Yuna is the heroine of the Playstation 2 game, Final Fantasy X and also main character of its spin-off Final Fantasy X-2. Her voice acting in Japanese was done by Mayuko Aoki. Hedy Burress, an actress that has played supporting roles in quite a few made for TV movies, does Yuna's voice in English.
Yuna's physical appearance is initially much more simple compared to the multi-layered flashiness of many of the other main characters such as Wakka, Tidus or Kimahri. Even her taste in clothing seems drab compared to the immodesty of Lulu's revealing fuzzy dress or Rikku's short, short shorts. From a distance, Yuna is simply a pretty girl wearing a free flowing blue and white dress. However, upon closer inspection, she is an amazingly detailed character.
Yuna's pale face is ocassionally marred by a contemplative frown, but she usually offers forth a half hearted smile to hide that she is considering her dark fate. A small hair blue and white braided bead ornament hangs over her right shoulder, negating the otherwise symmetrical medium length brown hair she has. (Note: Yuna is damn near the only character in the game with realistic, non-anime hair.) In her eyes another small asymmetry is found; one is green while the other is blue. She has a tiny necklace that is too small to see clearly. A yellow ribbon belt with an intertwining black flower pattern is wrapped around her waist and forms a big bow on her back. The pair of cool white cloths on her arms almost makes it appear that she's wearing a robe, but up close the it can be seen that the fabric is tied onto her by blue lace. The top half of her dress is white and the bottom is blue with glittery white stars near the bottom.
At times, Yuna's speech is absurdly slow and choppy. The Japanese mouth movements were left for the US version of FFX, thus forcing the voice actors and actresses to be creative. Someone had the bright idea to make Yuna speak very slowly; the execution ended up very awkward, however. Hedy Burress's voice fits Yuna's character well I admit, but the painstakingly drawn out precision that she pronouces words just doesn't sound right. Although a majority of her voice synchronizing wasn't done badly, a few examples of this (mis)translation bizarreness stand out in my mind:
- Random guy : Hey, Maester Seymor's here!
Yuna : Let's...! (2 second pause)... All go see... him!
- Yuna : My father... (5 second pause) I loved... (2 second pause) him.
- Yuna : ...And we will not live in a world with false... (5 second pause) hope.
Concerning the game's story, Yuna is a central character. While Tidus is the narrator and the player's controllable avatar, it could be argued Yuna is the true main character. Much of the game revolves around her journey to defeat an apocalyptic creature known as Sin. Daughter to High Summoner Braska, a famous martyr and respected hero to the world of Spira, she hopes to follow in his footsteps by becoming a summoner. She was raised on Besaid, a tiny backwater island. After years of studying the Yevon faith and training to become a summoner, she sets off with guardians: Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, and Kimarhi.
Yuna is genealogically related to many other important characters. As note above, her father is Braska. Her mother's name is never mentioned, but she was an Al Bhed woman (Note: Al Bhed all have green swirly eyes; that's why one of Yuna's eyes are green) whose brother is Final Fantasy X's incarnation of Cid. That effectively makes Yuna Cid's niece. Rikku, another of the main protagonists, is Cid's daughter, making Yuna a cousin of Rikku.
Yuna tries to keep her negative emotions in check by feigning happiness. She believes that as a respected summoner, she should give the image of strength and cheerfulness despite the hauntingly present threat of Sin. Her instance of presenting a happy face leads to one of the flat out weirdest scenes from any video game I've ever seen.
One of the scenes developing the inevitable and obvious romantic interest between Yuna and Tidus (as the hero and heroine always hook up) involves her trying to get him to "laugh out loud". What ensues is an embarrassing scene of Tidus and Yuna pretending to laugh, then breaking into real laughter (which, ironically, doesn't sound much different). With the voice acting and detailed graphics, it's really disconcerting. I'd recommend going through FF X if nothing else but to see the sheer bizarreness of this scene.
(Big spoiler section ahead. Beware!!)
The other notable quality about Yuna's character is her undefeatable will. For example, her naive, misguided decision to marry Maester Seymour but refusal to be convinced out of it is one example. Her defiant (albeit melodramatic) speeches to the council of dead Maesters in Bevelle and Yunalesca in Zanarkand exhibit her strength even more. Of course, her ultimate goal of destroy Sin, which supposedly cannot be destroyed, is the best example of this.
One of the main themes of Final Fantasy X is the struggle of free will versus fate: Many characters try to forge their own paths, only to be let down or killed by the spiraling death of tradition present in the world of Spira. Yuna and Tidus, as the two main characters, embody this the most. It's a paradoxical and intertwining weave between the two: as Yuna is destined to sacrifice herself to defeat Sin (fate), Tidus is working to reverse the process by sacrifice himself to save her (free will). However, while Tidus succeeds and does end up sacrificing himself to save Yuna that raises the question of whether fate is the ultimate factor since one of the two lovers was destined to die to save the other.
(Back to spoiler-free info)
As a the party's sole Summoner, Yuna has the ability to summon powerful creatures. There are even duels between where only Yuna and her creatures and fight.
The summonable monsters of Final Fantasy X (in approximate order of appearance):
In addition to being a Summoner, Yuna is also the party's healer as she learns the traditional White Mage spells like Cure, Esuna, and Life.
Initially, Yuna has plenty of magic power and good agility, but low hp and extremely low strength. Her choice of weapon is a staff (which, coincidentally, can fit inside a wedding dress).
Note: Yuna changes quite a bit in her appearance in Final Fantasy X-2; for more info, go check out the FF X-2 node.
Sources:
Playing the game
www.gamefaqs.com
www.rpgamer.com