Tempting as it is to dedicate our first installment of PlayStation Icons to a franchise-leader like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, or even Sackboy, instead I’m choosing a character that I, like so many others, connected with on a personal level. He’s a moody, world-weary teen, a proud loner with no time for the drama of others, and yet he’s also a hero just waiting for the motivation to unleash his full potential. He’s a warrior. He’s a leader. He’s the king of internal monologues. It’s time to meet Squall Leonhart.
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Conception
While some Final Fantasy characters are leftover stock concepts which are years in the making and used to fill spaces in stories, Squall was the first character that designer Tetsuya Nomura created specifically for Final Fantasy VIII. Initially, Squall was given longer hair and a more elegant appearance, though director Yoshinori Kitase would ask Nomura to shorten his hair to make him appear more tough and masculine as opposed to the growing wave of androgynous characters appearing at the time. Aspects of Nomura’s initial design would be revived in Squall’s Kingdom Hearts appearances.
Nomura does not remember why he created the scar across Squall’s face, saying it was just “a spur of the moment thing”. Like Cloud Strife’s distinguishable hair, he wanted something to set Squall apart and make him recognisable. The scar was there before establishing the character’s history, and Nomura left it to scenario writer Kazushige Nojima to work out how he obtained it, leading to the duel between Squall and Seifer in the game’s intro.
Squall’s design was completed with a fur ruff along the collar of his jacket, included by Nomura to challenge the game’s FMV designers. In an interview at the Square Media Tour in 2000, Nomura admitted to basing a lot of Squall’s appearance on the late Hollywood actor, River Phoenix.
Final Fantasy VIII is unique in the sense the player is able to ‘hear’ Squall’s thoughts, displayed in transparent text boxes. This idea came about because scenario writer Kazushige Nojima wanted to give players insight into what Squall was thinking; a contrast to his handling of Final Fantasy VII which encouraged the player to speculate and puzzle-solve.
Squall’s gunblade was also designed by Nomura who was into silver accessories at the time and wanted Squall to have a silver weapon. Nomura wanted some new way for the player to control the weapon in battle, and with both ideas combined, came up with the gunblade. Nomura says it has a rather odd appearance in retrospect. It would also be an early example of turn-based combat and real-time combat combined in a new way.
Story: From Loner To Leader
Squall starts as an introverted and taciturn 17-year-old who keeps his distance from those who would otherwise be considered his friends. Squall’s primary catchphrase in the game is “whatever”, which he usually uses to drop the current topic, often followed by changing the subject or even wandering off.
Though withdrawn, Squall does not back away from his duties of protecting others and is often thrown into leadership roles. Squall ensures that what is necessary for the mission’s success gets done. His pragmatism and sense of responsibility lead others to trust and follow him.
During the game, Squall narrates his thoughts and feelings using internal monologues, during which he reveals he acts the way he does for fear of getting close to people due to the trauma of his past. Squall cannot remember his parents, and his sister was taken away when he was young, making him afraid of losing the feelings of comfort that loved-ones provide. Squall does not believe in relying on others, as friends and family will all be lost eventually, leaving him alone again.
Even though everyone agrees that Squall has a hard time opening up, the Garden staff and students respect and admire him, and eventually he is appointed as the Commander of Balamb Garden during a time of disarray. Though at first he dislikes his role as leader, his comrades look to him for orders and advice, and he becomes recognised as the hero he was always meant to be.
Relationships
While Squall himself won’t remember this chapter of his childhood, his first love was arguably his ‘Big Sis’. As a child, Squall was raised in an orphanage with several other children, though he would form a particularly strong bond with Ellone. Though the two aren’t related by blood, their histories would overlap, though Squall would not learn of this until much later on. When Ellone was taken away, Squall was left heartbroken.
As a teen, Squall and many other unadopted war-orphans were recruited into one of three ‘Gardens’ to be trained as ‘SeeD’ mercenary soldiers. Here, Squall would become a powerful, promising student but would also gain an unwanted rival, a reckless older boy named Seifer Almasy. As gunblade users, the pair would train together, yet these sessions would become increasingly violent, resulting in them both being scarred.
What comes as a surprise to many, including Squall himself, is that his handsome and brooding visage combined with his reliability has actually made him somewhat popular with the girls of Balamb Garden. His instructor, the beautiful and popular Quistis Trepe, is only one year his senior and considers him her favourite student. Quistis would find any excuse to spend time with Squall, though the moody Squall would always foolishly rebuff her advances.
Squall is also approached by a new transfer student from Trabia Garden named Selphie Tilmitt. Selphie looks up to the cool and calm Squall and asks him to give her a tour of Balamb Garden and also invites him to join the Garden Festival Committee, though Squall’s disinterested demeanor holds back his relationship with the blossoming romantic Selphie, though the pair would become powerful comrades and good friends.
Squall comes to rethink his choices in life when he falls for the more vulnerable Galbadian rebel Rinoa Heartilly, whose personality is the opposite of his. She is friendly and outgoing, yet also manages to make Squall feel special. With Rinoa’s influence, Squall comes to accept the support and friendship of his comrades, becoming more sociable. He retains his value of independence but learns that being the person who thinks differently from the crowd, and being completely alone, are not one and the same.
Legacy
Squall originally received a mixed reaction from critics, some of whom judge him harshly in comparison with other Final Fantasy heroes due to his coldness and angst, while others praised his character development and relatability. The character has been generally popular, and his relationship with Rinoa has been praised as a perfect example of a harmonious relationship of opposites attracting.
Squall’s first voiced appearance is in the first Kingdom Hearts game, in which he is voiced by iconic Angel actor David Boreanaz, however Doug Erholtz has since assumed the role for later English-speaking appearances in Kingdom Hearts 2, Dissidia NT and World of Final Fantasy. Squall would also appear in the Theatrhythm musical rhythm games in a chibi 2D form.
‘Squall is Dead’ is a notorious fan theory that suggests Squall dies at the Deling City parade during the game and the rest of the game is a fever dream or possible limbo world. Director Yoshinori Kitase has denied the theory, saying “I think he was actually stabbed around the shoulder area, so he was not dead, but that is a very interesting idea”. This would bring a huge sigh of relief to Squall’s many fans.
