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This FF franchise includes numerous unforgettable locations. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has earned a special place in players' hearts, and they celebrate the unique quirks that make these areas so remarkable. However, if one place that warrants greater recognition than the rest, it is undoubtedly Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its stunning design, but also for being a truly strange school.

The Pure Movie Scene

Before, let's mention the obvious. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and escaping from a rocket attack was absolute cinema. This place was not just designed to be a academy for mercenaries. It is a moving base that allows them to establish new strategies and relocate, depending on the requirements of those in command. Many easily consider it as one of the coolest airship creations in the franchise, together with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.

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

The First Glimpse of a Gloomy Home

As we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis escorting Squall out of the infirmary, we get our first look of the place this gloomy-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot starts from the ground of the school and rises to focus on the impressive magnitude of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that feels advanced, but also divine. The curvy structures recall a distinctly late ‘90s concept of how the future would look. Conversely, because of the gilded features on the building and the long trails of light emanating from the enormous glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a massive angel. It was designed to be a serene place — excessively peaceful for an academy that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.

An Catchy Soundtrack

Complementing the tranquility that the design of Balamb Garden conveys, we have the school’s background music. One of the dearest memories I have from childhood is strolling around the main area of Balamb Garden, seeing those fish statues spraying water, and hearing to the lullaby-ish theme song. The problem is that it continues playing in your head indefinitely. Whenever it comes back to my mind, I’m forced 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 have enough of it.

• Gentle melody that lingers in your mind
• Main courtyard with water features
• Sentimental associations for countless players

The Fascinating Institution

Balamb Garden is fascinating as a location as well as an institution. First, it accepts kids from five to fifteen 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 using one of the game terminals, you discover that the credo of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I never have the sense that those teenagers training to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. However, considering that the training center, where students encounter living monsters they can battle, is the sole place in the entire school available at all hours during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While combat preparation is the most important aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their diet is poor, since students are devouring so many frankfurters that the faculty have no other response to say except “No more hot dogs today.”

Strict Policies

Students are controlled by a rigid set of rules, which, on one hand, we should expect from a military school, but conversely seems weirdly humorous. First, there’s no dress code in the school, but they are not allowed to leave their rooms in the evenings, except it’s for training. A student can be expelled if they fall behind in their curriculum, for violent acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not look like it, but Balamb Garden is truly worried about its students’ romantic activities. The school officially suggests 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 romantic relationships, not battling with gunblades and slashing each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)

More Than Only Aesthetics

Starting with the elegant futuristic design of the building to the paradoxes and debatable actions of the academy, there are numerous features of Balamb Garden to celebrate. We all like to joke about Squall, but Balamb Garden reminds us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than simply surface appeal.