If I wasn't already a fan of Yuffie, I would have been after playing this. Such an adorable little thing she is and the fact her design wasn't changed shocked me. The moogle cape was pretty cute too though. She was just so fun to use with the ability to imbue your shuriken with different elements and the synergy mechanic was a fun change to the combat. A shame Sonon couldn't be controlled in battle cuz I do love me a combat staff but it was clear he's expected to be used as a meatshield cuz Yuffie is maybe 15% more durable than a piece of tissue paper. I liked that early on in the game Yuffie was doing her original victory animation after all the fights cuz its nice to see things like that not just disappear.

In terms of story, its not the best and its breakneck which is the opposite of the base game. Your have a handful of areas you're gonna go to but exploration is not the name of the game. Yet somehow I still found myself enjoying this dlc more than the base game. No, no cuz of my Yuffie bias but I think cuz it was wholly new it wasn't being constantly compared to the OG in my mind. I'm looking forward to running my OG Cloud, Red, Yuffie party in part 2 even more than before.