feels it looks odd in retrospect and that it was very difficult to master. According to other staff members, Nomura's idea with the Gunblade was combine the two weapons and expand the sense of strength. Portrayal While Final Fantasy VIII does not use voice acting, Squall has a voice in the Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts, in which he is known as Leon. He is voiced by David Boreanaz in the English version of the game and Hideo Ishikawa in the Japanese version. He returns in Kingdom Hearts II and is voiced in the English version by Doug Erholtz, who said he had a "fun journey" voicing Leon and that it was a "really fun role to play". For the Kingdom Hearts series, Nomura decided to use Squall as a mentor character to newcomer Sora. Event planner Jun Akiyama persuaded Nomura to change Squall's name to Leon in order to make his introduction more surprising to the players as he is first mentioned in a letter from Mickey Mouse. The last name Leonhart was removed for unspecified reasons. Meanwhile, some parts of his design were changed to reference Rinoa's, most noticeably the wings in his jacket in order to signify that something happened between the two in the past. However, the real reason for the two being split was because Nomura had problems writing Rinoa out of all Final Fantasy VIII characters. Leon's design was revised to be more effeminated using the original sketches from Final Fantasy VIII that only appeared in the game's logo. Although polygons were used alongside other returning Final Fantasy characters, Leon could not return in Kingdom Hearts III which bothered many of the staff members. In the Final Fantasy fighting game, Erholtz said that Squall came across as an easy character to understand but felt he was not very emotive. This stoic personality led to Erholtz claim that Squall is fighting an inner darkness as shown by his facial expressions. Erholtz found the game to be fun to do due to all the people he worked with. Appearances Final Fantasy VIII At the beginning of Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is known as a "lone wolf" because he never shows his feelings and seems unresponsive to his associates. His superiors including his teacher Quistis Trepe consider him challenging to deal with but respect his talents. Squall is stoical and his taciturn nature used for comic relief.