LogFAQs > #904421603

5. Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII)
Yep, that's right. After some further reflecting and being introduced to a couple of characters I took a long time to play the games of, Squall is no longer my #1 and has in fact dropped to #5. But 5 is still not too shabby. I still remember the first time I was truly aware of Squall was when he beat Luigi in Character Battle 2 in one of the biggest upsets ever. Now, I had never played FF8 at that point and as you know I was a HUGE Luigi fan, so my reaction was just anger and swore to hate Squall, saying I would never play FF8. Well, what do you know, eventually I did.

And I immediately identified with Squall. I was 14 years old, I was very introverted, I hated being told what to do, I was very depressed, I was annoyed by people who were constantly upbeat and happy, and yet somewhere among all that I thought I was just the shit. So I boot up FF8 and meet Squall and think, man, here's a character who gets me. Not only that, but FF8 as a game just really drew me in - I loved the backgrounds, the gameplay came naturally to me, I thought that the adventure was fun, and the music especially kept my attention, so I got to see more and more of Squall's adventure play out, and grew to love him even more.

I loved that he was thrusted, barely qualified, into this leadership position of a band of misfit rebels that he really didn't like all that much and honestly didn't care what happened to, but slowly grew attached to. I loved how he slowly opened up to and eventually fell in love with this girl that he hated at first. And the whole time I felt I was Squall. There was one point where the party split up and I sent Selphie, Rinoa and Zell to fight a tough boss that eventually got the better of them, and when faced with certain death Rinoa simply asked, "Why do you hate me, Squall?" I almost said out loud, "I don't hate you." I get that some protagonists are supposed to "be you." Silent RPG heroes. Leads in games like Telltale series where you have almost total control over their personality as they interact with others. But Squall was a rarity for me in which I identified with an almost completely scripted character.

So what has made Squall drop from the top? Well as I said before, further gaming and reflecting. Two of my top 4 are from games/series I had never even touched a few years ago when I was most vocal about Squall being my #1. I've also long grown out of my borderline-emo Squall phase, so even though I do look back fondly upon him, I don't identify with him quite as much as I used to, allowing two others who have long been in my top 5 to surpass him. I still love Squall and FF8 though, and I feel like he'll be sticking around in my elite group for a long time.
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darkx