One of oddest rumors of Final Fantasy VIII running around the 'net are about Squall's charcter design. The two canidates are Japanese rockstar, Gackt, and American actor River Phoenix. Now the question is, which one is it?

Gackt, undoubtly, looks very much like Squall in some photos. They're both very attractive, and Gackt has altered his appearance for photoshoots, many among them begin with brown hair and blue eyes. It was his "cyberland" look that makes him look incredibly similar to Squall. His clothing from his Illuminati era when he was with the visual-kei band, Malice Mizer, highly resemble's Squall's jacket. There is also another photo of him with a similar fur-lined jackt that looks much more like Squall's attire (mini image above). This has led many fans to believe Squall was modeled after him. However, that picture of him in that outfit was taken several years after FFVIII was release, when Gackt made his solo debut. There are also other sources said Gackt claimed that it was true.

However, it is River Phoenix that Squall is modeled after, or rather, inspired by. According to an interview by Nomura, he mentioned that Squall's appearance is based off of the deceased actor River Phoenix (and Seifer was modeled after David Bowie). In Squall's original character design, Nomura drew him with long hair. River Phoenix, at one point during his carear, also had long hair. It wasn't changed until Kitase had told him that it looked awkward. River Phoenix was a somewhat popular actor in the late 80's and early 90's. I watched a couple of his roles myself, and I can't say he was the greatest, but he was fairly decent and fun to look at. His life ended in 1993, due to drug overdose. His younger brother, Joaquin Phoenix, lives to carry on his legacy as an actor. He has recently starred in films such a Ladder 49.

Nomura had a particular hard time designing Squall. He wanted something about him to be significant and made him stand out, much like Cloud's gravity-defying hair-do. His scar was drawn on before any kind of story of how it got there was created. So it's thanks to him that we have an excellent jaw-dropping fight scene between Squall and Seifer.