The reclusive, antisocial hero of FF8. Squall sports brown hair and a facial scar from a tussle with Seifer. An orphan, we later find out that he attended the Kramer orphanage. His parents, it is vaguely alluded to, are Laguna and Raine, which would make Ellone his adopted sister. (He called her "Sis" in the orphanage either way). During his escapades as a SeeD, he slowly falls for his first employer, Rinoa. His weapon of choice is a gunblade - not the most realistic of weapons, but definitely one of the coolest. He was supposedly called Squall because he was supposed to remind you of a passing storm, something that doesn't get very close up. "Leonhart" is supposedly reused from Leon, one of the heros from 2.
A vivacious, rebellious young girl whose luxuriant looks and defiant attitude eventually attract Squall to her. Her parents are General Caraway of Galbadia and Julia Heartilly, a piano player, who dies before the game is set. Her faithful dog, Angelo, takes better care of her than most pets do. Her life gets even more complicated when she becomes a sorceress and vulnerable to Ultimecia's mind manipulation. She wears a blue dress with two stylized angel's wings drawn on the back.
There's always one. Irvine is the ladies' man of 8; he's even got the cowboy hat and ponytail, and his dead-on sharpshooting aim, to try to make their knees weak. It's very rare that he gets any sort of positive reaction, though. He tends to put people off by his uncaring attitude, but it's really just a cover. The real him comes out sometimes when he gets caught up in things. He also attended the Kramers' orphanage as a child.
Precocious is the word that comes to mind when dealing with this tall blonde. Quistis rose quickly in the ranks of SeeD to become an instructor, but was demoted from her status after allegations of being lacking leadership qualities - basically, she couldn't control Seifer. She's still just as determined as ever. She also grew up in the Kramers' orphanage with the rest of the gang. She was adopted, but had problems with her new home, and ended up in Balamb Garden at the age of 10.
Now here's someone whose mouth always goes before his brain. So full of energy and sometimes slightly crazed, this youthful martial arts master somehow fails to endear himself to anyone around him besides for an unnamed pigtailed girl. A resident of Balamb (he lives there with his mother, who actually adopted him), he joined the Garden at 13 but still, it seems that hasn't attained maturity. He attended the Kramers' orphanage as a child.
A spunky girl who never seems to run out of cutsey things to say at any given time, and who has an overbearingly naive view of the world, Selphie's always there when people need cheering up, even if they don't want it. A transfer student from Trabia Garden who found her niche in the Garden Festival committee. She doesn't look it, but she's deadly with nunchaku. She attended the Kramers' orphanage as a child.
Laguna's more bent on journalism, telling the world about the horrors of violence, war, and alcoholism. Although he did a stint for the Galbadian army, he spent the rest of his life righting wrongs in his own shy way, and eventually landed a slave job in Esthar. He doesn't like getting too close to battle; his gun does all the damage he needs. The game holds much evidence that point to him being the father of Squall.
Laguna's secret love, he seldom revealed the fact that she married him once she passed away. A very conscientious woman and an ideal mother, her loss affected both Laguna and Ellone profoundly. Evidence points to her being Squall's mother.
Her parents were killed in an Esthar attack, and she was adopted and raised by Raine and Laguna. She started off as the cutest little girl, and grows into a graceful young lady. She has the unique ability to send someone's mind back in time, which is how Laguna and Squall became so closely connected. She's continually getting captured and rescued because of her abilities. Ellone also eventually ended up in the Kramers' orphanage, and being the oldest there, everyone looked up to her and called her "Sis".
Laguna's traveling companion, this dark-skinned cool dude makes Laguna look like a total nerd. He can quietly dash Laguna's bumbling antics with one short comment. But their friendship spans countless decades. Kiros is thin, wiry, and deadly with two blades called Katal which are more like extensions of his hands than weapons.
The third member of Laguna's group, Ward walks heavily and speaks very little - in fact, nothing at all, after he loses his voice in a battle with Esthar soldiers. However, you can always tell what he's thinking by the expression on his face. He can still do heavy damage with his anchor-like spear, though.
He looks too nice to head a military academy, but there he is. He can be quite forceful when push comes to shove, but he's a bit of a coward. He started the orphanage with his wife Edea, but was forced to transform it into Garden when she was possessed by Ultimecia. Having to live with the fact that he might have to order his wife's death is not a nice feeling.When danger from Galbadia threatens, he runs.
