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The Final Fantasy series boasts numerous unforgettable settings. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has secured a special place in players' hearts, who love the distinctive idiosyncrasies that make these locales so remarkable. However, when it comes to one setting that merits greater attention than the rest, it is certainly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its beautiful design, but also for being a truly strange school.

An Pure Movie Reveal

Before, we must highlight the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden turning into an airship and fleeing from a missile attack was absolute cinema. This location was not only intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that allows them to create new plans and relocate, based on the requirements of those in command. I readily consider it as one of the coolest airship designs in the series, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

The Initial Look of a Brooding Home

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first look of the location this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the ground of the school and rises to zoom in on the impressive size of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel futuristic, but also somehow angelic. The rounded structures recall a specifically late ‘90s idea of how the tomorrow would look. On the other hand, because of the gilded accents on the building and the long trails of light emanating from the enormous glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a massive angel. It was created to be a tranquil place — excessively peaceful for an institution that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

The Memorable Melody

Complementing the serenity that the appearance of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the most cherished recollections I have from being a kid is strolling around the main area of Balamb Garden, seeing those aquatic statues spurting water, and listening to the gentle theme song. The problem is that it keeps playing in your head constantly. Whenever it returns to my mind, I’m compelled to search on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to make it stop playing inside my head is to overdose of it.

• Gentle tune that sticks in your mind
• Main courtyard with water features
• Nostalgic memories for countless players

A Fascinating Institution

Balamb Garden is intriguing as a setting and also an institution. First, it accepts kids from 5 to 15 years old to mold them into mercenaries, but it appears like a enormous church. There are a lot of military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but none look less militaristic than Balamb Garden.

A Paradoxical Philosophy

If you access the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you find out that the motto of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I never have the sense that those teenagers preparing to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. But, given that the training center, where students encounter real monsters they can defeat, is the only place in the entire school available at any time during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the key aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their food is terrible, since students are eating so many hot dogs that the personnel have nothing else to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Rules

Students are controlled by a strict set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a combat school, but on the other seems oddly humorous. For example, there’s no dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their dorms in the evenings, unless it’s for training. A student can 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 really worried about its students’ relationships. The school officially suggests that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the real threat 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 Just Good Looks

From the elegant advanced design of the building to the paradoxes and debatable practices of the institution, there are numerous elements of Balamb Garden to appreciate. We all like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than only aesthetics.