Your thoughts on Caius as an FF Villain?

[Jessweeee♪]

I'm not a fan of Liam O'Brien's villain voice. He's a very good voice actor, so it's a shame to see his talent wasted in such roles.

[Sephex]

I felt like the guy was alright. Because....

(SPOILER)Unlike most FF villains, he briefly showed that he considered the possibility of him being wrong, and it was before he was on his deathbed, so to speak. Plus, it was done subtly, and I like that sort of thing. I am glad he wasn't just Mr. Evil and left it at that. I was worried his character wasn't going to go anywhere, but once you find out his motivation, I felt like his actions made sense. Does that make him a great character? No. But the simplicity of his thinking is something more on the realistic side, aside from some theatrics of his. Long story short, I think he did alright, and he is a few hairs into the positive spectrum of being a good villain.

His design would have made a cool looking sprite.

EDIT: If you don't read the spoiler, my reason looks to be awesomely shallow.

[Dignified Pauper]

This entire story makes me bonkers because time travel lol. That said, Caius makes no sense to me. Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. What I find interesting is the end of XIII. Where the fal'cie are trying to open the gate to bring the Goddess back from the Unseen Realm and how that ties in to this. That's where my interest lies, but that story is completely muddled as a very loose connection.

[Merton9999]

I ultimately liked Caius as a a main villain. I was annoyed at first when he seemed to appear for no reason, but I liked his visual design up front and hoped for deeper exposition. When it came, I enjoyed it. See below for more reasons why. Also, I'm a fan of theatrical villains along the lines of Kefka, Edea, and even Kuja. I couldn't get into the bland Vayne, Sin that looked like big pile of dog crap, or the ancient pope fal'cie. Melodrama and cliches are appealing to me in video game villains. I thought some of the lines during the end were pretty well delivered, even if over the top.

Most importantly, here's what really stood out to me about Caius, and the game in general:

SpoilerFirst cameos of Biggs and Wedge appeared in the FF series, then we got a lightsaber of sorts in FFVI. Cute. Now, the main villain used to be a protector bro that turned to the dark side because of his obsession with his inability to prevent the woman he loved from dying! Seriously, all he needed was a mask and some asthmatic breathing. I also think I saw a Death Star float up during the ending and Lightning encased in her own version of carbonite. And then we get the final Empire Strikes back Ending where the bad guys win and people are crying out in disappointment and clamoring for a conclusion, just like I remember from, what, 1980?

I think it's funny after years of teasing SE finally plans a Fabula Nova Crystalis "project" that's looking to be a trilogy. Not surprisingly, the first story dlc features a starship pilot with a furry (feathery?) cohort. Hmmm. Anyway, the geek in me likes the parallels, and it made me laugh as Caius' story was revealed. It also made me expect the To Be Continued ending despite staying away from all media before I finished the game.

And maybe that's why I'm one of the few that actually liked the ending a lot. Not only does it have a TESB vibe, it somehow has felt good for a week to actually have more to look forward to in a FF game after I finished everything, which hasn't happened in 25 years. I also grew so bored with the pseudo-happy endings that I was hoping for something different and controversial. This has been the first entertaining one for me, and the first that I've watched more than once, since IX.

Now, if Noel Skywalker gets daddy Cauis to reform before Caius finally dies in some dlc or XIII-3...

[Dr. rydrum2112]

Caius was a very good antagonist, he wasn't really a "bad guy". He was portrayed as human and not really evil (SPOILER) until the secret ending.

The main drawback is that it looks like he just got of the "Look What the Cat Dragged In..." tour bus with Poison.