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The Final Fantasy series includes many iconic settings. From Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has found a special place in fans' hearts, and they love the unique quirks that make these locales so special. However, when it comes to one setting that merits more attention than the others, it is certainly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its stunning design, but additionally for being a incredibly bizarre school.

The Absolute Movie Moment

First, we must address the obvious. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and escaping from a rocket attack was pure cinema. This place was not only designed to be a academy for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that permits them to establish new plans and reposition, based on the demands of those in control. Many easily regard it as one of the coolest airship creations in the franchise, alongside Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

The First View of a Gloomy Sanctuary

When we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial look of the location this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot begins from the ground of the school and rises to zoom in on the awe-inspiring magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that feels advanced, but also heavenly. The flowing structures bring to mind a specifically late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Meanwhile, because of the golden features on the building and the long trails of light coming from the enormous glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a massive angel. It was designed to be a peaceful place — too peaceful for an establishment that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

An Memorable Theme Song

Matching the tranquility that the design of Balamb Garden portrays, we have the school’s theme song. One of the fondest recollections I have from my youth is strolling around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spraying water, and listening to the lullaby-ish theme song. The problem 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 only way to get it out of playing inside my head is to overdose of it.

• Gentle melody that sticks in your mind
• Main area with fountain features
• Sentimental associations for many players

The Fascinating Academy

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

The Ironic Slogan

If you access the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you find out that the slogan of the institution is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I didn't have the sense that those teenagers preparing to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. However, given that the training area, where students find living monsters they can battle, is the only place in the whole school available at any time during the day, perhaps that’s what they mean by “playing.” While training is the key part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is poor, since students are eating so many hot dogs that the staff have nothing else to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Rules

Students are controlled by a tight set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a military school, but on the other seems oddly humorous. For example, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their dorms in the nights, unless it’s for training. A student can be expelled if they fall behind in their studies, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not seem like it, but Balamb Garden is really concerned about its students’ romantic activities. The school officially recommends 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 gunblades and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the opening cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Aesthetics

From the refined advanced design of the building to the paradoxes and debatable decisions of the school, there are many elements of Balamb Garden to admire. We all like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than only aesthetics.