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This Final Fantasy franchise 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 earned a cherished place in fans' hearts, who love the distinctive idiosyncrasies that make these worlds so special. However, when it comes to one location that warrants more praise than the others, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its elegant design, but also for being a absolutely bizarre school.

The Pure Movie Moment

Before, we must highlight the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden turning into an flying vessel and escaping from a rocket attack was pure cinema. This location was not only designed to be a academy for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that permits them to develop new tactics and move, based on the requirements of those in command. Many easily view it as one of the coolest airship concepts in the series, alongside Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

The Initial View of a Gloomy Sanctuary

As we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first view of the location this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot starts from the floor of the school and rises to focus on the impressive magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also somehow heavenly. The curvy structures evoke a distinctly late ‘90s idea of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the golden features on the building and the extended beams of light coming from the massive glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was built to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an institution that turns teenagers into mercenaries.

An Unforgettable Theme Song

Matching the calmness that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s theme song. One of the dearest memories I have from childhood is strolling around the central area of Balamb Garden, seeing those fish statues spouting water, and hearing to the lullaby-ish theme song. The catch is that it continues playing in your head forever. Once it comes back to my mind, I’m compelled to look up on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to make it stop playing inside my head is to listen to it repeatedly of it.

• Gentle music that remains in your mind
• Central hub with fountain features
• Nostalgic memories for many players

The Compelling Institution

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting and also an establishment. For starters, it enrolls kids from five to fifteen years old to turn them into mercenaries, but it looks like a giant church. There are many military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but none look less militaristic than Balamb Garden.

A Contradictory Motto

If you use the Balamb Garden Network via one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the credo of the institution 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” — except for Zell. But, given that the training area, where students encounter real monsters they can battle, is the sole place in the whole school accessible at any time during the day, maybe that’s what they mean by “playing.” While combat preparation is the most important part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is terrible, since students are eating so many frankfurters that the staff have nothing else to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Rules

Students are controlled by a strict set of rules, which, on one hand, we would anticipate from a military school, but on the other seems strangely funny. For example, there’s no dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their rooms in the nights, unless it’s for training. A student may be expelled if they fall behind in their studies, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not look like it, but Balamb Garden is truly concerned 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 cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

Greater Than Just Appearance

Starting with the refined futuristic design of the building to the ironies and debatable actions of the institution, there are numerous aspects of Balamb Garden to celebrate. We all like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than only surface appeal.