🔗 Share this article

The Final Fantasy series features many iconic locations. Starting with Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has earned a cherished place in fans' hearts, who admire the unique details that make these locales so special. However, when it comes to one location that deserves greater praise than the rest, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its beautiful design, but also for being a incredibly weird school.

An Absolute Cinematic Scene

First, let's address the obvious. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and escaping from a rocket attack was absolute cinema. This location was not only intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a moving base that enables them to develop new plans and move, depending on the needs of those in charge. I readily view it as one of the coolest airship creations in the franchise, together with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

This transformation of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the more unforgettable moments in gaming history.

A Initial View of a Brooding Home

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial look of the environment this sullen-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the floor of the school and ascends to zoom in on the awe-inspiring size of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that appears advanced, but also heavenly. The rounded structures recall a specifically late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Conversely, because of the golden accents on the building and the extended trails of light coming from the immense glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was created to be a tranquil place — excessively peaceful for an institution that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

The Unforgettable Melody

Complementing the calmness that the appearance of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s soundtrack. One of the fondest recollections I have from childhood is strolling around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spraying water, and hearing to the lullaby-ish theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head forever. Whenever it comes back to my mind, I’m compelled to search on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to make it stop playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Gentle melody that lingers in your mind
• Central area with water features
• Sentimental associations for many players

A Fascinating Academy

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting as well as an establishment. For starters, it enrolls kids from five to fifteen years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it looks like a massive church. There are a lot of military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but none look less like a militaristic than Balamb Garden.

The Ironic Motto

When you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the slogan of the school is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” I’m sorry, but I didn't have the sense that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. But, considering that the training area, where students encounter real monsters they can kill, is the only place in the whole school accessible at all hours during the day, maybe that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the key part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their food is awful, since students are eating so many hot dogs that the staff have no other response to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Tight Regulations

Students are controlled by a tight set of rules, which, for one, we would expect from a combat school, but on the other seems oddly funny. First, there’s no dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their rooms in the nights, except it’s for training. A student may be dismissed if they fall behind in their curriculum, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is truly worried about its students’ relationships. The school formally recommends that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the real danger of being a student of Balamb Garden is love affairs, not battling with gunblades and slashing each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the opening cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Aesthetics

From the elegant futuristic design of the building to the contradictions and debatable practices of the academy, there are countless aspects of Balamb Garden to appreciate. Many of us like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than only good looks.