🔗 Share this article

This Final Fantasy franchise features countless iconic places. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has secured a special place in players' hearts, who admire the unique quirks that make these areas so remarkable. However, when it comes to one place that deserves greater attention than the rest, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its stunning design, but also for being a absolutely bizarre school.

The Pure Blockbuster Moment

Before, we must highlight the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden transforming into an airship and escaping from a missile attack was pure cinema. This place was not only designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a moving base that allows them to create new plans and reposition, depending on the needs of those in command. Many readily view it as one of the best airship designs in the series, alongside Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

The First View of a Brooding Home

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial look of the place this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot begins from the floor of the school and ascends to zoom in on the impressive magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also somehow angelic. The flowing structures evoke a distinctly late ‘90s concept of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded details on the building and the extended trails of light coming from the immense glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was designed to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an institution that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Memorable Theme Song

Matching the calmness that the design of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s theme song. One of the fondest recollections I have from childhood is strolling around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spurting water, and listening to the lullaby-ish theme song. The problem is that it keeps playing in your head indefinitely. Once it comes back to my mind, I’m compelled to search on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to make it stop playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

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

A Intriguing School

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting as well as an organization. First, it accepts kids from five to 15 years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it appears like a enormous church. There are many military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but none look less militaristic than Balamb Garden.

A Paradoxical Motto

When you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the game terminals, you learn that the slogan of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I didn't have the feeling that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. But, considering that the training area, where students encounter living monsters they can battle, is the sole place in the entire school accessible at any time during the day, maybe that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the key part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is poor, since students are devouring so many frankfurters that the staff have no other response to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Tight Policies

Students are governed by a rigid set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a military school, but on the other seems weirdly humorous. For example, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their dorms in the nights, except it’s for training. A student can be dismissed if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not look like it, but Balamb Garden is genuinely worried about its students’ relationships. The school formally advises that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the true risk 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 Just Good Looks

From the refined futuristic design of the building to the paradoxes and debatable practices of the school, there are many aspects of Balamb Garden to appreciate. We all like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than just aesthetics.