FFVIII - Characters - Squall Leonhart

Squall Age: 17
Height: 5'8
Birthdate: August 23rd
Occupation: SeeD
Weapon: Gunblade
Limit Break: Renzokuken

The taciturn and reluctant hero, he dislikes others being involved in his affairs; a Lone Wolf...

The main character of Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is a cadet of the special combat unit SeeD from the Balamb Garden Military Academy.

Squall is a relatively short man (but tall in comparison to previous Final Fantasy characters), and a grumpy teenager only 17 years of age. Stone-faced and aloof as he may be, he only talks enthusiastically about matters of interest to him. At other times he is quite short spoken, keeping his thoughts to himself (as you'll see..). He possesses an expert ability to learn and improve his fighting skills with his Gunblade.

He is a loner and has almost no comradeship for the people around him, lacking a sense of team unity and has a tendancy to be very anti-social. Around his neck, Squall wears a necklace which bears a strange griffin-like symbol which can also be seen near the barrel of the Gunblade.

For his inordinate fighting talent he has earned the enmity of Seifer Almasy, an older student who regards him with jealousy. The scar on his forehead resulted from Seifer's Gunblade during an intense training session that got out of hand (shown in the intro).

Final Fantasy 8's character designer, Tetsuya Nomura, wanted the character's name to have the meaning of a passing shower, which is how he came up with the name Squall. His last name, Leonhart, was the name of one of the main characters from an earlier 8-bit fantasy which never made it to western shores.

A gloomy and tempramental teenager he may be, but as the story unfolds, and his relationship with Rinoa grows ever stronger, we will see the inside to his cold outer shell...

FFVIII

Characters