I Side With The Garden Master

[Forsaken Lover]

Bujurururu! I-THINK-NORG-WAS-A-PRETTY-COOL-AND-MEMORABLE-VILLAIN. THAT'S-MORE-THAN-I-CAN-SAY-FOR-ULTIMECIA. MEETING-HIM-WITH-THIS-MUSIC-PLAYING-AND-HIM-BEING-THIS-GIANT-MONSTER-THING-WAS-PRETTY-GREAT. THAT-WHOLE-SCENE-WAS-REALLY-WELL-DONE. YOU-MEET-THE-TRUE-OWNER-OF-GARDEN-AND-THEN-LEARN-ABOUT-CID-AND-EDEA.

Seriously, why couldn't I side with the Garden Master? Also I love how it's apparently a civil war with people siding with NORG but most of the students you talk to are like "....who the hell is the Garden Master?" Apparently they didn't read the computer at the start of the game either.

[Ayen]

The ones who didn't know who Master NORG was were the ones that sided with Cid. Coincidence? I think not

That scene was pretty cool, though. I always end up blowing my cover because I didn't like them smurfing with the kids in the training room and it's sweet as hell when Squall jumps in front of them with the gunblade out.

[Wolf Kanno]

NORG always felt very unnecessary to me, he's briefly mentioned in optional materials earlier in the game, I think there is a few throw away references up until you leave to meet up with Rinoa, and then the game tries to treat this secret power broker as some sort of major feature and you're just like "Okay... what the hell game, we've got missiles coming at us, who cares about some secret money backer..." He could be removed from the plot and it wouldn't really change anything.

It might have been more interesting had he both been given more weight in the early parts of the plot like having the new SeeD recruits meet him upon induction and explain more about the origins of Garden and SeeD instead of doing it after he throws his temper tantrum. He could have been something to make the whole concept of child soldier mercenaries really cool and edgy and instead he feels like a villain-of-the-week monster you see on Sentai shows. then to have the story altered by having you choose whether to side with him or Cid could have made for some fun re-playability.

[Forsaken Lover]

The ones who didn't know who Master NORG was were the ones that sided with Cid. Coincidence? I think not

That scene was pretty cool, though. I always end up blowing my cover because I didn't like them smurfing with the kids in the training room and it's sweet as hell when Squall jumps in front of them with the gunblade out.

So are we to assume if you don't help them then he T-Rexaur just comes and chomps down on that SeeD girl and the kid?
That's pretty dark.

ANYTHING-GOES-FOR-NORG!

NORG always felt very unnecessary to me, he's briefly mentioned in optional materials earlier in the game, I think there is a few throw away references up until you leave to meet up with Rinoa, and then the game tries to treat this secret power broker as some sort of major feature and you're just like "Okay... what the hell game, we've got missiles coming at us, who cares about some secret money backer..." He could be removed from the plot and it wouldn't really change anything.

It might have been more interesting had he both been given more weight in the early parts of the plot like having the new SeeD recruits meet him upon induction and explain more about the origins of Garden and SeeD instead of doing it after he throws his temper tantrum. He could have been something to make the whole concept of child soldier mercenaries really cool and edgy and instead he feels like a villain-of-the-week monster you see on Sentai shows. then to have the story altered by having you choose whether to side with him or Cid could have made for some fun re-playability.

I agree with all of this. FFVIII needed more NORG. Like Adel, he's a lot of wasted potential.

[Ayen]

VIII always felt like it tried to do too many things in a limited amount of time and should have left some things out to be used in later titles.

[Wolf Kanno]

VIII always felt like it tried to do too many things in a limited amount of time and should have left some things out to be used in later titles.

Agreed, I think the development team was under pressure from following up VII and just decided to "go big or go home" cause they convinced themselves it was what the fans wanted.

[Forsaken Lover]

A poster elsewhere once described FFVIII s a lot of really good ideas put together in the worst way. I think that's the best summary of both the plot and gameplay.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I absolutely hated this part of the game when I first played it. It's always just felt really out of place. I still have fun with the section, but this was the one place that I wish had some build up to it and a more meaningful aftermath.

[Big D]

I felt that the Norg storyline was little more than padding. If they wanted to show Cid making questionable business/leadership decisions, there were plenty of other more glaring examples they could've chosen. If Norg was meant to be important to the Shumi tribe's sub-plots, then Norg should've had a much more significant role than simply 'diversion to get in the way of the missile strike warning'.

[Jiro]

NORG is definitely underplayed. But I think his purpose in that section is to heighten the tension. Like, holy smurf you morons, there are missiles coming and you are arguing over bulltrout, get your act together. It's almost drawn out too much for me though. The whole missile sequence is just a little too lengthy for me.

But yeah, I feel like his character had a smurfload of mystery that is never answered and leaving that hanging wasn't satisfying.

[Forsaken Lover]

What I never got is that theme song for him. Seriously, listen to it. It makes me think of Garland's theme in FFIX. Only NORG isn't even a secondary villain, he's a...thirdiary(?) villain. Why does he have the super-evil ominous pipe organ music?

[Shorty]

1) I could never separate him from Jabba the Hutt. This made me take him less serious for some reason.

2) Echo everything WK has expressed! Upon reflection of the game, he does indeed feel unnecessary.

[Jiro]

What I never got is that theme song for him. Seriously, listen to it. It makes me think of Garland's theme in FFIX. Only NORG isn't even a secondary villain, he's a...thirdiary(?) villain. Why does he have the super-evil ominous pipe organ music?

You raise a good point. He does have particularly evil theme music. Also, tertiary is the word you're looking for

[Ayen]

NORG always struck me as a big spender. Just look at that huge machine he sleeps in. I bet he spent BILLIONS of gils to have that theme music.