Vincent is a man physically in his late 20s, and stands at exactly six feet tall. He has crimson eyes and long black hair that streams about a bit wildly at times. He wears a red band over his head with his bangs emerging over it. Vincent's most distinctive feature is his tattered red cape, held in place over his shoulders and lower face by several buckles. Underneath his cape, Vincent's attire is black with several straps and buckles. Vincent wears a holster for his gun against his right leg, and pointed metallic boots. He also wears a golden gauntlet on his left arm. His weapon of choice is the Cerberus, a three-barreled revolver. Vincent has kept this look in all his appearances, with subtle variations. His gauntlet was originally rumored to be a prosthetic claw, but newer artwork and information strongly indicates that it is simply metal armor covering a black leather glove.
Vincent was originally intended to appear in Kingdom Hearts alongside Cloud Strife, but was removed (see below), and aspects of his costume were incorporated into Cloud's design, including his tattered red cloak and gauntlet. In Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent's Galian Beast and Chaos forms incorporate his design into them; Galian Beast, for example, is wearing a shorter version of Vincent's cloak as a kilt, while Chaos's feet resemble Vincent's boots. In Advent Children, Vincent's cloak was meant to have an organic feel to it and was very difficult to animate. Furthermore, the developers decided that changing his costume would be conflicting with his character, so Vincent was the only living character in the film to appear the same as he had in Final Fantasy VII, although there are still minor changes such as a full body suit and a glove completely covering his previously partially bare right arm.