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This FF franchise includes many iconic places. Starting with Elfheim in the very first Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has earned a cherished place in players' hearts, who celebrate the unique details that make these worlds so remarkable. However, when it comes to one location that warrants more praise than the rest, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its stunning design, but additionally for being a absolutely strange school.

The Pure Blockbuster Reveal

First, we must highlight the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden transforming into an flying vessel and fleeing 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 develop new plans and reposition, based on the demands of those in charge. Many readily view it as one of the coolest airship creations in the franchise, alongside Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

The First View of a Brooding Sanctuary

When we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our initial glimpse of the location this sullen-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the ground of the school and ascends to zoom in on the staggering scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that appears advanced, but also divine. The curvy structures evoke a specifically late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded features on the building and the extended trails of light emanating from the immense glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was designed to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an establishment that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Catchy Theme Song

Matching the serenity that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the fondest memories I have from being a kid is strolling around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spraying water, and listening to the lullaby-ish theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head constantly. Once it comes back to my mind, I’m forced to look up on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to get it out of playing inside my head is to have enough of it.

• Gentle tune that lingers in your mind
• Main area with fountain features
• Sentimental memories for countless players

The Intriguing School

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting as well as an institution. For starters, it enrolls kids from 5 to fifteen years old to turn 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 not one look less militaristic than Balamb Garden.

A Ironic Motto

If you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the motto of the institution is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” I’m sorry, but I didn't have the impression that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. However, given that the facility, where students encounter real monsters they can defeat, is the only place in the whole school accessible at all hours during the day, maybe that’s what they intend by “playing.” While training is the most important aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their food is terrible, since students are devouring so many hot dogs that the faculty have nothing else to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Rules

Students are governed by a strict set of rules, which, for one, we should anticipate from a combat school, but conversely seems weirdly amusing. First, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their dorms in the nights, unless it’s for training. A student may be expelled if they lag in their curriculum, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not seem like it, but Balamb Garden is truly concerned about its students’ sex life. The school officially 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 weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the opening cutscene.)

Greater Than Only Appearance

From the refined futuristic design of the building to the contradictions and debatable actions of the institution, there are countless aspects of Balamb Garden to celebrate. We all like to make fun of Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than only good looks.