Cait Sith (Final Fantasy VII)

Cait Sith (Pronounced Kett Shee) is a player character in Final Fantasy VII. He is a cat riding a giant stuffed toy Moogle, working as a fortune-teller in the Gold Saucer. He is really a puppet controlled from far away by Reeve, Shinra's head of Urban Development. Even though Reeve works with the evil Shinra, he develops a keen interest in saving the planet. He is useful to the party, as he knows all about the Shinra's plans. Despite his playful and care free persona in the form of Cait Sith, Reeve is actually a sombre and serious man, though he does harbor a good heart with a natural worry for others.

Appearance
Cait Sith is an anthropomorphic robotic cat standing just over three feet in height with short black fur and a white stomach and face. He wears a short red cape tied around his neck and white gloves and a small crown. As seen in Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children, Cait Sith does not possess any outward robotic features that would identify him as a robot, although he is still recognized as such.

In Final Fantasy VII, Cait Sith rides a large robotic Moogle that, according to the Final Fantasy VII instruction manual, he brought to life. It is never specified if Cait Sith is indeed controlling the Moogle robot, or if Reeve is controlling both of them himself. However, the Moogle is capable of action just like Cait Sith, and it is in fact, the Moogle that does the fighting even though Cait Sith is the one equipped for battle. According to the instruction manual, Cait Sith uses his microphone weapons to shout orders to the Moogle. In Advent Children, Cait Sith rides on the back of Red XIII and doesn't seem to exhibit any fighting capabilities on his own.

Character


As he is merely a robot controlled by Reeve, Cait Sith's character can be difficult to perceive. However, he does act noticeably different from Reeve. In particular, his speech patterns are looser, and in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, he has a heavy Scottish accent while Reeve does not. Furthermore, Cait Sith often refers to himself in the first person, and it would be simply impractical for Reeve to have to control Cait Sith directly all the time, so he could have some sort of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, in Before Crisis when under the player's control, Cait Sith still speaks on his own. Thus, a rough picture of Cait Sith's persona can be made. When Cait Sith is depicted as being directly controlled by Reeve, it is not made clear how he controls him, since he is seen at times with a direct link to Cait Sith with no visual means of controlling him (as seen when listening in on Shinra meetings), so it can be assumed that Reeve can be linked to and control Cait Sith mentally by some technological means, although a backup controller is used by the Turks.

Cait Sith is fun-loving and playful, but a bit cowardly and is a poor fighter. He is also loud and irritates the other party members often. At times, when Reeve makes it more clear it is him and not Cait Sith speaking, he is highly accusatory of AVALANCHE's actions—at one time, Cait Sith/Reeve implies that AVALANCHE is just as destructive and dangerous as Shinra. Cait Sith also makes a hobby telling people their fortunes, which often tend to be correct, if a bit vague.

One of the few cases where he decisively asserts his seeming sentience is at the Temple of the Ancients. Here, Cait Sith, referring to himself in the first person, tells the party not to forget about him "even if another Cait Sith comes along", and thanks them for believing in him. Afterwards, a second Cait Sith appears and introduces himself. If Reeve were entirely in control, Cait Sith's mentions of sacrifice, and the second Cait Sith introducing himself, would be redundant, so one could take this scene to assume that Cait Sith does indeed have a mind of his own.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
Cait Sith appears as a prototype and aids the Turks in the last few chapters of the game. He meets the player Turk after having trouble being activated, and quickly tells them their fortune. Cait Sith then leads the Turk to Tseng, where Reeve reveals he is its controller. He then has Cait Sith give the Turk a second fortune, which states that one of the Zirconiade Support Materia is in Gongaga.

Cait Sith accompanies the Turk to help them find the Materia. He also tells the Turk he knows they are working for Verdot, but he (meaning Reeve) knows Verdot and doesn't tell President Shinra. Cait Sith is also impressed by the Turk's strength in battle, and wishes he could fight. Shortly after, Cait Sith is damaged, and Reeve becomes frustrated over the robot's limited combat abilities. He begins devising ways to increase its strength, but such improvements would hamper Cait Sith's agility and movement. Reeve later has an unspecified epiphany regarding the issue, which presumably leads to Cait Sith riding a Moogle to enhance his battle capabilities.

