Final Fantasy VIII - Chapter 18: Side-Quests - Part 2

To continue on with our completion of the game's side-quests, we need to make for Balamb Garden that is still anchored at Fishermans Horizon from our trip to Esthar from there. Mayor Dobe will, thankfully, allow (?) the party to land the Ragnarok right in his backyard, next to the old Galbadia Garden master, Martine, who could probably stop sulking and have his Garden back now, but what happened to it? Anyway, we're going to be playing cards at the Balamb Garden, who's rules are connected with the town of Balamb still, so I recommend, first, going and playing cards with the guy crouching near the ocean to reset any rules you may have spread there. With the exception of the Deep Sea Research Center, this is, by far, the most important side-quest to complete. Its completion will allow us, at the very end of the game, to Card Mod and then re-obtain all of the rarest cards (Except for PuPu).

We're going to be taking on the CC card-playing Group of Balamb Garden, however, to be able to challenge them, you need to have won, at least, 15 card games around the Garden. If you had any problems picking up the Seifer, Quistis, or Mini-Mog cards earlier, you more-than-likely have met this prerequisite, but if not, it's easy to do with your stacked deck of cards at this point in the game. When you have met it, a SeeD trainee that walks from the Garden entrance and past the directory will challenge Squall to a card game. Once you defeat Jack, you can move on to the next CC Group member.

Club is the silent SeeD that walks between the cafeteria, dormitory, and parking lot. Defeat him, then we can advance on to the next player.

Players Diamond are the two trainee girls that walk the same path as Jack does, but stop at the directory to chat. Once you've challenged them, we need to find the player, Spade.

Spade shows up on 2F of the Garden, just off the elevator, hanging out next to the guy who gave you your first set of cards at the beginning of the game. If he isn't there, just keep exiting and reentering the screen until he shows. When he's defeated, he will walk off, but will return to this place and you can play him again, if you'd like.

On the 3F bridge, Xu is our next challenger, Heart.

She plays the Carbuncle card in her hand that we need to pick up. Afterwards, talk to both Xu and Nida to advance the quest.

Head over to the infirmary and challenge Dr. Kadowaki. She will reveal that she was once the CC Group King, but has since passed on that title to another player and predicts that she will show herself soon.

An optional, but very important, member of the CC Group is Joker. He is the Man from Garden who was at the D-District Prison with you earlier in the game and occasionally appears opposite the Blizzard draw point in the Training Center . If you defeat him in a card game, you will acquire the GF Report for your Battle Meter. This, like the Character Report, will appear in your tutorial/information section and show how many enemies a Guardian Force has defeated with its summon, as well as the number of times it has been killed in battle.

Joker carries the Leviathan GF card to win, as well. We're now ready to challenge King. To do so, save, then rest inside Squall's dorm room.

It may take several tries, but eventually, Quistis will show up during the night. She's, in fact, the CC Group King and will challenge Squall.

Quistis has the Gilgamesh GF card in her deck that will be crucial later on in the game. If she doesn't play it during your first encounter, you can always play her again back on the bridge. With King defeated, the quest is now complete and we will reap its true rewards on disc 4.

Moving on: After VII, you didn't think we were getting out of VIII without having to play around with chocobos, did you? Tackling the Chocobo Forests is next on our list of completion. I'm sure you've seen the dome-shaped forests scattered throughout the world: these are our Chocobo Forests. To begin, fly the Ragnarok to the Forest just behind Shumi Village. We'll meet Chocoboy inside who will explain how all this works. The most important thing to remember is: using the square button to switch between the ChocoSonar and the ChocoZiner. However, the screenshots I provide will show you exactly where to use the ChocoZiner, so you shouldn't have much use for the Sonar.

Use the ChocoZiner at the location Squall is standing to bring down a single chicobo. At every Forest hereafter, once a lone chicobo is left, getting near it will cause the mother chocobo to appear and complete the forest.

Once the mother chocobo appears, there will be a hidden spot you can use the ChocoZiner to have her dig up an item for you. This forest's item is an Aura Stone and the location is shown above.

After the first forest, Chocoboy will give you your own chicobo to raise. This is intended to be used in conjunction with the PocketStation in Japan, so Boko is of little use to us outside of there. If you'd like, you can use the Gysahl Greens item during battle to summon Boko, but it will only result in a few hundred damage due to lack of growth from the PocketStation.

