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The Final Fantasy franchise features many iconic settings. Starting with Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has earned a cherished place in fans' hearts, and they love the unique idiosyncrasies that make these locales so remarkable. However, if one place that merits greater recognition than the others, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its stunning design, but also for being a truly weird school.

The Absolute Blockbuster Moment

First, let's address the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and escaping from a rocket attack was absolute cinema. This place was not just intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that allows them to establish new plans and move, based on the demands of those in command. Many readily view it as one of the coolest airship designs in the series, together with 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 iconic moments in gaming history.

The Initial Glimpse of a Brooding Sanctuary

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis leading Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial glimpse of the location this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the floor of the school and rises to focus on the staggering magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also somehow angelic. The flowing structures bring to mind a specifically late ‘90s idea of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded accents on the building and the extended beams of light emanating from the enormous glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a massive angel. It was built to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an establishment that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Catchy Soundtrack

Matching the tranquility that the design of Balamb Garden conveys, we have the school’s background music. One of the fondest memories I have from my youth is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spraying water, and hearing to the lullaby-ish theme song. The problem is that it continues playing in your head forever. Whenever it returns to my mind, I’m forced to look up on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to end playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Soothing melody that remains in your mind
• Central hub with water features
• Sentimental associations for many players

A Compelling Academy

Balamb Garden is intriguing as a setting as well as an institution. For starters, it enrolls kids from 5 to fifteen years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it looks like a massive church. There are many military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but none look less militaristic than Balamb Garden.

The Contradictory Motto

If you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you find out that the credo of the institution 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” — except for Zell. But, considering that the training center, where students encounter living monsters they can battle, is the only place in the entire school available at all hours during the day, maybe that’s what they mean by “playing.” While training is the most important part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is terrible, since students are consuming so many hot dogs that the staff have nothing else to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Regulations

Students are governed by a tight set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a combat school, but on the other seems strangely amusing. First, there’s no dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their dorms in the evenings, except it’s for training. A student can be expelled if they lag in their curriculum, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is genuinely worried about its students’ relationships. The school formally suggests that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the true danger of being a student of Balamb Garden is romantic relationships, not battling with gunblades and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Aesthetics

Starting with the elegant futuristic design of the building to the contradictions and dubious practices of the academy, there are countless features of Balamb Garden to celebrate. Many of us like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than just aesthetics.