🔗 Share this article

This FF franchise includes numerous iconic places. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has secured a special place in players' hearts, who celebrate the unique quirks that make these areas so remarkable. But, if one setting that deserves greater recognition 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 Absolute Movie Scene

Before, let's mention the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden transforming into an airship and fleeing from a rocket attack was pure cinema. This location was not only intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a mobile base that allows them to establish new plans and reposition, depending on the requirements of those in charge. I readily consider it as one of the best airship creations in the franchise, 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 iconic moments in video game history.

The Initial Glimpse of a Brooding Home

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first glimpse of the location this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot starts from the floor of the school and ascends to focus on the staggering magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that feels futuristic, but also somehow angelic. The curvy structures bring to mind a distinctly late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Conversely, because of the gilded accents on the building and the extended trails of light emanating from the enormous glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a massive angel. It was built to be a serene place — too peaceful for an academy that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Memorable Soundtrack

Matching the calmness that the design of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the most cherished recollections I have from my youth is strolling around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those aquatic statues spraying water, and hearing to the lullaby-ish theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head constantly. Once it comes back to my mind, I’m compelled to look up on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to make it stop playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Gentle music that lingers in your mind
• Central hub with fountain features
• Sentimental associations for countless players

A Fascinating Institution

Balamb Garden is compelling as a location and also an organization. First, it accepts kids from 5 to fifteen years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it looks 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.

A Paradoxical Slogan

If you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the motto 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. However, considering that the training center, where students encounter living monsters they can battle, is the sole place in the whole school accessible at all hours during the day, maybe that’s what they mean by “playing.” While training is the primary aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is poor, since students are devouring so many hot dogs that the staff have nothing else to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Regulations

Students are controlled by a strict set of rules, which, for one, we would expect from a combat school, but on the other seems strangely funny. For example, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their dorms in the nights, except it’s for training. A student can be expelled if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is truly worried 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 love affairs, not battling with weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

Greater Than Just Aesthetics

From the elegant futuristic design of the building to the contradictions and dubious decisions of the institution, there are countless elements of Balamb Garden to admire. Many of us like to make fun of Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than simply aesthetics.