🔗 Share this article That Final Fantasy 8 Landmark Deserves Greater Love This FF series boasts many memorable locations. From Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has secured a special place in fans' hearts, who celebrate the distinctive quirks that make these locales so unique. But, if one location that warrants more attention than the rest, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its beautiful design, but additionally for being a truly weird school. The Absolute Blockbuster Scene Before, we must address the obvious. Balamb Garden turning into an airship and escaping from a rocket attack was absolute cinema. This place was not only intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that allows them to establish new tactics and reposition, based on the needs of those in command. Many readily consider it as one of the coolest airship creations in the series, together with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships. The conversion of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the most memorable moments in gaming history. A First Look of a Brooding Home When we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first glimpse of the environment this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot begins from the floor of the school and ascends to focus on the staggering magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel futuristic, but also angelic. The rounded structures bring to mind a distinctly late ‘90s vision of how the tomorrow would look. Conversely, because of the gilded features on the building and the extended trails of light coming from the enormous glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a giant angel. It was designed to be a tranquil place — too peaceful for an establishment that transforms teenagers into mercenaries. An Catchy Melody Complementing the serenity that the design of Balamb Garden portrays, we have the school’s soundtrack. One of the dearest memories I have from being a kid is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, seeing those aquatic statues spouting water, and hearing to the lullaby-ish theme song. The issue is that it keeps playing in your head indefinitely. Once it comes back to my mind, I’m compelled to look up on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to make it stop playing inside my head is to listen to it repeatedly of it. Gentle music that sticks in your mind Main area with fountain features Nostalgic associations for countless players The Fascinating School Balamb Garden is intriguing as a setting as well as an organization. For starters, it enrolls kids from five to 15 years old to mold them into mercenaries, but it looks 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. A Ironic Philosophy When 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.” Apologies, but I never have the sense that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. But, given that the training center, where students encounter living monsters they can defeat, is the sole place in the entire school available at all hours during the day, maybe that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the primary part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is awful, since students are consuming so many hot dogs that the personnel have no other response to say besides “No more hot dogs today.” Rigid Policies Students are governed by a strict set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a combat school, but on the other seems strangely humorous. First, there’s no dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their rooms in the evenings, except it’s for training. A student can be dismissed if they fall behind in their studies, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is genuinely 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 true danger of being a student of Balamb Garden is love affairs, not fighting with gunblades and slashing each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.) Greater Than Just Good Looks Starting with the delicate advanced design of the building to the paradoxes and debatable actions of the school, there are many elements of Balamb Garden to celebrate. Many of us like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than simply surface appeal.