SS Balamb

Yeah, okay.

Squall and his entourage of women get into the elevator. He unlocks access to the MD level, and they begin to descend. For no particular reason, it stops. The button doesn't work, but there's an obvious panel on the floor. As the three climb down a ladder that shouldn't exist, the cab starts to move again. Luckily, there's a convenient human sized tunnel just in range. Happenstance!

The rest of this place is a linear tunnel filled with mobs that are weak to fire. Q reminds us to junction Fire to our weapons once we step into an oil pipe. I kept Enc-None on for most of this, so I don't know how true this is. There's also a room where Squall struggles to turn a wheel, and Rinoa needs to help him. After a lot of ladders, we'll reach a central tower. We'll see another ladder up that leads to another room. We have the option to ascend here as either Squall, someone else, or the whole group. I volunteered a Squall solo run, so I assume that's how it would be regardless. Halfway up, the ladder breaks. Squall crashes through a window and into a room. There's a computer here that opens the floor around the tower, which is how we get to the boss. It's two creatures who died before I remembered their names. Behind them is a large engine looking thing. Squall pulls a Selphie and starts hitting random buttons. Electric spews from it, and the cogs begin to turn.

At various points through the dungeon, we (the player) have seen a few scenes of the missiles approaching Garden. And they're now in sight. After Squall activates the engine, the whole area is elevated into Cid's office. All four of us are now atop a tower to watch Garden's transformation. There has been a strange glyph/awning/whatever that's hung over the campus. It begins to lower now as more light envelops the building. We now start to float! The missiles fly by us and crash in the area, but Garden has turned into a moving ship, barely getting out of the impact. The dust nearly takes us down, but we've moved just far enough. But we're not out of the woods yet. We're about to smash into the town! Squall Selphie's again, and we float over the rent-a-car building, saving Balamb. We make a splash as we land in the ocean, but we float, so all is well!

A few days later, Squall is being moody and confused. He can't figure anything out, so he just keeps ruminating over these questions until he falls asleep. Rinoa wakes him up because Mr. Loner can't lock a door. Rinoa asks for a tour, which Squall actually agrees to do. It kinda sucks, though. He's very deadpan and overly serious when he talks about the hotdogs. I don't know how many places you need to take her to, but I showed her everywhere. Even the parking lot that isn't flooding. The strange girl who saw Squall in the infirmary is in the library. Squall asks her how she knows him, but she's afraid he's forgotten her. At the entrance, though, is a not dead facility member. We've been called to the basement to meet with the Garden Master, NORG.

Q joins us as we overhear Cid being assaulted, and he becomes sweary. He'll return to the surface as we face the strange being known as NORG. I think he looks like an octopus, but maybe that's me. Anyway, NORG yells a lot and uses hyphens instead of spaces. He wants to know our report, and we tell him. He gets angry because he thinks Cid wants to overthrow him. Cid is working with his wife, Edea, to make NORG a nonfactor. But NORG also fears Edea, so he plans to kill Cid and us to appease her. Huh?

A boss fight happens. NORG has two colored pods that occasionally cast magic at us depending on their color. I tried to break them, but their defense was too high. Or they're resistant to fire... Focus on NORG's pod until it breaks. Once it does, Draw Leviathan from him. We now have half to GFs in the game! Keep hitting him until he dies.

We're all very confused, so go see Cid in the infirmary. We can ask him to clarify things.
He and Edea are married. Long ago, she was normal, but then she changed. Garden was her idea, and SeeD was designed to defeat the Sorceress.
NORG is the financier for Garden. He was a black sheep of the Shuumi Tribe. He got his money back by using SeeD as mercenaries. He got his money, and the witch hunters got training. Win-win.

I don't remember the rest, but Squall winds up in his room again, thinking to himself. He dreams about a boy cosplaying as Charlie Brown in front of Roman columns. It's raining. He talks to someone named "Sis," who recently left him, so he's promising to be strong and self reliant. Is this Squall? Does this explain why he wants to live without the aid of others?

Rinoa wakes him up, and the same type of conversation from before NORG happens. We can blow her off, though. Regardless, we're called to Cid's office as we leave. There's a boat coming, and we need to see whose side it's on. Take the fire escape on the second floor. We'll meet with the Sorceress' SeeDs, which rouse no suspicion. They're here for a girl named Ellone, which shocks Squall. Cid shows up and asks us to find her. Is the same Ellone from Winhill? Head to the library to learn that it is. Squall adamantly asks what's going on, but she's cagey. He sits in a chair, confused, and Ellone leaves with the others.

After Squall asks himself more questions, we cut to a man fishing. He's not having a good day, but it's about to get worse! Garden is about to crash into his fishing spot. We knock through several windmills, and the water we splash somehow avoids him. Cid asks us to make first contact even though Squall has no social cues.

We tell the first responders of Fisherman's Horizon that we come in peace. They suggest seeing the mayor to let him know, which is a good idea. En route, we learn we can get to Esthar from here. But I'll see the head honcho on his solar panel field...

...tomorrow!

I wonder when Squall will learn about the fate of Zell, Selphie, and Bob Orton?