10 Most Iconic Video Game Schools

When thinking about school, people tend to conjure up very specific images in mind: a loud, ringing class bell, stress over upcoming final exams, a building full of other children in the same grade, all struggling to get to the finish line.

In video games, this aesthetic is no exception.

In fact, some schools in video games have left such an impression on players, that they tend to become more beloved than the legitimate schools players actually went to.

It’s ironic, in a way, you find solace in a game after school … only to go to school in the game. It’s like working shifts in video games in that regard.

Whether or not you’re actually learning in these schools is another debate, but there’s no question that these schools are some of the most iconic in all of gaming.

10 Ape Escape Academy

Ape Escape Academy

If you’ve never heard of Ape Escape Academy, even if you know of the Ape Escape franchise, don’t worry – that’s because it was a PSP Exclusive. The beloved PlayStation IP had a mobile spinoff, taking several mini-games and other elements from Ape Escape 2 for a hilariously compact experience.

It could also be because I played the game as a child, but Ape Escape Academy is genuinely challenging, and it only gets harder as you progress through the game.

Each mini-game you pass gives you an O, and each one you fail gives you an X, all of which are displayed on a Tic-Tac-Toe board. If you win several games but still lose the overall Tic-Tac-Toe with that professor, you have to do that course all over again, which has led to the PSP being thrown (and then taken away) many times.

Despite the challenges, the game is still hilarious and tons of fun. It’s available on PS Plus alongside other Ape Escape entries. From there, you can enroll in Ape Escape Academy and officially declare your major as Monkey Business.

9 Guild of Heroes

Fable

When you’re first brought to the Guild of Heroes (also called the Hero’s Guild) in Fable, you are a child who has just watched his father’s murder and his mother and sister’s abduction.

The Guild of Heroes is the very school that you attend to undertake your heroic training. Maze, the old hero who brought you here, helps to oversee your process. So, by the time you officially are ready to go on your adventure and save your surviving family, you have the school to thank for all you know.

The Fable games got their start on Xbox, and from there, the franchise was born into an incredibly popular RPG. This doesn’t even mention the dreamlike soundtrack.

While we don’t know too much about the upcoming Fable Reboot, fans are definitely excited to see the Hero’s Guild again, complete with all the maps and details we had to imagine in the original.

8 Academy of Raya Lucaria

Elden Ring

While it’s not a required area in order to beat Elden Ring, the Academy of Raya Lucaria offers exceptional rewards through its status as a Legacy Dungeon.

Unlocking the academy is a quest in and of itself, as players will need to find two parts of the Glintstone Key in order to unlock the gates. Plus, each part is guarded by a boss, needing to be defeated before players can get their hands on the materials.

Once inside, however, players will find that the Academy of Raya Lucaria isn’t too difficult to beat, especially since it’s only the 2nd Legacy Dungeon they’ll come across. It’s relatively linear, with only a few curveballs thrown your way.

If players want to tackle this Legacy Dungeon, it’s recommended that they’re anywhere between levels 50-60 in order to have the most balanced experience.

7 Blackwell Academy

Life is Strange

Being a teenager is hard – even having a teenager in your life brings new challenges (for my teachers especially). And no coming-of-age game tackles that concept as well as Life is Strange.

In Life is Strange, playing as Max Caulfield, you attend the iconic Blackwell Academy, a private school for seniors that specializes in the sciences and arts.

The beautiful thing about this school is how it hides some particular symbolism surrounding Arcadia Bay, the small town that the game takes place in.

Considering wells are meant to bring luck, fortune, and abundance, while the color black has several negative (and deadly) connotations, “Black Well,” long story short, is “danger disguised as fortune.”

This is especially fitting when considering the school’s particularly shady actions and darker history. While masquerading as a new opportunity for seniors, it hides something more sinister – and it’s another reference to the impossible choice you’ll inevitably have to make at the end of the game.

Either way, you’re able to get the all-Americana experience through Blackwell Academy, and Arcadia Bay as a whole.

6 Greenwood High School

Detention

There’s something particularly uncanny about being in school after-hours, and that’s exactly the type of horror that Detention exploits and centres around.

Developed by Red Candle Games, a criminally underrated studio, Detention takes place in Greenwood High School during the White Terror in the 1950s Taiwan. Not only is the game historically important, but it’s also a terrifying indie horror gem.

