This Final Fantasy series includes numerous memorable settings. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, each has secured a special place in players' hearts, who celebrate the distinctive idiosyncrasies that make these worlds so special. But, if one location that warrants greater recognition than the others, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not just because of its stunning design, but additionally for being a absolutely weird school.
Before, let's highlight the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden morphing into an airship and fleeing from a rocket attack was pure cinema. This institution was not just intended to be a training camp for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that permits them to create new tactics and relocate, depending on the needs of those in control. I readily regard it as one of the most impressive airship designs in the series, along with Final Fantasy 10's Fahrenheit and some of the Final Fantasy 12 military airships.
The change of Balamb Garden into an airship remains one of the more iconic moments in video game history.
As we begin playing Final Fantasy 8 and see Quistis leading Squall out of the medical wing, we get our first glimpse 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 awe-inspiring scale of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that appears advanced, but also divine. The rounded structures bring to mind a specifically late ‘90s concept of how the tomorrow would look. Meanwhile, because of the gilded details on the building and the extended beams of light coming from the immense glowing halo on top of the school, Balamb Garden evokes a giant angel. It was designed to be a tranquil place — too peaceful for an establishment that transforms teenagers into mercenaries.
Complementing the calmness that the appearance of Balamb Garden conveys, we have the school’s background music. One of the most cherished memories I have from my youth is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those fish statues spurting water, and hearing to the lullaby-ish theme song. The catch is that it keeps playing in your head constantly. Whenever it comes back to my mind, I’m compelled to look up on YouTube for a extended “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to make it stop playing inside my head is to overdose of it.
Balamb Garden is compelling as a setting as well as an institution. For starters, it accepts kids from 5 to 15 years old to transform 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 not one look less like a militaristic than Balamb Garden.
If you use the Balamb Garden Network using one of the in-game terminals, you discover that the motto of the academy is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” I’m sorry, but I never have the impression that those teenagers preparing to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — except for Zell. But, considering that the training area, where students find real monsters they can battle, is the sole place in the whole school available at all hours during the day, perhaps that’s what they intend by “playing.” While training is the primary aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their nutrition is terrible, since students are consuming so many hot dogs that the staff have nothing else to say except “No more hot dogs today.”
Students are governed by a tight set of rules, which, for one, we would expect from a combat 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 nights, unless it’s for training. A student can be dismissed if they lag in their curriculum, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It might not look like it, but Balamb Garden is genuinely concerned about its students’ sex life. The school officially suggests that students “take time to think things through before starting a relationship.” (After all, the real threat 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 opening cutscene.)
From the elegant futuristic design of the building to the paradoxes and questionable practices of the institution, there are numerous features of Balamb Garden to appreciate. Many of us like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s greater depth to Final Fantasy 8 than just good looks.
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