Kain Highwind/Dissidia (PSP)

Unreleased

Kain Highwind is one of the new characters introduced in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. He specializes in high-speed aerial combat, fighting with his lance and Jump, along with a variety of other Dragoon abilities and wind spells. His EX Mode transforms him into a Holy Dragoon, just as in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and allows him to use the iconic Dragoon ability Lancet.

Attire
Kain's outfits are based on Yoshitaka Amano's design for Final Fantasy IV and Akira Oguro's designs for Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. He wears dark purple armor with a dragon motif, featuring a helmet that covers his eyes, accented with a variety of elaborate patterns and designs in blue and white. As a Holy Dragoon his design is loosely based on Akira Oguro's artwork, where his armor is shimmering blue and white. He also lacks a helmet, revealing his face and long, blond hair.

Kain's first alternate outfit is based on Dark Kain from The After Years. He has scaled red and blue armor with more draconic features, and wields a forked spear. His EX Mode for this form is more faithful to his Holy Dragoon art, giving him a winged headpiece and armor.

His second alternate outfit is his appearance as the Hooded Man from The After Years. Kain wears blue garments with a brown, tattered cape and a wide belt. His Holy Dragoon form is identical to the EX Mode for his second outfit, but colored purple.

Kain's Manikin, Delusory Dragoon, is colored dark blue with silvery accents, reflecting that of Cecil and Golbez's Manikins.

Story
In a flashback of Kain's, Golbez divulges on the war's cycle of death and rebirth; in order for the revival to work their memories of the last war and their original home worlds must be erased. He mentions Kain fell in the previous cycle, but still retains memories of Cecil and Golbez himself from their world, and that he will recover more with every battle he wins. Cecil enters and attacks Golbez, who teleports away. Before rejoining the others, Kain asks Cecil if he recalls anything about their world, to which Cecil responds he can only vaguely remember Kain.

Kain informs the Warrior of Light about the true nature of the cycle, and they come to the agreement that they should defeat the other warriors of Cosmos before the Manikins do, who are the only ones that can permanently kill the warriors summoned by Cosmos and Chaos. Kain proceeds to defeat and kidnap Bartz, Firion and Zidane, which alerts the attention of the Chaos faction. Exdeath asks Kain to disclose the whereabouts of the warriors of Cosmos, and turns a group of Delusory Dragoons on him when he refuses, with Kain emerging triumphant.

During Tifa's fight with Ultimecia, Kain intervenes and protects her. Despite Tifa's joy at Kain's arrival, Ultimecia gloats about Kain's treachery and says that Zidane is in danger because of him. Kain flees with Zidane before Tifa can help him. She eventually catches up to Kain, and offers him her last Potion. Tifa insists on trusting Kain, and he tells everything he knows regarding the cycle. While Tifa remains positive, Kain asserts he does not think the others as his allies and that he cannot guarantee she will survive the war.

After reuniting with Laguna, Yuna, Lightning and Vaan, Exdeath and Golbez appear to tell them that the number of Manikins in the surrounding area is low. Kain catches on to the fact the Manikins are heading towards Cosmos, and stays behind to fight Exdeath while the other five hurry to Comos's aid. Kain defeats Manikins of the warriors he kidnapped, and finally Exdeath. Golbez expresses gratitude to Kain, as his actions have given him a chance to stop the cycle and save Cecil. He tells him that he will not make it back alive if he leaves, but Kain resigns himself to his fate. Despite his injuries, Kain joins the other five in their stand against Manikins at the rift, where they eventually succumb to them and lose their power. Kain sheds his light and fades away.

Battle
Kain is described as a Tactical Striker, able to cancel and connect aerial Bravery combos while jumping over terrain. Pressing cancels his post-attack animation, allowing him to charge in on an opponent to use a close range combo. Kain can also choose the orientation of where the final blow of his aerial attacks will send the opponent. By tilting the analog stick up, down, or keeping it stationary, Kain can send them in that direction. Depending on the move used, and what direction Kain sends the opponent with its last strike, it can lead to Chase or deal Wall Rush damage.

EX Mode
Dragoon's Pride WgOs1w8gQ1k Kain's EX Mode is Holy Strength, which is based on his Holy Dragoon transformation from Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. He removes his helmet and his armor turns blue and white. While in EX Mode, he gains the special attack "Lancet", an HP attack which restores HP to Kain equal to the HP damage the enemy takes.

Kain's EX Burst is Dragoon's Pride. Upon initiating it, Kain launches himself into the air at high-speed. In order to increase the altitude of his jump, the player must repeatedly tap a specific button which changes every few seconds. If successfully executed, Kain reaches the peak of his jump above the clouds, with the two moons filling the night sky behind him. He then performs a series of acrobatic flips and twists before rocketing back down to drive his lance through the foe, trailing behind a beam of light which continues to pierce his foe's body while he poses in the foreground.

Allusions

 * The pose that Kain adopts upon successfully executing his EX Burst is his iconic pose from Amano's original artwork, which has also been used for several of his official illustrations.
 * At the start of a fight, Kain enacts a pose similar to the one seen in another of his official illustrations.
 * Kain's victory pose is the same as his victory pose in the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy IV.
 * Kain's Spiral Blow and Sky Rave (also known as Sky Grinder) are based on two of his Band Abilities from Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, performed together with Golbez and Cecil respectively.
 * Since he attacked Bartz and Lightning, this could be a reference to his original role in Final Fantasy IV, when he was being controlled by Golbez.
 * His Aerial HP attack, Gungnir, was a weapon he had when he rejoins the party for the last time during the final moments of Final Fantasy IV. It may also be a reference to Odin's attack of the same name, where he throws his spear at opponents.
 * Although he can't use magic in the original game, in Dissidia Kain is able to cast Cyclone. This may reference his ultimate weapon in Final Fantasy IV Advance, Abel's Lance, which randomly casts Tornado when attacking.
 * Upon iniating his EX-Burst, Kain says "Let me ease your pain." This paraphrases his line of dialogue in Final Fantasy IV after defeating Cecil at Fabul: "Let me ease your suffering."

Trivia

 * Kain was originally considered to appear in the original Dissidia, but was ultimately left out. Tetsuya Nomura however, stated if the game were to get a sequel, Kain was sure to be in it. In an interview about Dissidia 012, Nomura said his only request for director Mitsunori Takahashi was to include Kain. He was nevertheless rumored to make an appearance in the original Dissidia according to a fake scan supposedly taken from Famitsu magazine.
 * Kain was alluded to in the original Dissidia in one of Benjamin's quests for Mognet, if the player tells him to travel to Mount Ordeals to find a dragoon dressed in blue. Upon returning, Benjamin says he could not find the dragoon and that only monsters awaited him.
 * Nomura originally drew Kain facing on an angle, but re-drew him to face to the side to be entirely in-line with his original Yoshitaka Amano artwork, which he feels is an iconic image. This original art showed Kain's eyes, but when the other staff members told him Kain would take off his helmet for his EX Mode, Nomura redrew Kain with his eyes covered.
 * According to some Dissidia 012's developers, during testing some player testers found Kain overpowered, while others acknowledged his fighting style difficult to get used to. Because of this the developers decided that the true answer was somewhere in-between and considered him adequately balanced.
 * Kain's lances in his three outfits are all completely different in design and coloring.
 * When Kain finishes his EX Burst, he holds his lance in his right hand, but when the EX Burst is over, he is seen holding it in his left hand.
 * Celestial Shooter and Crash Dive are both enemy attacks featured in Final Fantasy Legends: Hikari to Yami no Senshi.

Kain Highwind/Dissidia