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This Final Fantasy franchise boasts many memorable places. 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 quirks that make these worlds so special. However, if one location that merits more recognition than the rest, it is certainly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its stunning design, but also for being a truly bizarre school.

The Absolute Movie Scene

Before, let's address the obvious. Balamb Garden transforming into an flying vessel and escaping from a rocket attack was pure cinema. This institution was not just intended to be a academy for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that allows them to establish new plans and move, based on the requirements of those in control. I readily consider it as one of the coolest airship concepts in the series, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

This transformation of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the most memorable moments in video game history.

A First View of a Gloomy Home

When we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis escorting Squall out of the medical wing, we get our initial view of the environment this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the floor of the school and ascends to focus on the impressive scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also heavenly. The curvy structures recall a distinctly late ‘90s concept of how the future would look. Conversely, because of the gilded details on the building and the long trails of light emanating from the massive glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden looks like a massive angel. It was designed to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an establishment that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

An Unforgettable Theme Song

Matching the calmness that the design of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the most cherished memories I have from my youth is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spouting water, and listening to the soothing theme song. The catch is that it keeps playing in your head forever. Once it returns to my mind, I’m forced to look up 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.

• Lullaby music that sticks in your mind
• Main courtyard with water features
• Sentimental memories for countless players

The Intriguing Institution

Balamb Garden is intriguing as a location and also an institution. For starters, it accepts kids from five to fifteen years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it looks like a giant 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 Contradictory Slogan

If you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you find out that the credo of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” I’m sorry, but I never have the impression that those teenagers preparing to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. But, considering that the training area, where students find real monsters they can kill, 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 primary part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their nutrition is terrible, since students are devouring so many hot dogs that the staff have nothing else to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Tight Policies

Students are controlled by a tight set of rules, which, on one hand, we would expect from a combat school, but conversely seems oddly amusing. For example, there’s no dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their dorms in the nights, unless it’s for training. A student may be expelled if they lag in their studies, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not look like it, but Balamb Garden is truly worried about its students’ relationships. The school formally advises that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the real risk of being a student of Balamb Garden is love affairs, not battling with weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

More Than Only Good Looks

From the delicate advanced design of the building to the contradictions and debatable practices of the institution, there are numerous aspects 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 simply aesthetics.