Kefka Palazzo (Japanese: ケフカ・パラッツォ, Hepburn: Kefuka Parattso, romanized as Cefca in the Japanese version) is a video game character and the main antagonist in the 1994 Square role-playing video game Final Fantasy VI. Yoshitaka Amano created his visual design and director Yoshinori Kitase wrote his scenes. He is one of the most well-known and well-received villains in the Final Fantasy series. His popularity led to featured roles in the fighting game Dissidia Final Fantasy and its sequels. He also appears as an enemy boss character in games including Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Artniks, Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, and Final Fantasy All the Bravest.

Kefka is first introduced as the court mage of Emperor Gestahl. Over the course of the game, he reveals himself to be a nihilistic psychopath, gone mad from the cruel experiments that gave him his magical powers. When Gestahl is poised to seize the source of magic in this world, Kefka betrays him and takes it for himself. With his new godlike powers, Kefka rules the remains of a ruined world with an iron fist.

Kefka is considered one of the most memorable video game villains ever created, with critics and fans noting his intense hatred and maniacal laughter as defining characteristics. He has also been compared to the Joker from the Batman franchise.^[2]

Kefka's appearance was designed by Yoshitaka Amano, who was given complete creative freedom in Final Fantasy VI, with only brief character outlines as guidelines. His approach was to create "real" and "alive" characters, though with consideration for their representation as small computer sprites.^[3] Several designs were created for Kefka during the planning stages, each with different outfits, taking inspiration from clowns seen at circuses.^[1] Amano felt the character was akin to DC Comics villain Joker, and wanted to illustrate a character that shared Joker's crazy personality, someone that was "completely insane". He found the overall process fun to develop.^[1]

Writer Yoshinori Kitase found the original writing "did not give him much character", and while working on the very first scene developed for the game, Kefka's approach to a castle, Kitase felt it was too boring to do normally. He added a scene off the top of his head where Kefka demanded soldiers dust off his boots in the middle of a desert, meaning for it to imply that there "may be a screw or two missing from this character's head", something he felt was a perfect fit for Kefka and helped define the character's personality for the rest of the story.^[4] In an interview with Edge, Kitase noted that while he wanted to keep story emphasis balanced across the cast, he found that Kefka was one of two characters whose importance in the story grew larger than originally intended when development began.^[5] Originally the game was meant to end much earlier with Kefka's defeat and the world saved, but when the developers realized they still had plenty of time, they added a second act where Kefka succeeds in devastating the world, leaving the party members scattered across the remains of the "World of Ruin".^[6]

Other developers involved with Final Fantasy VI's production also contributed to his characterization. Artist Kazuko Shibuya aimed to illustrate his "crazy and somewhat childish" demeanor through her work on his pixel art and animations, and considers him her favorite character in the franchise. While the rest of the cast had simple traits that were easy to draw, often easy to define as "cute" or "strong", she felt Kefka wouldn't stand out as much if he went through the same process. She utilized bases of red and green in his design to paint him as "very eccentric", while also wanting to illustrate his dangerous and childish aspects, a character with "no defined limits".^[1] Translator Ted Woolsey, who handled the North American localization of the game, also contributed lines to the character while working on the title, namely in part to get around Nintendo censors. Several of these have appeared in later interpretations of the character in other games, such as Kefka's statement about making "a monument to non-existence" in Final Fantasy XIV.^[7]

In 2006, Kefka was made into a toy in the Final Fantasy Master Creatures line.^[32] The figure is 15 centimetres (6 in) tall from the bottom of the base, representing his final form from the game's conclusion.^[32] A munny doll of Kefka in his human form was also created by Tomopop.^[33] An album of the music from Final Fantasy VI entitled "Kefka's Domain" was released on July 1, 1994.^[34] A figurine was created of Kefka for Square Enix's "Final Fantasy Creatures Kai Volume 5" in 2012.^[35]

