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The FF franchise includes many iconic places. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has secured a special place in fans' hearts, who love the unique idiosyncrasies that make these worlds so unique. However, if one setting that deserves more attention than the others, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its elegant design, but additionally for being a absolutely bizarre school.

The Absolute Cinematic Reveal

Before, let's address the obvious. Balamb Garden turning into an airship and escaping from a missile attack was absolute cinema. This institution was not only intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a moving base that permits them to establish new plans and reposition, based on the demands of those in control. I readily consider it as one of the most impressive airship designs in the franchise, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

The change of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the most memorable moments in video game history.

A First Glimpse of a Brooding Sanctuary

As we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our initial look of the location this sullen-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the ground of the school and ascends to focus on the impressive scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that appears futuristic, but also somehow angelic. The curvy structures bring to mind a distinctly late ‘90s vision of how the future would look. On the other hand, because of the golden accents on the building and the long beams of light emanating from the enormous glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden looks like a giant angel. It was built to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an academy that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

The Unforgettable Melody

Matching the tranquility that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the fondest memories I have from my youth is strolling around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those aquatic statues spurting water, and hearing to the soothing theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head constantly. Whenever it returns to my mind, I’m forced to search on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to get it out of playing inside my head is to overdose of it.

• Soothing tune that sticks in your mind
• Central area with water features
• Sentimental associations for many players

The Compelling School

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting and also an establishment. First, it enrolls kids from five to fifteen years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it looks like a enormous church. There are a lot of military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but not one look less like a militaristic than Balamb Garden.

A Contradictory Philosophy

If you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the in-game terminals, you find out that the slogan of the institution is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I didn't have the sense that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. However, considering that the training center, where students find living monsters they can kill, is the sole place in the entire school accessible at any time during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While training is the key part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is awful, since students are eating so many hot dogs that the staff have no other response to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Policies

Students are controlled by a rigid set of rules, which, on one hand, we would expect from a military school, but on the other seems strangely humorous. First, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their dorms in the nights, unless it’s for training. A student may be dismissed if they lag in their curriculum, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is really concerned about its students’ sex life. The school formally advises that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the true threat of being a student of Balamb Garden is love affairs, not battling with gunblades and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Aesthetics

From the delicate futuristic design of the building to the paradoxes and questionable decisions of the institution, there are numerous elements of Balamb Garden to admire. Many of us like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than only good looks.