The game pulls from a lot of old Taiwanese and Chinese mythology while implementing proper commentary, and it’s without a doubt one of the more unique experiences you could encounter in a 2D Horror game.

After spending just a little bit of time at Greenwood High School after hours, it’s no surprise that the game ended up getting a Netflix adaptation due to its success.

5 Here School

Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning

A recent phenomenon in modern gaming has been replicating the look and feel of the classics – such as replicating the PS1 horror games.

In the case of Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning – simply known as Baldi’s Basics – it replicates classic edutainment games from the 90s. Primarily, games on the computer.

This indie horror game takes place at Here School (also referred to as The Schoolhouse), with Baldi as the head teacher of the establishment.

Side note, as a teacher: we don’t really have “head teachers,” we have department chairs/heads. In high school and for teachers specifically, this is ranked by subject.

The school is the setting for the entire game – and it’s your prison. When you first begin playing, answering easy math questions, everything is normal.

However, when you encounter the fated glitched question, you answer the question wrong, and suddenly, Baldi is after you, ruler in hand.

From there, you have to continue to run around the school and answer math questions, with each question that you get wrong increasing Baldi’s speed. This is done all while avoiding some incredibly frustrating characters that appear at random.

It makes escaping Here School all the sweeter, amplifying a childhood joy to a relief for your own life.

4 College of Winterhold

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I have a confession and definitely divisive opinion – Skyrim‘s weakest sidequest, by far, is the College of Winterhold. That said, it would be stupid to say it’s not iconic.

The College of Winterhold is a mage school that is well-spoken about throughout the entire land of Skyrim. In every town, in every city, in every small village and random farm in-between, some NPC will mention the college.

The questline starts as a simple lesson in the school, but then devolves into uncovering the truth about The Eye of Magnus and Ancano being a menace, then, after emerging victorious, The Dragonborn becomes the Arch-Mage.

The school itself is fascinating, and unfortunately that’s something that the questline doesn’t really touch on – I genuinely wish it did. What we really want is to attend a mage school.

3 Shujin Academy

Persona 5

When you open up Persona 5 for the first time (especially if you’re new to Persona as a whole), you start as a high school boy trying to keep your head down after a stint with the law.

You enroll in Shujin Academy to get your life back on track and meet your deadlines, despite your new criminal record.

Everybody makes sure to beat you while you’re down about it, constantly bringing up your record and threatening you if you misbehave – your caretaker, your principal, random students, even your teacher.

Another side note: what is it with so many stories showing teachers as hateful and apathetic? I promise you we care about your kids.

Even then, once you embrace your new identity as a thief, the JRPG becomes a lot more liberating – with Shujin Academy as your playground and recruitment field. Not to mention, it’s the central setting for much of your normal life, cementing itself in your memory (and gaming’s hall of fame).

2 Midwich Elementary School

Silent Hill

I walked the hallways of Midwich Elementary School back when I myself was in elementary school, replaying Silent Hill several times since. To this day, no other school in horror gaming can come close to what Midwich does to players.

Midwich Elementary is the first full location that players will travel to in the first Silent Hill game, trying to follow your lost daughter’s trail. Little do you know that you’re also uncovering the truth about your own daughter – and the tragedy of another: that being Alessa Gillespie.

Midwich was Alessa’s school throughout her short and tragic life, and, as you desperately try to find your daughter, you witness firsthand how this poor girl was abused here.

Come to find out, the school is run by The Order, which is the cult that lurks in every corner of the town.

Midwich is so iconic in horror gaming, that it even ended up becoming a level of its own in Dead by Daylight; which is unfortunately the closest we’ll probably get to a proper Silent Hill remake (Bloober Team, I am begging you).

There is one fun piece of trivia about Midwich: hilariously enough, despite the horrors, Team Silent took inspiration from Kindergarten Cop when creating the school.

1 Bullworth Academy

Bully

Perhaps the most iconic school in all of video gaming, the one that comes front and center in many players’ minds, is Bullworth Academy from Bully.

Bully is iconic in and of itself. Playing as James “Jimmy” Hopkins, you’re sent to the boarding school Bullworth Academy after being expelled from your seventh school. It’s the main setting for the entire game, even as the world opens up.

It’s cemented itself as gaming’s most iconic school with a fanbase that’s so dedicated to the game (and by extension, the school overall) that fans recreated it in the Unreal Engine.

If Rockstar truly wants to keep the franchise discontinued, it seems they had to take matters into their own hands in order to make their dreams happen.