The folks over at the PlayStation Blog have served up a bit of new information on Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade – straight from the mind of director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura. With the June 10th launch of the game drawing near, he had plenty to say on Yuffie’s inclusion and some words on his overall design philosophy.

As a character, Yuffie Kisaragi has always been the youngest member of the cast going back to the original Final Fantasy VII. In Remake, that fact remains and a key point of her design when looking at the updated version – she is still a teenager after all. “Cloud and crew would look more mature to an extent,” says Nomura, because he’s put particular attention on making sure she looked her age.

He notes that he wanted Yuffie to show up in a disguise at first – which is why she’s sporting the Moogle outfit from Dirge of Cerberus. “I had recalled that she was dressed like that in Dirge of Cerberus – Final Fantasy VII, and so I gave her a similar look here.”

This isn’t the first time Yuffie has seen a design change. She looked different in Advent Children and the aforementioned Dirge of Cerberus but Nomura notes that he tries to not change her silhouette. He also makes sure to keep certain design elements like her shorts as close to the original as possible.

When looking at her personality in Remake compared to the original, Nomura had this to say, “When considering Yuffie in a large group, you can’t help but notice how energetic she is, but I think she is also a character whose inner workings become more visible the closer you get. In this episode, you will mainly be following Yuffie and a new character, her partner Sonon. So, I believe that you will be able to get closer to Yuffie than usual.”

And as for why the team chose her instead of Cid or Vincent? Well that’s because the overall story still follows that of the original. That means Vincent is still sleeping and Cid is still dreaming of rockets with Shinra. Yuffie is the only additional character that could currently move freely.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is due out on June 10 for PS5. FF7R Episode INTERmission will be available as a separate purchase for those upgrading from the PS4 version for $19.99.