That Final Fantasy 8 Symbol Warrants More Adoration

This Final Fantasy franchise includes countless iconic locations. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has secured a cherished place in fans' hearts, and they admire the distinctive details that make these areas so remarkable. However, if one place that merits more attention than the rest, it is certainly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its elegant design, but additionally for being a absolutely bizarre school.

An Pure Blockbuster Reveal

Before, let's address the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden morphing into an flying vessel and escaping from a missile attack was pure cinema. This institution was not only designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a mobile base that permits them to develop new strategies and relocate, depending on the requirements of those in command. Many readily regard it as one of the best airship concepts in the series, along with 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 memorable moments in video game history.

The Initial View of a Brooding Home

As we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our first look of the location this brooding-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot begins from the floor of the school and rises to zoom in on the staggering magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also angelic. The curvy structures recall a specifically late ‘90s idea of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the golden features on the building and the extended trails of light coming from the massive glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden looks like a giant angel. It was created to be a peaceful place — excessively peaceful for an institution that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Unforgettable Soundtrack

Matching the calmness that the design of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s background music. One of the dearest memories I have from my youth is strolling around the main area of Balamb Garden, seeing those aquatic statues spurting water, and hearing to the soothing theme song. The problem is that it continues playing in your head constantly. Once it returns to my mind, I’m compelled to search on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The sole way to make it stop playing inside my head is to listen to it repeatedly of it.

• Soothing melody that sticks in your mind
• Central courtyard with water features
• Sentimental associations for many players

A Intriguing Institution

Balamb Garden is fascinating as a setting as well as an institution. First, it enrolls kids from five to 15 years old to transform them into mercenaries, but it looks like a giant church. There are many military schools in RPGs, like in Trails of Cold Steel, but not one look less like a militaristic than Balamb Garden.

The Contradictory Motto

When you access the Balamb Garden Network via one of the game terminals, you discover that the slogan of the institution is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” I’m sorry, but I didn't have the sense that those teenagers preparing to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. However, considering that the training area, where students encounter living monsters they can battle, is the only place in the entire school available at any time during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While training 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 faculty have no other response to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”

Tight Rules

Students are governed by a strict set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a combat school, but conversely seems weirdly humorous. First, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their dorms in the nights, except it’s for training. A student may be expelled if they fall behind in their studies, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not seem like it, but Balamb Garden is truly worried 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 threat of being a student of Balamb Garden is love affairs, not battling with weapons and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the opening cutscene.)

Greater Than Just Aesthetics

Starting with the elegant futuristic design of the building to the paradoxes and dubious practices of the academy, there are many features of Balamb Garden to celebrate. We all like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than just surface appeal.