Edea's original motives were all for the best. A very high-class woman, she started an orphanage with her husband, Cid. However, that all changed when she inherited the powers of Sorceress Ultimecia (via a bend in time) and became a sorceress herself. She realized the problems this could cause. She and Cid started Garden and SeeD, in case she should ever need to be stopped before destroying the world. All the children from her orphanage call her Matron, and have very fond memories of her, which make it all the harder to be forced to fight her. After she comes to, she joins up with the youths in the fight against Ultimecia.
Rinoa's stern father who's all but disowned her. He's a top brass in the Galbadian army and she's a dissenter. Go figure.
An extremely idiosyncratic personage, he has a scientific mind like a broken mirror - brilliant, but fractured. He tends to have absolutely no feelings for anything besides his research. His dress is ridiculous, looking sort of like a clown with that huge striped collar. He is a famous researcher of magical artifacts, and has taken a special interest in the sorceresses. He was the one who invented Junctioning and discovered GFs, and who extracted Ellone's powers into a machine. His lab is in Esthar City.
A fat and rich Shumi reminiscent of Jabba the Hutt, he was the one who financed SeeD. However, his cowardice caused him to want to do anything to appease the new sorceress, so he decided to give her Cid's head on a platter. Squall didn't like that idea too much.
The unruly and unpredictable antagonist of Squall. Seifer sports a long trench coat, very short orange hair, a scar from a training battle with Squall, and a chip on his shoulder a mile wide. He has a tendency to do whatever he wants, despite any illogic it entails. He also has a propensity towards violence, which might be why he's head of the Balamb Garden Disciplinary Committe, with Fujin and Raijin. He's the only other person in the world of 8 who wields a gunblade. He attended the Kramers' orphanage as a child as well.
A very creepy gal. She has silver hair and an eye patch. She has a tendency to speak in CAPITAL, ONE WORD SENTENCES (in JP version, she speaks in Kanji). She can speak normally, but she doesn't like to. And she packs a mean kick, usually to Raijin. She, Raijin, and Seifer make up the Disciplinary Committee of Balamb Garden, for a little while at least.
- Raijin
- Honest, you almost feel horrible fighting this guy! The fact that he can kick your butt with his staff doesn't matter. This dark-skinned, feel-good posse member hangs around with Fujin and Seifer; they make up the Balamb Garden Disciplinary Committee. He has a tendency to talk cool, ya know? And be nice to people. But his friends don't like that too much, so he gets kicked in the shins a lot. But he follows them 'cause they're a posse, ya know?
A very not nice lady who kind of had this little reign of terror going on in Esthar in the past. She was sealed away by Laguna and a few other revolutionaries and sent into outer space. Ultimecia uses Rinoa to unseal her.
We don't hear much about this very evil person except the fact that she wants to destroy the universe. Truth is, she was kind of tacked on as an afterthought - we don't even get to meet her until it's time to kill her. She does have a weird accent. She takes over Edea and Rinoa in the course of the game while trying to accomplish her goals.
One of the major symbols of the story. Griever looks like a silver lion head and appears on Squall's gunblade, on a plaque in his room, on the ring he gives to Rinoa, and as the final boss (the "Ultimate GF"). Nancy Lavigne gives an interesting connection: "Ultimecia searches Squall's mind for the strongest monster he could imagine, and it was of course Griever. So Griever was a creature that Squall imagined, and Ultimecia brought it to life."
Gilgamesh takes a much different role here as a Guardian Force, looking like a hybrid of his two forms from FF5. If you gain Odin before the final fight with Seifer, he will attempt to attack Seifer but become destroyed, his sword flying towards the heavens. At the end of the fight, Gilgamesh comes down, brandishing Odin's sword and three others, and cuts Seifer down. He takes the place of Odin for the rest of the game at that point. He has four arms holding a different sword for four different attacks - Zantetsuken works the same as Odin's attack, Excalibur does medium damage to enemies, Masamune does high damage to enemies, and Excalipur does 1 HP of damage (he used this sword in FF5, thinking it was the real thing, with hilarious results). Unlike other GF's, Gilgamesh's appearances can't be controlled; he appears randomly at the beginning of battles (including boss fights!) and uses one of the four attacks.
