Let's Play: Final Fantasy VIII - Part Twenty Five

 Part Twenty Four

 Masterpost

 Day Eleven: Nostalgia Trip

 So, feeling refreshed after a quick nap and a read of a magazine, Zog and the others head back into the Garden proper to try and find Cid.

 Although I've got to ask, if your goal is preventing everyone from dying, wouldn't telling NORG help? It's just an idea.

 Of course, the first place I check is the library.

 Since the school has become divided into two opposing sides, I wanted to see if my ship from Part Six is holding strong and standing together on the same side.

 Y'know, the cute black girl on the library committee who had a crush on the snooty white SeeD dude who seemed to be making excuses to go and see her in the library?

 Come now, I did promise I'd keep an eye on them for you, after all.

 However, all that being said, it didn't appear to be the case that they were. In fact, I'm racking my brains and I don't think I saw anyone with her character model at all. Maybe running around the main room?

 As I cannot remember seeing her, my head!canon is that she's hiding behind the library counter.

 Maybe things will become clear later.

 Anyway, it turns out that Cid was not in the first place I looked, although I did have my suspicions about his location.

 The library was being guarded as part of a scheme to spread NORG's forces thin, as if they were to focus their forces on one spot, this would be the end of the Cid faction.

 Zog wants to know who came up with this plan, and the SeeDs in the library tell him that it's Xu.

 Now, I haven't mentioned Xu before. Well, I have, but not by name.

 She's another instructor at the Garden and was the person who gave the briefing before the mission in Dollet as well as the instructor who told Seifer that his dickish ways would prevent his becoming a SeeD.

 I should have known better, she had a name, she was probably going to play a larger part in the game.

 Well, you live and learn.

 After this I tried to go to the first floor, only to be stopped at the lift by one of the Hokage Raiden NORG blokes and told that Cid was on the ground floor and I needed to search for him.

 It's exactly at this point I found myself thinking that he was probably going to be in his office. Previously, I thought he might be, but now I was pretty certain.

 If there's one thing this game likes, it's busy work.

 With my initial plan failing, and my attempt to bypass running all over the place thwarted, I decided to go around all the rooms clockwise from the bottom of the main room.

 First up was the infirmary.

 Like the dormitory and the library before it, I had to deal with one of the NORGs.

Why did any of these guys go into education anyway?
And why the hats?

 Now, you don't ever fight these guys, they just summon monsters at people. Which was actually what this guy was planning to do to the two SeeDs who were trying to guard the infirmary.

Oh crap, invisible weapons!

 However, when the game gave me the choice to help them, I jumped on it like MRAs on a fedora.

 The NORG guy seemed amazed that there would be SeeDs in a Garden, which is amazingly stupid of him. SeeDs are kind of the whole point.

 The fight wasn't paticularly hard, like the monsters in the random encounters, this thing was one of the monsters available to fight in the Jurassic Park like training area, or the area immediately surrounding the Garden. Even though they're stronger now than they were at the beginning of the game, this one wasn't much of a challenge.

 Somehow, and I'm not sure exactly how, one of the students that the NORG guy pitted against two qualified special forces mercanaries (how did he think this was going to end?!) ended up injured, and like a good doctor, Doctor Kadowaki emerged ready to treat him.

 He's confused, after all, he sided against the headmaster and with NORG.

 Being a good Doctor, Kadowaki does not give a crap and bullies Zog into helping her and the SeeDs get him into the infirmary.

 Once inside, and presumably after making sure the student doesn't bleed to death, Kadowaki expresses her distaste for the whole situation.

Yeah, feels like padding more than anything.

 After this she gives us an elixir and once again fails to heal the party. The school nurse at my school would at least give you a cold compress or something, and she was there three days a week.

 On the way out, we meet an old acquaintance and a new SeeD.

 Remember all the way back in Part Five that there were actually four SeeD graduates?

 Well, this is the fourth guy. His name is Nida and he's disappointed and shocked that Zog doesn't remember that.

Really Nida? Because he seems the type not to care to me,
let alone the type to remember.

 After this it's off to the place the festival no one except Selphie cared about is to be held.

 Once again, there's a NORG fight and once at the place in question, three SeeDs jump down and demand to know which side of the conflict Zog and Co. are on.

 I have them answer Cid, because I kind of am. Those NORG dudes are creepy.

 After this we get a bit more information about what has transpired. Not much, but it's something.

The SeeDs, not the students. This was cited as a major
reason why Balamb Garden spectacularly failed its following
Ofsted inspection.

Then it's off to the cafeteria, where nothing of note happens.

 Then the car park. On the way there the NORG dude summons a Grendel, and boy was that thing kind of a pain.

You're right, the name is from Beowulf. Have a cookie!

Once this battle is completed, the team go into the car park to see Cid just standing there.

Except not really.

 Yeah, it's a hologram. The SeeDs think this is neat. I think it's annoying.

 Then it's time for the last area.

 On the way, I actually ran into a T-Rexaur.

 Yes, twenty parts after I was given a tutorial to help me fight them, I actually ran into one.

A magnificent beast.

 And guess what? I didn't use the information from the tutorial at all.

 So it was pretty much entirely useless.

 This was before I was even in Jurassic Park, which was where Xu was hiding with a couple of children. And I do mean full on, prepubescent, children.

 That NORG was perfectly happy to set a couple of teenagers on a little boy and a little girl puts me further into the camp of Cid 'the lesser of two evils' Kramer.

 Now that all the areas are proven Cid-free, what to do?

 Well, I headed back to the main room, and at this point, Xu went to the lift and headed up the the first floor.

 Yeah, he was up there all along.

 Grah.

 We'll be seeing him in Part Twenty Six, so be sure to check back on Thursday.