Even in the face of praise from his comrades and superiors, he questions his validity and shoots down every compliment he gets. But unlike in FF7, we have access to Squall’s every inner thought and insecurity in real time. Whatever.” On the surface, he appears similar to Final Fantasy 7’s Cloud Strife, another terse and sullen JRPG boy who doesn’t like to rely on others. When we first meet him, he’s a 17-year-old loner at a military academy (referred to in-game as a “Garden”) who responds to pretty much everything with “. Squall himself comes across as a massive departure from previous Final Fantasy heroes. Rinoa Heartilly and Squall Leonhart Square Enix Her tombstone reads “Raine Loire,” a change from her maiden name, Leonhart, but that’s never mentioned in-game. During the ending, Laguna visits his wife’s grave and has a flashback of the night he proposed to her. It’s hilarious, to be sure, but not without a tinge of sadness. The two of them eventually cross paths towards the end of the game - still unaware of their familial ties - and Squall snidely wonders how this man even became president of Esthar. There are clues, like Squall’s time in the orphanage and his childhood friendship with a girl named Ellone, but we never get the satisfaction, that one juicy moment, where Squall and Laguna come face-to-face with this realization.
I’m still astounded that one of FF8’s biggest revelations is never made explicit. What’s even funnier is that this moron is Squall’s father, and neither of them even know it. And it’s pretty clear: Squall thinks this guy is a complete moron. During the dream sequences, players are able to see Squall’s commentary on the events unfolding in Laguna’s timeline. While Laguna is a romantic at heart, Squall is aloof and often skeptical of everyone’s intentions. In so many ways, he’s the complete opposite of Squall. Laguna freaking out over the lounge singer, Julia Heartilly, approaching him while Squall’s thoughts are in dark grey text Square Enix Everything about Laguna is wildly endearing - there’s a lengthy scene dedicated to mustering up the courage to talk to a beautiful lounge singer, cut short by a nasty leg cramp and a limp of shame back to his seat. Squall assumes the role of Laguna Loire, a goofy but well-meaning soldier and ex-journalist. When main protagonist Squall Leonhart and his party succumb to mysterious fainting spells, they describe what happens next as shared dreams that take place nearly a decade prior in the Sorceress War. I accepted all of this without question or hesitation, as I did with many games when I was young, and now look back on these moments with a strange mix of fondness and disbelief. Infiltrating a presidential train car sounds fine, but what if your party passed out in the middle of a heist and had a shared dream? Also, what if that dream wasn’t actually a dream, but was something else entirely? The game’s genre mashup paves the way for memorable sequences like, “There’s a monster who bankrolled our school and he lives in the basement,” and, “Your girlfriend is possessed by a sorceress from the future in a space station, what do you do?” The original PlayStation version spans four discs, and each one brings a new set of incredulous obstacles and plot devices. It follows a ragtag group of student mercenaries in their efforts to save the world from an evil sorceress obsessed with time compression.
Left to right: Seifer Almasy, Rinoa Heartilly, Squall Leonhart Square Enixĭespite the sweeping romance featured in its official logo, FF8 is ultimately a coming-of-age story.