Uch, he creeped me out too. He had that "creepy uncle" vibe going on, somehow.

He holds Trish in his arms and cries over her (albeit cheesily) in the first one. Moments like that one, and the one where he showed disgust at Mundus killing Gryphon, seem like they could almost be considered OOC for him in the later installments. The anime does a pretty interesting job of fleshing out what was established in the first game-he's fairly relaxed, but still goofy and a nice person. I hope that they bring some of that back to the games.