As a teen I definitely liked Squall the best. I thought that his aloofness was cool, and sympathized with his distaste for other people and desire to stay detached and not get involved in other people's nonsense. I liked Cloud too, because he was handsome (I always thought Zidane was a little odd looking).

But as an adult I've learned that if I don't extend a hand, the chance of connecting with someone else is really slim to none, and how much an extended hand and sympathetic companion can mean in hard times. Squall had people falling into his lap left and right and wanting to be with him, but upon replaying the game I couldn't completely understand why. He is reliable (at least for the first half of the game- he becomes an absolutely useless lump around disc 3) and his 'cool appeal' might make others want to crack his shell and get him to open up. But if I had to meet anyone in real life, I would want Zidane around. He's the kind of person who could make you smile and feel like trying again even when everything's gone wrong. That's amazing and I appreciate it a lot more now. It's a pleasure to have him as my window into the beautiful world of FF9.