Oh crap, you're right! Nomura actually had his hands off the FFIX project, which is why the designs looked....hmm...ORIGINAL?! And, thanks. I'm making a FF6 Soldier outfit so I can go around in his videos and get abused. I'll be carrying around a duster for when Kefka goes "AHEM, There's SAND on my boots!"

Back on topic: [I'm sorry, mods. I keep veering off track in this thread. D=]
Kefka was used as Cid's first guinea pig in building the army of Magitek soldiers. There we no immediate effects when he was infused with the magicite, but he cracked several years later.

Just one point I'd like to bring across about Kefka:
He's the ONLY villain in the Final Fantasy series to be the sole reason for the world's demise, from the beginning of the game, to the end of it.

I'm fairly certain on this one, that Celes was infused when she was very young.

Kuja.

Maybe he didn't destroy THE world, but he definitely destroyed A world.

Oh, and Ultimecia absorbed a pretty big chunk of existence itself before Squall and co. destroyed her and everything was instantly restored (can we say deus ex machina?). Don't get me wrong, here. I hate Ultimecia as a villain, but that doesn't make her accomplishments any less villainous.

I'm talking about the world inhabited by the characters.
And also the fact that Kefka was really THE villain of the game. FF8 had the multiple Sorceress', FF7 had ShinRa, FFIX had the Clowns, Beatrix, and Queen Brahne, etc.

Yeah, I'll give you that. I mean, if you want to get technical, the world was still there. Kefka just rearranged it a bit. But even I'm not that nitpicky.

Actually, that's incorrect. Until the World of Ruin, didn't Final Fantasy VI also have the Emperor/the rest of the Empire? In fact, until Kefka betrayed the Emperor and got all of that power from the statues, he didn't really amount to anything more than a comic relief villain. It is true that Kefka was a force in the game's storyline all the way through, but during the World of Balance portion of FF6, I can't really say he was that big of a threat, especially considering he was just a pawn of the Empire itself. Don't get me wrong, I liked the way the developers had him rise from a pathetic wuss to a godly super-being, but Kefka definitely wasn't THE villain of FF6, at least not all the way through.

I'll reword what I meant.
Kefka is the only villain to be solely responsible for the demise of the world....that was in the game from the VERY beginning.

Kefka first appears in what, the 2nd scene of the game? In all of the other mentioned games, the main villain doesn't surface until later on. Yes, maybe Kefka wasn't God-like strong from the start, but he was THERE.

The emperor never really did anything except behind the scenes, and celes and leo were so obviously good guys Kefka was the only one who stood out. Especially since he was the one you always fought, and who did all the bad things in the storyline. In fact, the emperor didn't really get villainous until about 2 seconds before Kefka killed him. Even then, he wasn't really arch-nemesis material. He was actually kind of cool when he made his last stand against the demented god-clown.

Of course I agree with you both, when you put it that way. However, by that logic, Kuja was also the only true bad guy of Final Fantasy IX. Remember, Queen Brahne was just a pawn in Kuja's master plan, and Zorn, Thorn, and Beatrix were just pawns of Brahne. While Kuja wasn't neccessarily the only force opposing your party, he was definitely the one pulling the strings throughout the entire game. Yes, you might not know it for a few scenes, but from beginning to end, he was the mastermind orchestrating the whole thing. That's like saying that Palmer and Scarlet were the main villains of Final Fantasy VII before Rufus and (later) Sephiroth showed up. Really, considering Brahne was manipulated into causing all that havoc, Kuja most definitely was the main antagonist through all of FFIX.

...Ahem...let's just ignore the omnipotent blue space flea they tacked on to the end, then, shall we?

It's been so long since I played IX, I can't really have a sure opinion on the matter.