The Turk gathers the parts to repair Cait Sith, and rebuilds him. At this time, Reeve allows the Turk to use a back-up controller to control Cait Sith while he attends a meeting. Rufus Shinra hears of the robot from Tseng afterwards, and suggests it be used as a reconnaissance robot. The Turk uses Cait Sith to infiltrate the Mako reactor and retrieve the Materia, using the robot's prediction powers to find the correct doorways into the reactor core.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Cait Sith appears as a Summon that assists Zack on the DMW, here he uses the Limit Break Courage Boost! which grants several buffs for Zack.

Final Fantasy VII
A rebuilt and improved Cait Sith is met by Cloud Strife and his party at the Gold Saucer during their world-wide search for Sephiroth. After arriving, Barret goes wandering around, and Cloud is confronted by the bizarre Cait Sith. Cait Sith tries to tell his fortune and after several failed attempts, predicts that "what you pursue will be yours. But you will lose something dear". Spooked by his prediction, Cait Sith forces Cloud to take him along, as he wishes to see what the ominous fortune means. In reality, Reeve uses Cait Sith to spy on Cloud and his allies and report back to Shinra. Cloud suspects soon after leading the Gold Saucer that the party has a traitor, but doesn't know it is Cait Sith. Cait Sith continues to travel for the party for some time, taking a minor role.

Later, the party returns to Gold Saucer to find the Keystone in order to enter the Temple of the Ancients where the Black Materia lies. Once they find the item, Cait Sith steals the Keystone while Cloud is absent from his hotel room, and gives it to Tseng. Caught, Reeve reveals himself to Cloud, but also reveals his motivations for spying, as he is intrigued by the selflessness of Cloud and his friends. Having reluctantly taken Marlene Wallace as a hostage, Cait Sith forces them to allow him to remain with them, pointing them towards the Temple to make up for his betrayal. The Temple of the Ancients turns out to be a giant puzzle meant to trap anybody who would try to take the Black Materia. The Temple is the Black Materia, but has to be shrunk down into a Materia orb from the inside. As he is a robot, Cait Sith offers to sacrifice himself to get the Black Materia, and the party bids him a thankful and sad goodbye, Aeris allowing him to tell her fortune one last time to cheer him up. Cait Sith is crushed in the temple, but Reeve already has a second ready for action, and a second Cait Sith identical to the original arrives moments later to take the place of the first one.

After Meteor is summoned, and Tifa Lockhart and Barret are captured by Shinra in Junon, Tifa is put in the gas chamber to be executed as a scapegoat. As Shinra Executive Scarlet locks her in, Sapphire Weapon attacks the city. Using this as a diversion, a disguised Cait Sith incapacitates Scarlet with knock-out gas, and frees Barret. The two flee through Junon's streets to reach the airship Highwind which the rest of the party has commandeered. Tifa is saved by the Weapon's attack, and is flown out of the city on-board the Highwind.

In a reversal of his original role, Cait Sith served as a spy for them afterwards, and let them listen in on Shinra's meetings. He is the one who announces the fall of Shinra following the attack of Diamond Weapon, and who tells them about Shinra's search for the Huge Materia. He joins the rest of the party in their attack on Sephiroth deep inside the Northern Crater. In the game's ending, Reeve tells them through Cait Sith that he has taken measures to evacuate Midgar and save its people from Meteor.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Two years later in Advent Children, Cait Sith, riding on Red XIII, joins the remaining members of AVALANCHE to help Cloud defeat Bahamut SIN. He is also seen being held by Marlene near the ending. He has a Scottish accent in the English dub of the film and serves mainly as comic relief during the last half of the movie.

