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This FF franchise includes 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 earned a cherished place in players' hearts, who admire the unique details that make these worlds so unique. However, when it comes to one location that merits more attention than the others, it is certainly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its stunning design, but additionally for being a truly strange school.

The Pure Blockbuster Reveal

Before, let's highlight the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden transforming into an airship and fleeing from a missile attack was pure cinema. This place was not only intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a moving base that allows them to develop new plans and reposition, based on the needs of those in charge. Many readily consider it as one of the most impressive airship creations in the series, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

The change of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the most memorable moments in video game history.

A Initial View of a Brooding Home

When we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our first glimpse of the place this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot begins from the floor of the school and ascends to zoom in on the impressive scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that appears advanced, but also somehow heavenly. The flowing structures evoke a distinctly late ‘90s idea of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded accents on the building and the extended beams of light emanating from the enormous glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden looks like a massive angel. It was designed to be a tranquil place — too peaceful for an institution that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Memorable Theme Song

Matching the calmness that the appearance 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 main area of Balamb Garden, watching those aquatic statues spouting water, and hearing to the gentle theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head indefinitely. Once it returns to my mind, I’m compelled to look up on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to get it out of playing inside my head is to overdose of it.

• Lullaby music that sticks in your mind
• Main area with water features
• Sentimental memories for many players

The Compelling School

Balamb Garden is intriguing as a location as well as an establishment. For starters, it enrolls kids from 5 to fifteen years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it looks like a massive church. There are a lot of military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but none look less like a militaristic than Balamb Garden.

The Ironic Motto

When you use the Balamb Garden Network via one of the game terminals, you discover that the credo of the school is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” I’m sorry, but I never have the feeling that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. However, given that the training area, where students find real monsters they can kill, is the sole place in the whole school available at any time during the day, maybe that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the key aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their food is awful, since students are eating so many hot dogs that the staff have nothing else to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Tight Rules

Students are governed by a rigid set of rules, which, for one, we would anticipate from a military school, but on the other seems oddly funny. First, 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 can be dismissed if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may not look like it, but Balamb Garden is really concerned about its students’ relationships. The school formally suggests that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the true risk 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 opening cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Aesthetics

From the refined advanced design of the building to the ironies and dubious decisions of the school, there are numerous elements of Balamb Garden to appreciate. Many of us like to make fun of Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than only surface appeal.