This Final Fantasy 8 Landmark Warrants More Adoration

This FF series boasts countless memorable 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, each has found a cherished place in fans' hearts, who love the distinctive quirks that make these areas so unique. But, when it comes to one setting that merits greater attention than the others, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its stunning design, but also for being a truly strange school.

The Pure Movie Scene

Before, we must mention the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and fleeing from a missile attack was pure cinema. This location was not only designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a moving base that allows them to develop new strategies and reposition, depending on the requirements of those in command. I readily view it as one of the best airship designs in the series, together with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

A Initial View of a Brooding Home

As we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our first look of the place this sullen-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 feels advanced, but also heavenly. The flowing structures recall a specifically late ‘90s concept of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the golden details on the building and the long beams of light coming from the immense glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was designed to be a tranquil place — excessively peaceful for an institution that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

The Catchy Soundtrack

Complementing the serenity that the design of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the fondest memories I have from being a kid is strolling around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spouting water, and hearing to the soothing theme song. The catch is that it continues playing in your head forever. Once it returns to my mind, I’m compelled to search on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to make it stop playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Gentle tune that lingers in your mind
• Central hub with fountain features
• Nostalgic associations for countless players

The Intriguing Institution

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting as well as an institution. For starters, it accepts kids from 5 to 15 years old to mold them into mercenaries, but it looks like a massive church. There are many military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but not one look less militaristic than Balamb Garden.

The Paradoxical Slogan

If you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the game terminals, you learn that the motto of the institution is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I didn't have the feeling that those teenagers preparing 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 entire school available 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 frankfurters that the faculty have no other response to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Strict Policies

Students are governed by a tight set of rules, which, for one, we would expect from a combat school, but on the other seems oddly funny. For example, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their dorms in the nights, except it’s for training. A student can be expelled if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not seem like it, but Balamb Garden is really worried about its students’ sex life. The school officially advises 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 fighting with weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

More Than Only Appearance

From the elegant advanced design of the building to the contradictions and debatable actions of the academy, there are many elements 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 simply surface appeal.