where he falls off the 'cool' edge. While he has more to offer than another figure from this wave, I can say that is mostly because of Vincent's character design, and even then, his costume look is one of the biggest hinderance of his range of movement. While I'm keeping in mind that he is a bit on the 'older' model of Playarts, he does have some flaws that could have been dealt with at that time he was released. The cape is his biggest flaw. Without cape articulation, there is very little dynamic poses he can do. The hair lacks as well and since it is not as pliable, it does hinder the head. It also does not help that he doesn't have any noteworthy interchangeable hands. One of the gauntlet hand might have been nice, but they left that out completely.
You are pretty much left with this kind of pose half the time. Oh, the part of his cloak that drapes on his shoulder does have some up and down motion; which means that his arm can go up to about 90 degrees. Makes for good shooting action!
Compared to his AC counterpart, he can move his arms up; AC Vincent cannot due to the 'locked' cloak; again, true to the character, but bad for figure version. Though in-game Vincent does not have the soft cape that the movie version does. Shame. Both cool looking figures though.
All in all, he is not a bad looking figure. He is limited in certain areas, but he does well in aesthetics and collection points. It was pretty nostalgic to get him out of the box and review him; then again, reviewing Sephiroth, and Rikku was pretty neat. Definitely shows how far Playarts have come! Well, Here is my 'remastered' Final Fantasy shelf! I might do another one... a FFIX character.... we'll see. Hope you like the review though!
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