I had been incredibly excited to learn that Squaresoft would be collaborating with Disney to release Kingdom Hearts, an adventure game that would feature many of the Final Fantasy and Disney characters that we had already come to know and love. The whole idea of it seemed so unique and original; I could not wait to play it.

My need for Kingdom Hearts only grew once I found out that Squall would be making an appearance. "I hope it's kid-Squall," I thought to myself, "That'd be beyond cool."

Much to my dissapointment, and as you probably already know, it was not kid Squall but an adult version of him, renamed Leon, 7 years into the future. This was only a minor setback, however, and I remained hopeful that he would be just as awesome, if not more, than the Squall who I had previously come to adore. Boy was I wrong.

After finally obtaining my own copy of Kingdom Hearts, I realized how much I disliked this Leon guy who they were trying to pass off as Squall. What were they thinking?! Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a wonderful game. It was just his character that I couldn't stand. Here's why:

    1. I am sad to see that he has once again lost those people that were most important to him. All that he learnt in Final Fantasy VIII, all of the emotional growth and development that he went through, it just went to waste. Kingdom Hearts' Leon is basically just a more screwed up, pig-headed version of Squall Leonhart.

    2. I don't really like his design. His hair was always my favourite of his physical traits, but they completely changed it. I don't like how long it is, or how little his bangs stand out from the rest of it. Sometimes even it's colour looks distorted.

I really didn't like how they decided to shorten the sleeves of his jacket. It just doesn't look as good as it did when it was long-sleeved. Also, I have always been bothered by how loose the bottoms of his pants are. They almost look flare; it doesn't work for him.

    3. His personality is dissapointing. I hated how cocky and arrogant he seemed to be. Yeah, Squall was always cold and uncaring to the people around him, but he never intentionally acted as though he was better than them. Leon on the otherhand seemed to go out of his way to show off his skills and make pig-headed remarks impressing the fact that he's good. E.g: Leon (after beating up Sora): I was going easy on him.

    4. He was far too weak. I wanted him to be super strong and hard to defeat, but I don't remember him being that much of a challenge at all. Then again, that's just because I think so highly of him. I know that it's completely unrealistic of me to expect him to be an ultimate boss or anything.

What I did like:

    • Yuffie is his sidekick. She was my favourite of the Final Fantasy VII cast, so I was quite impressed to see the two of them working together.

    • He has a fairly big role. I really appreciated it how signifigant of a character he was. It was great to see Squall, even as Leon, with so much dialogue and screentime in a game other than Final Fantasy VIII.

Please remember that everything said here was of my own opinion. If you happen to love Leon and think that he can do no wrong, then wonderful for you. Just because we disagree, however, doesn't mean that I think you're a bad person, or that we can't potentially be friends. Just so we're clear.