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The Final Fantasy series boasts countless memorable places. Starting with Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has found a special place in fans' hearts, and they admire the distinctive quirks that make these areas so remarkable. But, when it comes to one place that warrants more recognition than the rest, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its elegant design, but also for being a absolutely strange school.

An Absolute Blockbuster Scene

Before, we must mention the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden turning into an flying vessel and fleeing from a rocket attack was absolute cinema. This institution was not just intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a mobile base that enables them to develop new tactics and move, based on the demands of those in control. Many easily regard it as one of the best airship concepts in the series, along 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 Brooding Home

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial view of the location this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot starts from the floor of the school and rises to zoom in on the staggering scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that feels advanced, but also somehow heavenly. The flowing structures evoke a distinctly late ‘90s vision of how the future would look. Conversely, because of the gilded features on the building and the extended trails of light coming from the enormous glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden looks like a giant angel. It was designed to be a peaceful place — excessively peaceful for an establishment that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

The Unforgettable Theme Song

Complementing the tranquility that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden portrays, we have the school’s background music. One of the dearest recollections I have from being a kid is walking around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spouting water, and listening to the lullaby-ish theme song. The problem is that it continues playing in your head forever. Whenever it returns to my mind, I’m compelled to search on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to end playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Soothing music that sticks in your mind
• Central area with water features
• Nostalgic feelings for countless players

The Compelling Institution

Balamb Garden is fascinating as a location as well as an organization. For starters, it accepts kids from five to fifteen years old to mold them into mercenaries, but it looks like a massive 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 Philosophy

When you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the motto of the school is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I didn't have the sense that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. However, considering that the training area, where students find real monsters they can kill, is the sole place in the entire school accessible at all hours during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend 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.”

Strict Rules

Students are governed by a strict set of rules, which, on one hand, we would expect from a combat school, but conversely seems strangely amusing. For example, there’s no 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 fall behind in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not seem like it, but Balamb Garden is truly worried about its students’ relationships. The school formally suggests 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 romantic relationships, not battling with weapons and slashing each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Appearance

From the elegant advanced design of the building to the contradictions and questionable actions of the academy, there are numerous elements of Balamb Garden to admire. We all like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than just surface appeal.