Squall Leonhart
Squall Leonhart is a fictional character and the primary protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII, a role-playing video game that was produced by Square. In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is a 17-year-old student at Balamb Garden, a prestigious military academy for elite mercenaries. He is 177 cm tall. As the story progresses, Squall befriends Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, and Irvine Kinneas, and falls in love with Rinoa Heartilly. These relationships, combined with the game's plot, gradually change him from being a loner to an open, caring person. Squall has appeared in several other games, including Chocobo Racing, Itadaki Street Special, and the Kingdom Hearts series as Leon.
Squall was designed by Tetsuya Nomura with input from game director Yoshinori Kitase. He was modeled after the actor River Phoenix. Squall's weapon, the gunblade, was made so it would be difficult to master. To ensure players understand Squall's silent attitude, Kazushige Nojima made the character's thoughts open to them. Squall's first voiced appearance is in the first Kingdom Hearts game, in which he is voiced by Hideo Ishikawa in Japanese and by David Boreanaz in English; Doug Erholtz has since assumed the role for later English-speaking appearances.
Squall had a mixed reaction from critics, some of whom judging him poorly in comparison with other Final Fantasy heroes due to his coldness and angst, and others praised his character development. The character has been popular and his relationship with Rinoa resulted in praise.
Creation and design
Squall Leonhart was the first character Nomura designed for Final Fantasy VIII; he was inspired by actor River Phoenix, although Nomura said "nobody understood it". Squall is tall, and initially had long hair and a feminine appearance. After objections from the game's director Yoshinori Kitase, Nomura made the character more masculine and added a scar across Squall's brow and the bridge of his nose to make him more recognizable, leaving its cause up to scenario writer Kazushige Nojima. The first illustration of Squall was used to create the world around him. The game's logo that depicted Squall embracing Rinoa was left open for interpretation by players. The scar on Squall's forehead was also left ambiguous although Nomura said it was important for him.Nomura's design of Squall included a fur lining along his jacket collar as a challenge for the game's full motion video designers. In Final Fantasy VIII Nojima wanted to give players insight into Squall's thoughts in contrast to Final Fantasy VII, which encouraged players to speculate on them. According to Nojima, the development staff made Squall "cool". In the video game it is implied the character Laguna Loire is Squall's father but Square Enix has never confirmed this idea. Nomura designed Squall to contrast with Laguna.
Nomura created Squall's gunblade and its silver accessories. The weapon is a sword that has components of a revolver that send vibrations through the blade when they are triggered; this inflicts additional damage as Squall strikes an enemy if the player presses the R1 trigger on the controller. Although the weapon was intended as a novel way for players to control weapons in battle, Nomura said he feels it looks odd in retrospect and that it was very difficult to master. Square's Hiroki Chiba said the scene in which Squall and Rinoa embrace in space is his favorite in the Final Fantasy franchise due to the use of Faye Wong's song "Eyes On Me" in the background and because he had to adjust every frame to make the scene work.
During one of the cutscenes of Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is impaled by Edea Kramer in battle, creating the theory Squall dies in battle. When asked about this, Kitase laughed and falsified this theory but he found it interesting; if the game was ever remade, he might think of changing elements of the story.
While Final Fantasy VIII does not use voice acting, Squall has a voice in the Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts, in which he is known as Leon. He is voiced by David Boreanaz in the English version of the game and Hideo Ishikawa in the Japanese version. He returns in Kingdom Hearts II and is voiced in the English version by Doug Erholtz, who said he had a "fun journey" voicing Leon and that it was a "really fun role to play".
For the Kingdom Hearts series, Nomura decided to use Squall as a mentor character to newcomer Sora. Event planner Jun Akiyama persuaded Nomura to change Squall's name to Leon. Meanwhile, some parts of his design were changed to reference Rinoa's, most noticeably the wings in his jacket. Although polygons were used alongside other returning Final Fantasy characters, Leon could not return in Kingdom Hearts III which bothered many of the staff members.
Appearances
''Final Fantasy VIII''
At the beginning of Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is known as a "lone wolf" because he never shows his feelings and seems unresponsive to his associates.His superiors including his teacher Quistis Trepe consider him challenging to deal with but respect his talents. Squall is stoical and his taciturn nature used for comic relief. He is forced into a heroic role midway through the game when Cid, headmaster of Balamb Garden, appoints him the leader of the academy. During a late battle against Galbadia Garden, Squall has difficulty leading because of his lingering isolation. Although other characters try to become less reserved and Rinoa Heartilly expends considerable energy pursuing him, it takes time for him to accept the others' friendship, and fall in love with Rinoa. Later in the game, Squall becomes more comfortable in a leadership role, especially when he must fight Ultimecia.
Throughout the game, Squall has a rivalry with Seifer Almasy; the two characters scar each other at the beginning but later they are supposed to cooperate; they still quarrel, however. Although Seifer later allies with the Sorceress, requiring Squall to fight him several times, Squall still feels a camaraderie with Seifer.
According to flashbacks during the game, Squall grew up in an orphanage with the other playable characters, except Rinoa. The orphans were cared for by Edea; although Squall remembers little about his past, he becomes an emotionally detached, cynical, and introverted boy whose goal is to go through life without emotional ties or dependence. He gradually warms and his detachment from his companions is later revealed to be a defensive mechanism to protect himself from the emotional pain he suffered when he and his older sister were separated.
