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This FF franchise boasts numerous iconic settings. 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 distinctive details that make these locales so remarkable. However, if one setting that warrants greater praise than the rest, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its stunning design, but also for being a absolutely bizarre school.

The Pure Movie Scene

First, we must address the obvious. Balamb Garden turning into an airship and escaping from a missile attack was pure cinema. This place was not only designed to be a academy for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that enables them to create new plans and relocate, based on the demands of those in control. I readily regard 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.

The First Glimpse of a Brooding Sanctuary

When we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our initial view of the place this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the ground of the school and ascends to zoom in on the staggering size of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also angelic. The curvy structures recall a distinctly late ‘90s idea of how the future would look. Conversely, because of the golden features on the building and the long trails of light emanating from the enormous glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was built to be a peaceful place — excessively peaceful for an institution that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

An Memorable Soundtrack

Complementing the calmness that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden portrays, we have the school’s theme song. One of the fondest memories I have from my youth is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those aquatic statues spraying water, and listening to the gentle theme song. The catch is that it continues playing in your head forever. Whenever it returns to my mind, I’m forced 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 listen to it repeatedly of it.

• Soothing melody that remains in your mind
• Central area with water features
• Nostalgic associations for countless players

The Fascinating School

Balamb Garden is fascinating as a setting and also an establishment. For starters, it enrolls kids from 5 to fifteen years old to turn them into mercenaries, but it looks like a enormous 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.

A Paradoxical Philosophy

If you access the Balamb Garden Network using one of the game terminals, you find out that the credo of the institution is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I didn't have the feeling that those teenagers preparing to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. However, given that the training center, where students encounter real monsters they can battle, is the only 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 food is awful, since students are devouring so many frankfurters that the faculty have no other response to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Tight Regulations

Students are governed by a rigid set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a military school, but conversely seems weirdly humorous. 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 expelled if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not seem like it, but Balamb Garden is really worried about its students’ romantic activities. The school formally recommends 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 love affairs, not fighting with weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Aesthetics

From the delicate advanced design of the building to the paradoxes and dubious practices of the institution, there are numerous features of Balamb Garden to admire. We all like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than simply aesthetics.