I can't believe that freaking Terra and Locke are optional recruits in the finale of FF6. Who in their right mind would skip them? Terra, Locke and Celes are a MUST for the final battle imo. They are the main characters.

Yuffie always felt a little too essential to be so easily missed. Not necessarily because of her mechanics, but because the Wutai side-quest feels kind of necessary for FFVII's story-line. It fill in some of the consequences of the Shinra-Wutai war that's an important backstory element for Aerith and Sepiroth among others, it gives you closure on Don Corneo's plot line, the Turks further on-screen development, and it really develops the themes of imperialistic capitalism with the culture and pride of the Wutai people reduced to an exotic aesthetic for rich Midgardian tourists. All while giving the player a bit of levity and breathing room in a narrative which goes from one heavy story beat to the next.

You forgot to say that Yuffie's ultimate weapon can do max damage with the "Morph" command making sources farm less tedious.

I missed Vincent completely on my first play through because I played on a small screen, 10 square inch TV and the room was so dark I just couldn't see his coffin.

I'm glad that Vincent and Yuffie are being fully integrated into the Remake Trilogy's story.

One character that really should have been an optional character is Beatrix from FF9. Honestly she is my second favorite FF character and would have been a great character to have in the game, Freya is my favorite.

"I...so happy." - Quina's line in IX after the wedding of her and Vivi. This is still one of my fav FF lines of all times and makes me giggle each time still all these years later.

EVERY optional character not recruited I'd regret.

Missed Vincent completely first time around. Only noticed after reading the manual after and thinking “who was that?”

0:57 ironic showing Tactics Cloud as people were more likely to regret recruiting him in the original game

I do enjoy the fact that Yuffie and Vincent have tools that either greatly increase Item Duping efficiency or can straight up break the game like Death Penalty.

I feel also Yuffie is better in terms of people who are temped to use them at first possible chance. The next boss bottomswell Yuffie can reach...Vincent materia keeper his limit break heals him. Also fun fact you can recruit both Yiffue and Vincent when Tifa and Cid are leading and get different dialogue. Recruiting Yuffie with Tifa is especially funny. Also the Wutai sidequest can be done with Tifa or Cid as well.

Balthier was an absolute monster in War of the Lions. His base job was a better version of Mustadio mixed with Thief and had ridiculously high speed. He was especially dangerous mixed with the Dragoon's Jump ability since he could use Lances and with his absurd speed would land almost instantly for huge damage.

Truly a sad time recruiting cloud in fft and finding out how underwhelming he was after all that work.

My first playthrough of ff7 I was fighting Ultima Weapon and put Vincent in Chaos form just before my party got killed. Vincent controls himself in his chaos form so I watch a epic battle between him and Ultima Weapon. Every time Ultima used his strongest attack Vincent would heal from it due to his lighting resistance. The battle went on for a solid 3 minutes before Vincent came out on top.
Vincent Valentine's the greatest.

A personal favorite optional character of mine is Worker/Construct 8 from Tactics...

I don't know why, I just love the Robot.

I couldn't imagine playing FF7 without Yuffie. I only got her in the second trip to rocket town on my first play through, I quickly took a liking to her as she was a lot more chirpy than Tifa and Aerith who were too busy thirsting over Cloud. On my second play through I got her early and saw her reaction to Aerith's death and man I'd never been hit emotionally like that by a game before, It cemented her as my favourite character. Seeing someone so lighthearted and funny be reduced to crying in Clouds arms was rough it shows how much she really cares.

Doesn't hurt that her ultimate weapon is busted and Doom of the Living is arguably the coolest looking limit break in the game.

Yuffie was essential, if you wanted to experience the full extent of world building, since she had an entire rather long questline attached to it, which implies, that she was the closest to becoming an essential character in the final roster( the fact that you could recruit her early on, and that she appears at multiple forest throughout Gaia makes it very likely that you may encounter her throughout the story is telling). Eventually the Wutai War became part of the story of many prequels, including Before Crisis and Crisis Core. The Remake Trilogy even seems to build up to a new Wutai War for part three. Rufus had the Sister Ray be fired, regardless of the warnings, that this could be a declaration of war on Wutai, and Yuffie's subsequent assasination attempt on Rufus both may be a big indicator for it.

Vincent on the other hand had a hidden flashback regarding Lucrecia Crescent, in a hidden cave, expanding on the Backstory of FFVII's most influential villain Hojo and the truth behind the birth of his son Sephiroth.

I never knew quina wasn’t mandatory until disk 2. I’ve always just recruited her in the marsh. Learn something new every day.

I saw best girl Yuffie, automatic click.
I would always prioritize picking her up ASAP. She was a Great contrast to everyone else's overly serious attitudes