This Final Fantasy 8 Symbol Deserves Greater Love

This FF series features many memorable locations. From Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has earned a special place in players' hearts, who love the unique idiosyncrasies that make these worlds so unique. However, if one setting that warrants more recognition than the others, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its beautiful design, but additionally for being a incredibly strange school.

An Absolute Movie Reveal

First, let's mention the obvious. Balamb Garden transforming into an flying vessel and fleeing from a rocket attack was pure cinema. This institution was not just designed to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that enables them to establish new plans and relocate, depending on the requirements of those in charge. I easily view it as one of the most impressive airship creations in the series, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and several of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

The transformation of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the more unforgettable moments in video game history.

A First Look of a Brooding Sanctuary

When we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our first look of the environment this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A panoramic shot starts from the ground of the school and ascends to focus on the staggering size of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also somehow divine. The rounded structures recall a distinctly late ‘90s vision of how the future would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded details on the building and the long beams of light coming from the immense glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden resembles a massive angel. It was built to be a tranquil place — excessively peaceful for an establishment that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

The Catchy Soundtrack

Matching the tranquility that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s theme song. One of the dearest recollections I have from my youth is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spurting water, and hearing to the soothing theme song. The issue is that it continues playing in your head indefinitely. Once it comes back to my mind, I’m compelled to search 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.

• Lullaby tune that lingers in your mind
• Central area with fountain features
• Nostalgic feelings for countless players

The Intriguing School

Balamb Garden is intriguing as a location as well as an institution. For starters, it enrolls kids from five to fifteen years old to mold them into mercenaries, but it looks like a enormous 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 Contradictory Motto

If you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the game terminals, you discover that the slogan of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I never have the feeling that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. But, considering that the training center, where students encounter real monsters they can kill, is the only place in the whole school accessible at all hours during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the key aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is poor, since students are eating so many frankfurters that the personnel have no other response to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Strict Rules

Students are controlled by a rigid set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a military school, but conversely seems oddly humorous. First, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their rooms in the nights, unless it’s for training. A student can be expelled if they lag in their curriculum, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not look like it, but Balamb Garden is genuinely concerned about its students’ sex life. 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 love affairs, not battling with gunblades and slashing each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

More Than Just Appearance

From the delicate futuristic design of the building to the paradoxes and questionable actions of the school, there are many elements of Balamb Garden to appreciate. Many of us like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than simply aesthetics.