That FF8 Landmark Merits Greater Adoration
This FF series includes many unforgettable places. Starting with Elfheim in the original Final Fantasy, Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, all the way to Limsa Lominsa in Final Fantasy 14, every one has found a special place in players' hearts, who love the distinctive details that make these worlds so special. However, if one location that warrants more attention than the others, it is definitely Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8, not only because of its stunning design, but also for being a truly bizarre school.
An Absolute Movie Scene
First, we must mention the elephant in the room. Balamb Garden turning into an airship and escaping from a missile attack was absolute cinema. This institution was not only intended to be a academy for mercenaries. It is a traveling base that enables them to create new tactics and reposition, depending on the requirements of those in control. Many readily view it as one of the coolest airship creations in the franchise, 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 unforgettable moments in gaming history.
A First Look of a Brooding Home
When we start playing Final Fantasy 8 and watch Quistis leading Squall out of the infirmary, we get our initial look of the environment this sullen-looking teenager calls home. A sweeping shot starts from the floor of the school and rises to zoom in on the staggering size of the building. Balamb Garden has a design that makes it feel advanced, but also angelic. The flowing structures evoke a specifically late ‘90s idea of how the future would look. Conversely, because of the golden details on the building and the extended trails of light coming from the enormous glowing ring on top of the school, Balamb Garden looks like a giant angel. It was designed to be a tranquil place — too peaceful for an academy that turns teenagers into mercenaries.
The Catchy Soundtrack
Complementing the calmness that the aesthetic of Balamb Garden suggests, we have the school’s theme song. One of the fondest recollections I have from being a kid is walking around the main area of Balamb Garden, watching those aquatic statues spraying water, and listening to the lullaby-ish theme song. The catch is that it keeps playing in your head constantly. Once it returns to my mind, I’m forced to search on YouTube for a 3-hour-long “Balamb Garden” song video. The only way to make it stop playing inside my head is to have enough of it.
- Gentle music that remains in your mind
- Central hub with fountain features
- Nostalgic feelings for countless players
A Intriguing Institution
Balamb Garden is fascinating as a location and also an institution. First, it enrolls kids from 5 to fifteen years old to turn 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.
A Ironic Motto
When you access the Balamb Garden Network using one of the game terminals, you find out that the motto of the school is “Work hard, study hard, and play hard.” Apologies, but I never have the sense that those teenagers preparing to be mercenaries are “playing hard” — only Zell. However, considering that the training center, where students encounter living monsters they can defeat, 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 most important aspect of a student’s life in Balamb Garden, their food is poor, since students are consuming so many hot dogs that the staff have no other response to say besides “No more hot dogs today.”
Tight Policies
Students are governed by a tight set of rules, which, on one hand, we should anticipate from a combat school, but conversely seems oddly humorous. For example, there’s not a dress code in the school, but they can’t leave their rooms in the evenings, unless it’s for training. A student can be expelled if they lag in their studies, for aggressive acts, and for… “sexual promiscuity.” It may 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 true threat of being a student of Balamb Garden is romantic relationships, not fighting with gunblades and cutting each other's faces like Squall and Seifer were doing in the intro cutscene.)
More Than Only Good Looks
Starting with the delicate advanced design of the building to the ironies and debatable practices of the school, there are countless aspects of Balamb Garden to admire. Many of us like to tease Squall, but Balamb Garden serves to remind us that there’s more to Final Fantasy 8 than simply aesthetics.