Kefka is considered one of the most well received and enduringly popular villains in video games by critics and fans.^{[36][37][38][39]} He has earned a place on numerous "all time" lists from a wide variety of publications including Nintendo Power,^[40][41] UGO.com,^[42] IGN,^[43][44][12] GamePro,^[45] GameSpy, Den of Geek^[46] and many more.^[23] GamesRadar named him the most "outrageously camp" villain, stating that when compared to Kefka, Final Fantasy VII antagonist Sephiroth seems as "interesting as a dead accountant painted brown".^[2] They also compared him to the Joker from Batman, praising him for both his villainous ambition and his laugh.^[2] Digital Spy recognized him for being responsible for one of the most surprising moments in the Final Fantasy series—destroying the world.^[47]

Analyses of Kefka focused on his nihilism and unsympathetic portrayal. Konami video game developer Tomm Hulett described Kefka as a pure villain, stating that "unlike most Japanese stories, Kefka did not have shades of gray. He didn't have a tragic past that turned him into a sadistic clown that you felt sorry for him over. He didn't have some greater purpose that he lost sight of. Yet, at the same time, he wasn't 'evil for evil's sake'. There was something twisted and nasty inside him that MADE him that way... and you could feel it... but you also knew there wasn't any good in there".^[48] That he is a central villain of the entire game also serves to intensify a players negative fixation on him.^[48] In a review of Final Fantasy VI Advance, IGN wrote "it's the game's maniacal nihilist Kefka that really stands out. The most evil and destructive villain in the entire Final Fantasy franchise, Kefka's brutality and ruthlessness is unmatched and he has to be seen to be believed".^[10] IGN also noted his ability to "tap into primal, instinctive fears", including fears of clowns.^[43] CNet in their own review described him as "the unrivaled star of the show...he's the kind of villain that you will love to hate", comparing him to Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the Joker and calling his laugh one of the greatest sound effects in any video game.^[49] Kotaku has called Kefka the greatest video game villain of all time, and attempted to explain players' lasting fascination by noting that he inspires such hatred that when his evil plans are finally thwarted, the sense of joy from victory is so much the greater.^[13] GameSpy compared Kefka's final form as a representation of Lucifer, highlighted by his powerful "Fallen Angel" attack.^[50] Another theory posited by GameSpot is that the intense reaction to Kefka stems from the fact that he is one of the few villains in Final Fantasy, or any game, that succeeds at his master plan before he is defeated.^[37]

Digitally Downloaded.net Editor in Chief Matt Sainsbury argued that while the character was "certainly psychopathic" and villainous, Kefka was not "insane". He added that while Kefka's behavior painted him as a dangerous character "we need to hate and want to stop because, in simply existing, he poses a threat to all decent people around him", his behavior felt completely rational to Sainsbury because Kefka operated off a different moral core than others, and considered this fascinating. Sainsbury cited philosopher Michel Foucault's studies on madness, in which it was argued that in civilization's need to find an "other" to oppose, something separate from "decent" society, insanity was a common go-to. However Sainsbury felt Kefka's behavior came from his "nihilistic understanding on the purpose of life": creations exist simply to be someday destroyed and forgotten, and that the meaning of existence is non-existence. While Kefka's logic runs contrary to most people, Sainsbury described it as still rational and considered thought within the subject of philosophical debate. Additionally he pointed out under philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli's view of the world, many of Kefka's actions were justified. While the character commits atrocities, he is still effective and his actions need to be considered within the scope of the war the Empire he serves is fighting, and within that frame of reference helped make Kefka a more fleshed out and nuanced villain.^[51]

Patrick Dugan of Escapist Magazine called Kefka "an androgynous, perverted, wicked little clown [..] Somewhere between Shakespeare's Falstaff and King's It". He further described him as one of the most memorable Final Fantasy villains for how present he was in the game and his personality, feeling he was a necessity in the game's story as a representative of "science run amok [...] an Anti-Christ with a surreal laugh", and that his defeat gave the game's closure far greater significance.^[52]

The audio design for Kefka has been praised, including his iconic laugh and his signature musical themes, Kefka and Dancing Mad, by Nobuo Uematsu. Music professor William Cheng called his laugh "quasi-musical" and commended the sound engineers for imbuing character and personality into a limited sound effect.^[53] Music researcher Jessica Kizzire tracked Kefka's character arc and ascent to godhood through his musical themes.^[54] The repetition of Kefka in key moments of the game add new layers of meaning to the track. Uematsu included musical allusions to Kefka in his themes for Sephiroth and Ultimecia, the villains of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, respectively.^[54]