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The Final Fantasy franchise features numerous iconic places. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has found a cherished place in players' hearts, who love the distinctive idiosyncrasies that make these locales so remarkable. But, if one setting that deserves more praise than the rest, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its elegant design, but also for being a truly strange school.

An Pure Blockbuster Reveal

First, let's highlight the obvious. Balamb Garden transforming into an flying vessel and fleeing from a rocket attack was pure cinema. This place was not just designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a moving base that permits them to create new strategies and move, depending on the demands of those in charge. Many readily consider it as one of the most impressive airship creations in the franchise, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

This conversion of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the most memorable moments in gaming history.

A First Glimpse of a Brooding Sanctuary

As we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first look of the environment this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot starts from the floor of the school and ascends to focus on the staggering scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also angelic. The flowing structures bring to mind a specifically late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded features on the building and the extended beams of light coming from the massive glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a massive angel. It was designed to be a peaceful place — too peaceful for an institution that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

The Catchy Theme Song

Complementing the serenity that the design of Balamb Garden portrays, we have the school’s theme song. One of the dearest recollections I have from being a kid is walking around the central area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spouting water, and listening to the lullaby-ish theme song. The problem is that it continues playing in your head indefinitely. Whenever it returns to my mind, I’m forced to look up on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to end playing inside my head is to overdose of it.

• Gentle tune that sticks in your mind
• Main courtyard with water features
• Nostalgic feelings for countless players

A Intriguing Academy

Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting as well as an institution. For starters, it accepts kids from 5 to 15 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.

The Paradoxical Motto

If you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you learn that the motto of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” I’m sorry, but I didn't have the feeling that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. However, given that the facility, where students encounter real monsters they can battle, is the sole place in the entire school available at any time during the day, maybe that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the most important part of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their food is awful, since students are eating so many hot dogs that the personnel have nothing else to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Rigid Regulations

Students are controlled by a rigid set of rules, which, for one, we should expect from a combat school, but on the other seems strangely humorous. First, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their dorms in the evenings, except it’s for training. A student may be dismissed if they fall behind in their curriculum, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not seem 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 real risk of being a student of Balamb Garden is romantic relationships, not fighting with gunblades and slashing each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

Greater Than Just Appearance

From the refined futuristic design of the building to the contradictions and debatable practices of the institution, there are many features of Balamb Garden to admire. We all like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than simply surface appeal.