Disclaimer: Similar to Final Fantasy III, I will be discussing the 2D version of Final Fantasy IV in this article, and will talk about the 3D remake in a separate article. To be more specific, I will be talking about Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (Though both the Interlude and After Years will get their own articles as well).
Final Fantasy IV has a very positive reputation within the Final Fantasy community, and for good reason. Unlike the job oriented system of Final Fantasy III, this game instead features a cast of 11 main playable characters, each of whom have their own abilities to stand out from one another. The main character is Cecil, a Dark Knight who is ordered by his king to steal a crystal from the town of Mysidia (hurting innocent civilians in the process). Cecil begins to worry why his king would have him do such a thing. Before he can get any answers from the king though, Cecil and his loyal friend Kain are tasked with delivering a ring to the town of Mist. But upon reaching Mist, the ring summons a hoard of bombs that destroy the town and kill nearly everyone within, the only survivors being Cecil, Kain, and a little girl named Rydia. From here, the story tells of Cecil’s long journey towards redemption, eventually casting away the title of Dark Knight and becoming a Paladin.
It is certainly a story worthy of the praise it has received. The gameplay also utilizes a new Active Time Battle (ATB) system, (instead of the turn based system used in previous Final Fantasies) which makes the gameplay more engaging and allows the boss fights to have an extra layer of mechanics available that turn based would’ve had a hard time using. However many of these praises have been sung before and in greater detail, instead I want to focus on one of the side characters, Kain, and analyze how his specific character mirrors Cecil in several key ways, while also offering a new perspective on the themes present in Final Fantasy IV. Due to the nature of this article being more analytical rather than a review piece, I’ll go ahead and put my recommendation that you play this game here. If you like JRPG’s, or even just a good story about redemption, then I recommend you play Final Fantasy IV (Specifically The Complete Collection, using PPSSPP if you need to).
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
For the sake of both refreshing people’s memories, and for anyone who doesn’t really care about spoilers, I will be summarizing the main story beats for Kain’s character before diving into the actual analysis: Kain is a Dragoon serving under the king of Baron. He is loyal friends with Cecil, but harbor’s unrequited romantic feelings for Cecil’s girlfriend Rosa. However, Kain keeps these feelings hidden because he doesn’t want to accidentally hurt Cecil or Rosa. Shortly after the town of Mist is destroyed, Kain arrives back at Baron and is put under the mind control of Golbez. When Cecil and Kain reunite in the town of Fabul, Kain is ordered to kill Cecil, only hesitating when Rosa calls out to him. Sparing Cecil, Golbez takes Rosa hostage and goes back to Baron Keep, taking the mind-controlled Kain with him.
From here, Kain is ordered to guard Rosa and prevent her from escaping, which he is shown to do partly of his own free will to protect her from any of Golbez’s other minions. At this point, Golbez has three of the four crystals he needs, and Kain suggests offering to make Cecil get the fourth crystal by offering a trade for Rosa. However, Golbez betrays this offer and tries to take the crystal without giving up Rosa. Tellah sacrifices himself to cast Meteor, which manages to free Kain from Golbez’s mind control and free Rosa, though it is unable to defeat Golbez for good. Here, Kain apologizes to Cecil and Rosa while revealing the secret feelings he has. Cecil and Rosa forgive him and offer to let him fight with them.
However, while everyone is trying to foil Golbez’s plans, Kain is suddenly mind-controlled again, betraying Cecil again, and leaving. After it’s revealed that Golbez is himself being mind controlled by an even greater evil called Zemus (and that mind control is broken), Kain is also freed from Golbez’s mind control again. In the end, Kain helps Cecil, Rosa, and the others confront and defeat Zeromus (Zemus’ final form). Cecil and Rosa get married and invite everyone, but Kain doesn’t show up. Instead Kain is seen climbing atop a mountain (possibly the same mountain Cecil climbed to become a Paladin), removing his helmet and staring off into the distance, with his back turned to the camera the entire time.
That is Kain’s story in a nutshell (not including The After Years) and some parallels with Cecil’s character are already pretty clear. Kain, much like Cecil, is a flawed character who commits some fairly evil deeds, feels guilt for what he’s done, and in the end is forgiven by his friends. But there are also some key aspects that are different: Golbez’s mind control prevents Kain from going on the same journey of redemption that Cecil does, and even when Kain does break free of that he falters and gets mind-controlled again. Now it is possible to characterize the fact that Kain gets forgiven as either understandable because he isn’t at fault for being mind controlled, or lazy because of how quickly it happens. But I think it’s more complicated than that, especially for Kain as a character. Even though everyone else forgives Kain in the end, it’s implied that he hasn’t forgiven himself, and doesn’t feel worthy of attending Cecil and Rosa’s wedding. On top of that, Kain’s feelings of guilt are more complicated than Cecil’s because of the additional layer of his feelings for Rosa. Kain loves Rosa, but the fact that he does also feels like he’s betraying Cecil.
And all of this is explored in the Complete Collection exclusive Lunar Ruins dungeon. Within the dungeon, each character gets their own trial that explores more about that character's personal journey. For Kain, this manifests as a dream sequence that takes place in Baron, where a string of mysterious murders have taken place. Kain and Cecil are tasked with finding the murderer, but after a bloody lance is found in Kain’s room, he gets blamed for the murders. But the true culprit kidnaps Rosa shortly after. Cecil goes to rescue Rosa, and Kain follows to try and help him. But after reaching a mysterious room with a larger mirror, Kain sees Rosa and Cecil unconscious and is approached by a mysterious masked figure who says that he is Kain’s inner desire to get Cecil out of the picture (implying that it’s because he wants to be with Rosa). The player is offered a choice, the bad ending comes from listening and killing Cecil, but a good ending is achieved by having Kain confront this manifestation. The fight against the mysterious figure very closely matches a fight Cecil has earlier in the story against a dark version of himself when becoming a Paladin, even sharing the same gimmick of victory through not attacking. Although in Kain’s case he still has to fight Lunar Bahamut after choosing not to attack the dark manifestation of himself. After the fight, Kain wakes up and Cecil asks him what happened in his Lunar Trial. Kain responds “Nothing at all” implying either a level of acceptance or denial.
Despite this dream sequence focusing on Kain’s attraction towards Rosa, it also reflects the guilt he feels for what he did under Golbez’s control. It isn’t literally him committing the murders in the dream sequence, but those people still died by his hand.
So how does this extra sequence change Kain as we see him in the ending? It’s still ultimately up to interpretation, and I think that it exemplifies what was already implied. Even though Cecil and Rosa forgave Kain, Kain hasn’t forgiven himself. On top of that, Kain has a clear fear that his love for Rosa, and his desire to be with her, could lead to him betraying and hurting Cecil again. In Final Fantasy IV, a big part of Cecil’s character is his relationship with Rosa, and her love for him helps Cecil accept himself and grow as a person. But what about Kain, someone who doesn’t have that requited love? Kain has seen Cecil overcome his darkness, partly through help from Rosa. But Kain doesn’t have that same help. He arguably has even more blood on his hands than Cecil and doesn’t have the same level of connection that Cecil does with so many of the other characters. I think all of these anxieties and uncertainties led to Kain self-isolating. Cutting himself off from his friends because he doesn’t want to hurt them and because he doesn’t know what to do with his guilt. But, this is not the end for Kain as Final Fantasy IV does have a sequel in The After Years, so I am curious to see how his story continues. Until then, we’ll just have to wait and see.