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The Final Fantasy franchise features many unforgettable settings. Starting with Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has earned a special place in fans' hearts, who celebrate the unique idiosyncrasies that make these worlds so special. However, if one location that deserves greater recognition than the others, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its stunning design, but also for being a absolutely weird school.

The Pure Movie Scene

First, let's highlight the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and fleeing from a rocket attack was absolute cinema. This location was not only designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a mobile base that permits them to create new plans and move, based on the demands of those in charge. Many readily consider it as one of the best airship concepts in the series, alongside Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

The conversion of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the more memorable moments in gaming history.

A Initial Look of a Brooding Home

When we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our first view of the environment this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot starts from the floor of the school and rises to focus on the staggering magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that feels futuristic, but also divine. The curvy structures recall a specifically late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Meanwhile, because of the golden features on the building and the extended beams of light emanating from the immense glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a massive angel. It was built to be a peaceful place — too peaceful for an institution that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

The Catchy Melody

Complementing the calmness that the appearance of Balamb Garden conveys, we have the school’s soundtrack. One of the fondest memories I have from childhood is strolling around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spouting water, and listening to the gentle theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head forever. Whenever it returns to my mind, I’m compelled to search on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to get it out of playing inside my head is to listen to it repeatedly of it.

• Soothing tune that sticks in your mind
• Main area with water features
• Sentimental memories for countless players

A Intriguing School

Balamb Garden is fascinating as a setting and also an institution. For starters, it enrolls kids from five to fifteen years old to mold them into mercenaries, but it appears like a giant church. There are a lot of military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but not one look less militaristic than Balamb Garden.

The Paradoxical Motto

If you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the credo of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I never have the feeling 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 defeat, is the only place in the whole school available at any time during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While training is the most important aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their nutrition is terrible, since students are eating so many hot dogs that the personnel have no other response to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Strict Policies

Students are controlled by a tight set of rules, which, on one hand, we would anticipate from a combat school, but on the other seems oddly humorous. First, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their dorms in the evenings, except it’s for training. A student may be dismissed if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not seem like it, but Balamb Garden is really worried about its students’ romantic activities. The school formally recommends that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the real risk of being a student of Balamb Garden is love affairs, not battling with weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

More Than Only Aesthetics

Starting with the elegant futuristic design of the building to the paradoxes and questionable actions of the academy, there are countless elements of Balamb Garden to celebrate. Many of us like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than simply aesthetics.