In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, during Marlene's narration of the events of Final Fantasy VII, Cait Sith can be seen riding his Moogle into battle in the Northern Crater, while in the original cut of the film he rode on Red XIII and wasn't immediately noticeable among Red XIII's hair.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-


Cait Sith reappears in Dirge of Cerberus, and is first sighted in the beginning of the game in Kalm when Deepground attacked. Cait Sith is more often seen controlled by Reeve in this game and is temporarily playable in Mako Reactor 0, and last seen onboard the Shera trying out a Synaptic Net Dive.

Equipment and Stats
Cait Sith's stats are generally lower than those of most characters, although his high magic stat makes him useful for being a mage. His weapon of choice is a Megaphone, which he uses to give orders to his Moogle. Cait Sith's megaphones tend to have many Materia slots, again making him a potentially useful mage. One of his megaphones, the Silver M-Phone, is found in Nibelheim and is the only weapon with eight Materia slots that can be acquired on Disk 1.

Final Fantasy VII
Unlike most characters, Cait Sith only has two Limit Breaks, Dice and Slot. Both are similar to moves used by Setzer Gabbiani in Final Fantasy VI. The damage they inflict is random on both counts, so Cait Sith's Limit Breaks could be overly-strong or incredibly weak, depending on the results.


 * Effects:
 * Random Summon - Cait casts a randomly determined Summon spell. (Bar / Bar / Bar)
 * Toy Soldier - Toy soldiers appear and fire at all of Cait's enemies dealing five times normal damage. (Crown / Crown / Crown)
 * Mog Dance - A moogle appears and dances. This completely restores all allies' HP and MP. (Star / Star / Star)
 * Lucky Girl - A cat-girl appears. Makes all characters' attacks automatic Critical Hits for a while. (Heart / Heart / Heart)
 * Transform - Cait's allies disappear and his moogle grows larger, gaining 9999 HP and 999 MP. In this form, he can do anything Cait can do, except using Limit Breaks. His attacks also do more damage. When the battle is over, the amount of HP and MP left are split among all three characters (and in the process, anyone who was dead before Transform was used is revived). This means that using this move may drop your current HP level if your HP amount is over 3000 points. (Moogle / Moogle / Moogle)
 * Game Over - Causes instant death to all enemies. This is not blocked by death immunity and therefore is effective against any enemy. (Face / Face / Face)
 * Death Joker - All allies are instantly killed. This cannot be prevented by normal means of death immunity with Safety Bit or Death Force. (Face / Face / Bar)
 * Toy Box - A random object is dropped on one enemy which yields one of the following seven (any other combination):
 * Boulder - Hits a single enemy for 2 times normal damage
 * Icicles - Hits a single enemy for 2.5 times normal damage
 * Weight - Hits all enemies for 3 times normal damage
 * Hammer - Hits a single enemy for 3.5 times normal damage
 * Fat Chocobo - Hits a single enemy for 4 times normal damage
 * Hell House - Hits a single enemy for 4.5 times normal damage
 * Comets - Hits a single enemy for 5 times normal damage

Development
Cait Sith's role in the final product bears few differences to how he was originally conceived - a robotic spy from Shinra controlled by Reeve. As Cait Sith/Reeve grew closer to the members of AVALANCHE, he would have developed a kinship with them and found his loyalties between them and Shinra torn.

In a scenario cut from the final product, AVALANCHE would have needed to shut down all the Mako Reactors around the world to help combat Sephiroth, but would not have been able to strike them all in time. At risk of jeopardizing his position at Shinra, Reeve would have shut the reactors down himself. This scenario eventually developed into Shinra using the Sister Ray powered by Mako Reactors, during which Reeve tries to talk them out of using the cannon and is arrested.

Trivia

 * Along with Vincent, Cait Sith is one of the only two characters in the entire Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to have more than one playable appearance.
 * Cait Sith makes a small cameo in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals.
 * It is unexplained how or why Cait Sith's Moogle was Removed from the compilation. the only other time the moogle is seen outside of Final Fantasy VII is in the opening of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete.

Cait Sith (FFVII)