After Ultimecia is defeated, the time and space she had absorbed begin to return to normal, pulling Squall's comrades back into their places in the timeline while Squall returns to the orphanage and meets a younger Edea. Squall plants the ideas for Garden and SeeD in her mind, creating an origin paradox; Squall must become the leader of Balamb Garden so he can pass its version of SeeD tradition to Edea, who teaches them to her husband Cid, who co-founds Balamb Garden, which admits Edea's orphans—including Squall).
Other appearances
Squall appears as a non-playable character in Kingdom Hearts, in which he wears a short leather jacket with red wings on the back and a Griever necklace. Squall takes the name Leon as an alias because he is ashamed of not protecting those he loved from the Heartless when his home world the Radiant Garden was consumed by darkness. His role in Kingdom Hearts is to help guide the protagonist Sora in his battle against the Heartless. Although Squall's appearance and age differ—he is 25 in Kingdom Hearts— and 17 in Final Fantasy VIII), his personality remains the same. A memory-based version of Squall appears in ' teaching gameplay in a tutorial. In this game, he works with his friends to restore their world. Squall also appears as an opponent in Olympus Coliseum tournaments, where he is often paired with other Final Fantasy characters. His virtual replica appears in Kingdom Hearts coded, in which it meets Sora's virtual replica.Squall is a secret character in Chocobo Racing and Itadaki Street Special, and a sprite version of him occasionally appears on the loading screen of the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VI. He appears as a playable character in every ' title and his Kingdom Hearts design is available as downloadable content in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. He is a playable character in Itadaki Street Portable and is the main character representing Final Fantasy VIII in the rhythm games Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, ', and the arcade-only game '. Squall also appears as a premium character in Pictlogica Final Fantasy and , both of which are designed for Android and iOS.
Reception
Critical reaction to Squall was mixed. Jack Patrick Rodgers of PopMatters said Squall's cynicism and frustration with those around him made him a strong character but "coldly inhuman". GamesRadar called Squall the fifth-best Final Fantasy hero of all time, praising the development of his personality and his improved interactions with other characters. GameZone rated him the fourth-best character in the franchise, saying while fans "either love or hate this guy" he becomes, despite little dialogue, the "ultimate anti-hero" of an entertaining journey. The website called Squall and Rinoa the best couple created by Square Enix, noting the differences between them and that their relationship is the first in the series to drive the plot of a game. The couple were on The Inquirers list of most-memorable video-game love teams; comments again focused on the differences between them. GameSpot said while Squall can be viewed as a jerk, he can also be seen as "standoffish because of some repressed Wagnerian broodiness, in which case he was kind of interesting".Christopher Michael Baker of Allgame said he initially hated Squall but although the character seemed "cold and uncaring" at first, his romance changes him for the better. RPGamer called Squall "everyone's favorite orphan" and said although he tries to distance himself from others, "he can't help but draw people to him, be it sorceresses or gun-slinging ladies' men". GameDaily ranked him sixth on its list of the "Top 25 Gaming Hunks", stating while critics described the character as a jerk, his character design, especially his scar, make him visually appealing. Den of Geek listed Squall as one of the most sexually appealing video game characters based on the design, especially his scar. Arnold Katayev of PSXextreme praised Squall's redesign in Kingdom Hearts as the game's best character design. In a 2008 Oricon poll, Squall was voted the tenth-most-popular video-game character. He was voted the 29th-best video-game character by Famitsu readers in February 2010. Complex listed him as the one of the greatest Final Fantasy characters. In a NHK poll from 2020, Squall was voted as the 13th best Final Fantasy character.
According to IGN, "the problem is that the character at the heart of everything, Squall, is basically a pouty jerk ... When your story is character-centered, you'd better center it on a character the audience can care about. Squall ... just doesn't fit the bill". 1UP.com ranked Squall second on its list of the "Top 5 Most Irritating RPG Protagonists" and stated although he was an attempt to "cater to the fedora-wearing, trench-coat-clad folks", his lack of social skills alienated players. Edge compared Squall unfavorably with Final Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud Strife, saying Squall's angst "didn't seem to have any context" unlike Cloud's, which developed from one of the pivotal events in Final Fantasy VII. Squall's relationship with Rinoa was criticized by Edge, which said, "He suddenly falls in 'love' with at the end ". In GamesRadar's "RPG Emo-Off", Squall was defeated in heartbreak by Cloud. Squall was featured in the 1UP.com article "Top 5 Final Fantasy Character Types" in the category "The Sullen Asshole" with Cloud and Cecil from Final Fantasy IV. GameSpy included Squall in its article "Videogame Characters Who Would Suck in Real Life", saying in reality he would be a terrible soldier. While listing him as one of the most overpowered characters in the franchise, The Gamer said Squall's antisocial personality might divide gamers.
GamesRadar Brett Elston said the romance between Squall and Rinoa is "the most forced, uninteresting romance this side of ". he stated in a different article, "Squall and Rinoa are at the heart of it all". AJ Glasser, also of GamesRadar, said Squall "has all the emotional depth of a fingernail" and that Rinoa's traits make the duo more engaging across the narrative. According to Ryan Woo of Complex, "critics/fanboys had a somewhat legitimate point—why the hell was Squall such a sphincter, when he had a dime like Rinoa constantly hitting on him? Ultimately though, the story was appropriately rich enough to keep us going, and all felt right by game’s end." Mike Gorby, writing for Goomba Stomp, said the character lacks realism in comparison to Rinoa, leading to their interactions where Rinoa calls out Squall's antisocial traits interesting. The 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World includes a dream sequence referencing a similar scene involving Squall and Rinoa at the end of the game.