In yet another divergence from the original game, Final Fantasy VII Remake may make Yuffie and Vincent non-optional party companions.
While the remake is loyal to the original game in many–though not all–respects, it’s also established a precedent of taking optional events in the original and making them scripted. Take the scene at the Seventh Heaven with Aerith’s flower, for example. In the original game, Cloud had the choice of giving Aerith’s flower to either Marlene or Tifa, but the remake locks him into a cutscene where he presents the flower to Tifa.
Furthermore, when AVALANCHE infiltrates Shinra HQ in the original game, Mayor Domino has the player solve a fairly frustrating puzzle before he’s willing to part with his keycard. The original game’s developers must have realized how much players would struggle with the puzzle, because they implemented an option to bribe the Mayor’s secretary for hints.
The remake’s developers must have felt more sympathetic to players' frustrations, because the new Mayor Domino hates Shinra so much that he practically throws his keycard at you—no puzzle solving or bribery necessary, just a single humorous cutscene with a very, very angry old man.
Those are just two examples of options that the remake has turned into scripted events. It's likely that the remake made these changes in anticipation of what returning players wanted to see. While the scene with Aerith’s flower threw shipping fans a bone, Mayor Domino’s puzzle was likely cut because, well, Cloud doesn’t have a brain; players would probably be pissed if they had to hold off on rescuing Aerith from Hojo’s clutches because of some old man’s puzzle. Why implement anti-frustration features when you can just cut the whole mechanic?
With these changes in mind, it stands to reason that Yuffie and Vincent, two optional party members who show up in the latter half of the original game, might also get the same treatment.
In the original game, Yuffie is twice encountered in various forest locations, where she challenges the party to a fight. Players are given the option of inviting her to join AVALANCHE after defeating her for the second time, and while having her in the party doesn’t change the story, it introduces additional quests and provides a deeper insight into Wutai, Shinra, and a few of the party members’ backstories.
Vincent is likewise an optional character, but unlike Yuffie, players could go through the original VII and not meet him at all. That’s because he’s sleeping in a locked coffin in the basement of Nibelheim's spooky Shinra mansion, and if players don’t trigger all the requirements to open the coffin and wake Vincent up, they could miss out on him entirely.
Final Fantasy VII’s status as a cult classic has turned much of what made its story shocking and unique into common cultural knowledge. Although there are certainly players who are experiencing it for the first time through the remake, returning fans are likely burning to reintroduce themselves to everyone’s favorite thief and broody vampire.