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The Final Fantasy series features many iconic settings. From Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has found a special place in players' hearts, and they love the distinctive quirks that make these worlds so special. But, if one place that merits greater recognition than the rest, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its stunning design, but also for being a truly strange school.

An Pure Blockbuster Scene

First, we must highlight the obvious. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and fleeing from a missile attack was absolute cinema. This location was not just designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a moving base that enables them to establish new tactics and relocate, based on the demands of those in charge. Many readily consider it as one of the coolest airship designs in the series, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

The Initial View of a Brooding Home

When we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial view of the location this sullen-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot starts from the ground of the school and ascends to zoom in on the impressive scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that feels futuristic, but also somehow heavenly. The flowing structures recall a specifically late ‘90s idea of how the future would look. Conversely, because of the gilded accents on the building and the long beams of light coming from the immense glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was designed to be a peaceful place — too peaceful for an institution that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

An Memorable Soundtrack

Complementing the tranquility that the appearance of Balamb Garden portrays, we have the school’s theme song. One of the most cherished recollections I have from childhood is walking around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spurting water, and hearing to the soothing theme song. The problem is that it keeps playing in your head constantly. Once it returns to my mind, I’m compelled to look up on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to end playing inside my head is to listen to it repeatedly of it.

• Gentle melody that remains in your mind
• Central area with fountain features
• Sentimental memories for countless players

A Fascinating Institution

Balamb Garden is fascinating as a location as well as an institution. For starters, 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.

The Ironic Slogan

If you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the game terminals, you find out that the motto of the school is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I didn't have the impression that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. However, given that the training area, where students find real monsters they can kill, is the sole place in the whole school available at any time during the day, perhaps 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 terrible, since students are devouring so many hot dogs that the faculty have nothing else to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Policies

Students are controlled by a rigid set of rules, which, for one, we would anticipate from a combat school, but conversely seems weirdly funny. First, there’s no dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their rooms in the nights, unless it’s for training. A student can 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 genuinely worried about its students’ relationships. The school officially recommends 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.)

More Than Only Aesthetics

Starting with the refined advanced design of the building to the paradoxes and questionable decisions of the school, there are countless features of Balamb Garden to appreciate. Many of us like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than only good looks.