Characters of Final Fantasy VIII

Square's 1999 best-selling role-playing video game Final Fantasy VIII deals with an elite group of mercenaries called "SeeD", as well as soldiers, rebels, and political leaders of various nations and cities. Thirteen weeks after its release, Final Fantasy VIII had earned more than US$50 million in sales, making it the fastest selling Final Fantasy title. Final Fantasy VIII has shipped 8.15 million units worldwide as of March 2003. Additionally, Final Fantasy VIII was voted the 22nd-best game of all time by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu. The game's characters were created by Tetsuya Nomura, and are the first in the series to be realistically proportioned in a consistent manner. This graphical shift, as well as the cast in general, has received generally positive reviews from gaming magazines and websites.

The six main playable characters in Final Fantasy VIII are Squall Leonhart, a loner who keeps his focus on duty; Rinoa Heartilly, a passionate young woman who follows her heart in all situations; Quistis Trepe, an instructor with a serious, patient attitude; Zell Dincht, a martial artist with a passion for hot dogs; Selphie Tilmitt, a cheerful girl who loves trains and flies the airship Ragnarok; and Irvine Kinneas, a marksman and consummate ladies' man. Playable supporting characters include Laguna Loire, Kiros Seagill, and Ward Zabac, who appear in "flashback" sequences; and antagonists Seifer Almasy and Edea Kramer. Other characters such as the main villain Ultimecia make appearances throughout the story; their significance and backstories are revealed as the game progresses.

Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima stresses the dynamic of players' relationships with the main character in Final Fantasy games; thus, he puts significant thought into how that relationship will develop. With Final Fantasy VII, protagonist Cloud Strife's reserved nature led Nojima to include scenarios in which the player can select Cloud's responses to certain situations and dialogue. With Final Fantasy VIII, which also features a reserved lead protagonist in Squall, Nojima wanted to give players actual insight into what the protagonist is thinking, even while other characters remain uninformed: this led to the inner dialogues Squall has through the game.

...
Wikipedia