*FF2 spoilers I guess, not that anyone should care!*
And he completely destroys the "evil emperor's lieutenant is the real villain" cliche - before it even existed.
I'm pretty sure the evil emperor ends up as a villain more often than his lieutenant does. Certainly the standing example of the evil empire trope when FF2 came out was Star Wars, and well...
Anyway, past that, I just don't get it. Sure, he gets stuff done, but he himself just.. barely exists (I believe he's only ever seen at the arena and in the whirlwind, while still alive), and I find the "OH I STOLE SATAN'S POWERS" plot point to be more facepalm than anything. Hooray for previously unhinted at powers. Extra bonus hate points for the fact that it torpedos what little hope the endgame plot had of being interesting (the conflict with Leon is magically resolved by evil zombie emperor showing up and being so evil that the PCs and the remaining villain have no choice but to team up!).
Another thing I don't like about... maybe not the emperor, but rather the empire, is how badly they bungled that setting. There's no Palamecia town, and we never meet Palamecian citizens. What does the emperor actually do? How does he rule his country? Do his people like him? Dislike him? Heck, we don't even hear about how Palamecia got on with Fynn and Kasion prior to the game. We get very little sense of his character, as such, beyond "evil". Compare how much better FF6 handled the same idea.
Only thing the emperor is good for is dying hilariously to Blood Swords. I will give the game that, if you make an annoying villain who claims godlike powers, you can at least give me the satisfying experience of watching him lose half of his HP in a single attack.
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