or youthful, as she is younger than the others." Mae Whitman, who voiced Yuffie in the English versions of Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus, said she was not "aware of the extent to which people were familiar with her character already." In a 2012 interview, Whitman recalled Yuffie as "bubbly and bright and nice. But still super cool!" Yuffie's design in Kingdom Hearts was partially based on the originally planned appearance of Rikku from Final Fantasy X. During the interview of the developers Naoki Hamaguchi and Motomu Toriyama on Yuffie's Moogle hood and role at Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Toriyama said that Yuffie wears Moogle hood, because it draws its reference from the time it was used in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and Yuffie wears it whenever she is on a covert mission. While her role is the same as in the original game. Reception Yuffie Kisaragi has received a notably positive reception in Japan, having placed as the 42nd best PlayStation character in the 2007 "Den-Play Awards" by Dengeki PlayStation. In 2010, readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu voted her as the 48th best video game character of all time. In a 2013 poll by Square Enix, Yuffie was voted the 14th most popular Final Fantasy female character, sharing that spot with Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX. Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) included "seeing Yuffie once again" as one of the greatest moments of Kingdom Hearts while giving it their Role-Playing Game of the Year 2002 award. David Smith from IGN ranked Yuffie seventh on the 2008 list of top ten Final Fantasy VII characters, stating that she "belongs in the Wacky Sidekicks wing of the RPG hall of fame;" although commenting that Yuffie can sometimes be "a pain in the neck," Smith said that she became such an appealing sidekick character that Square would go on to use the "Yuffie formula" with Rikku for Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy VII director Yoshinori Kitase asked EGM "why American gamers love Yuffie so much." They were unable to come with a clear answer. According to Edge, Yuffie, being one of characters that are "brands in and of themselves", "created a new anime stereotype -- the, uh, giddy girl ninja." WomanGamers.com gave the character an overall score of 7.0/10, opining that while "a 16 year old ninja girl was a nice refreshing change [...] it would have been