🔗 Share this article

This Final Fantasy series includes countless unforgettable locations. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has earned a cherished place in players' hearts, and they love the distinctive idiosyncrasies that make these worlds so unique. But, when it comes to one location that deserves more recognition than the others, it is certainly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its elegant design, but additionally for being a incredibly strange school.

An Absolute Movie Moment

First, we must mention the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden turning into an airship and fleeing from a missile attack was pure cinema. This institution was not just intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that enables them to develop new tactics and move, depending on the requirements of those in charge. Many easily regard it as one of the coolest airship designs in the series, together 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 iconic moments in video game history.

The First View of a Gloomy Sanctuary

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first look of the place this sullen-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot starts from the ground of the school and ascends to focus on the awe-inspiring size of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel futuristic, but also somehow angelic. The curvy structures recall a specifically late ‘90s vision of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded details on the building and the long beams of light emanating from the massive glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a giant angel. It was built to be a peaceful place — too peaceful for an academy that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

An Unforgettable Melody

Complementing the tranquility that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the fondest memories I have from childhood is walking around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those aquatic statues spurting water, and listening to the gentle theme song. The problem is that it keeps playing in your head indefinitely. Once it returns to my mind, I’m forced to search on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to get it out of playing inside my head is to listen to it repeatedly of it.

• Soothing melody that remains in your mind
• Central area with water features
• Nostalgic memories for many players

The Compelling Institution

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting as well as an institution. For starters, it accepts kids from five to fifteen years old to turn 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.

The Ironic Slogan

When you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the slogan of the institution is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I never have the sense that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. However, given that the training area, where students find real monsters they can battle, is the only place in the entire school available at any time during the day, maybe that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the primary aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their nutrition is terrible, since students are devouring so many hot dogs that the faculty have nothing else to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Strict Regulations

Students are controlled by a strict set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a military school, but conversely seems strangely amusing. For example, there’s no dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their rooms in the evenings, unless it’s for training. A student may be dismissed if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is really worried about its students’ sex life. The school officially recommends 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 fighting with weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

More Than Just Aesthetics

Starting with the refined futuristic design of the building to the contradictions and questionable actions of the academy, there are numerous features of Balamb Garden to admire. Many of us like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than only surface appeal.