🔗 Share this article

The Final Fantasy series includes numerous unforgettable places. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has found a special place in players' hearts, who love the unique idiosyncrasies that make these areas so unique. However, if one setting that merits more attention than the others, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its beautiful design, but additionally for being a absolutely strange school.

An Pure Blockbuster Moment

Before, let's mention the obvious. Balamb Garden transforming into an flying vessel and fleeing from a missile attack was pure cinema. This institution was not just intended to be a academy for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that permits them to establish new strategies and reposition, based on the demands of those in control. I easily consider it as one of the most impressive airship creations 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 memorable moments in gaming history.

A Initial View of a Gloomy Home

When we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial look of the environment this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot starts from the floor of the school and ascends to focus on the staggering size of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also somehow angelic. The rounded structures recall a distinctly late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Conversely, because of the golden features on the building and the long beams 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 peaceful place — excessively peaceful for an institution that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Memorable Melody

Complementing the tranquility that the design of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the most cherished memories I have from being a kid is walking around the central area of Balamb Garden, seeing those aquatic statues spurting water, and hearing to the gentle theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head constantly. Once it returns to my mind, I’m forced to search on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to end playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Gentle music that sticks in your mind
• Main courtyard with fountain features
• Sentimental associations for countless players

A Compelling Academy

Balamb Garden is intriguing as a setting and also an establishment. First, it accepts kids from 5 to fifteen years old to turn them into mercenaries, but it appears like a massive church. There are a lot of military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but not one look less like a militaristic than Balamb Garden.

The Paradoxical Slogan

When you use the Balamb Garden Network via one of the game terminals, you find out that the credo 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” — only Zell. But, considering that the facility, where students find real monsters they can defeat, is the only place in the entire school available at all hours during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the most important aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is poor, since students are devouring so many frankfurters 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 should expect from a combat school, but on the other seems oddly humorous. For example, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their rooms in the nights, except it’s for training. A student may be expelled if they lag in their studies, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is genuinely concerned about its students’ sex life. The school officially advises that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the true threat of being a student of Balamb Garden is romantic relationships, not fighting with gunblades and slashing each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the opening cutscene.)

More Than Only Appearance

From the elegant advanced design of the building to the paradoxes and dubious practices of the school, there are countless features of Balamb Garden to admire. Many of us like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than just good looks.