🔗 Share this article

The Final Fantasy series boasts numerous iconic locations. Starting with Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has found a cherished place in fans' hearts, and they celebrate the unique idiosyncrasies that make these areas so unique. But, when it comes to one place that merits more recognition than the others, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its elegant design, but additionally for being a absolutely bizarre school.

An Pure Cinematic Reveal

First, we must highlight the obvious. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and fleeing from a rocket attack was absolute cinema. This place was not just designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that allows them to establish new tactics and relocate, depending on the needs of those in charge. I easily view it as one of the coolest airship creations in the franchise, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

This conversion of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the more iconic moments in gaming history.

A Initial View of a Gloomy Sanctuary

When we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first look of the location this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the ground of the school and ascends to focus on the awe-inspiring magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that feels advanced, but also heavenly. The curvy structures recall a specifically late ‘90s vision of how the tomorrow would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded accents on the building and the long trails of light emanating from the enormous glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a giant angel. It was built to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an institution that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

The Catchy Melody

Complementing the serenity that the appearance of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s theme song. One of the most cherished recollections I have from being a kid is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spurting water, and hearing to the gentle theme song. The catch is that it continues playing in your head forever. Once it comes back to my mind, I’m forced to look up on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to get it out of playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Gentle tune that lingers in your mind
• Central courtyard with fountain features
• Sentimental memories for many players

The Fascinating Academy

Balamb Garden is fascinating as a setting and also an institution. For starters, it enrolls kids from 5 to fifteen years old to turn them into mercenaries, but it appears like a giant 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 Contradictory Philosophy

If you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the game terminals, you learn that the motto of the school is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I never have the feeling 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 sole place in the entire school accessible at any time during the day, maybe that’s what they mean by “playing.” While training is the key part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is terrible, since students are consuming so many hot dogs that the faculty have no other response to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Rules

Students are controlled by a tight set of rules, which, for one, we would anticipate from a combat school, but conversely seems strangely funny. For example, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their rooms in the evenings, unless it’s for training. A student can be dismissed if they lag in their studies, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not look like it, but Balamb Garden is genuinely concerned about its students’ relationships. 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 fighting with gunblades and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the opening cutscene.)

More Than Just Good Looks

Starting with the refined advanced design of the building to the paradoxes and questionable decisions of the school, there are countless elements of Balamb Garden to appreciate. We all like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than just aesthetics.