The next Chocobo Forest is due-southeast from the previous one.

Use the ChocoZiner here to bring down two chicobos.

ChocoZiner at this location to bring one more chicobo down, then move just below the previous two chicobos and use it again to send the other two back up, leaving only the one to reveal the mother chocobo.

Search with the ChocoZiner here for the mother chocobo to dig a Flare Stone up for you.

The third Chocobo Forest is just north of the Trabia Garden.

Use the ChocoZiner at Squall's location above to return the two chicobos already on the ground to the top.

Next: Here to bring down three chicobos.

Then, use the ChocoZiner at this location to bring down a single chicobo.

Lastly, use it again here to return the previous three chicobos and leave the single one at the bottom of the screen to reveal the mother chocobo.

The mother chocobo can dig here for a Shell and Holy Stone.

Chocobo Forest number four is wrapped around a mountain range on the Centra continent, almost directly south of Fishermans Horizon.

There is only one chicobo to find here, but you have to use the ChocoZiner at the EXACT spot or else your whistle will be stolen and have to purchase another one from the Chocoboy. While the exact location is shown above, double-check with your ChocoSonar to see if the meter is raising all the way to the top before you search; like stated, there is no room for error with this one.

Chocoboy is greedily hiding the buried items from you in this forest. Ask him to play cards, then select for him to move, and you can ChocoZiner at his previous location for the mother chocobo to dig up the item for Squall.

Which is a Protect and Meteor Stone.

Chocobo Forest five is just west of Edea's House and is easily located.

Use the ChocoZiner here to drop three chicobos.

Then, here, to reveal another.

ChocoZiner here, next, to drop a chicobo beside Chocoboy.

You can then use it standing on top of the newest chicobo to wipe out the other chicobos, bowling-style, and lure out the mother chocobo.

Use the ChocoZiner at the above location to dig up a Meteor, Flare, and Ultima Stone.

Number six is directly east of the previous forest, at the end of the Centra continent, but is nestled with other forests, which can hide it from you slightly.

Note: This forest is your last chance to buy Gysahl Greens in bulk from the Chocoboy, but is not entirely important since we can Card Mod later to obtain 100 of them. Start with the ChocoZiner at the above location to bring down two chicobos.

Next: here, to return one chicobo and bring another down to the ground.

From there, ChocoZiner at this location. Another chicobo will fall down.

Then, the location above, for one more chicobo appearance.

Finally, ChocoZiner here to return all the chicobos, but one will fall down onto Squall's head to reveal the mother chocobo.

The mother chocobo dig spot is located above, netting you a Meteor, Holy, and Ultima Stone. Thankfully, all the forests are now complete, we just need to find the Chocobo Sanctuary.

To find it, we need to actually ride a chocobo into the otherwise-inaccessible Grandini Forest. Fly back to the forest nearest Trabia Garden and ride the chocobo southwest to the shoreline above. We need to pass over the shallows here, around the forested bluffs to the south, and you will see another beach you can use to enter the forest. If you want to locate the hidden draw points in the forest, you'll need to descend the chocobo, but if not, ride on to the domed Sanctuary.

These are a bit difficult to find, but bear with me. A Triple draw point is located near the tip of the southern-end of the forest and is facing a similar-looking bluff with a forest on it.

The Ultima Draw point is between the forest and bluff located above. It's a little north, and due-west from the Triple one.

The last draw point, containing the Meteor spell, is north from there and is at the furthest-west-tip of the continent you can get to.

This is the Chocobo Sanctuary we are looking for; back northeast of the Meteor draw point, right in front of a bluff. If you did the UFO quest earlier, you had to land on the bluffs it is near to engage the UFO itself.

Inside the Sanctuary, all of the mother chocobos from the previous forests will perform a dance and the chicobo here will give Squall the Chicobo card (Called "Chocobo" when you receive it). Afterwards, you will have a new Chocobo term in your tutorial/information section. If you talk with the chicobo when all is done, you will get a Gysahl Greens, but Squall will have Gil stolen from him. However, other than using Card Mod, this is the only other way in the game to obtain Gysahl Greens now. Once you talk with Chocoboy and he calls a chocobo for you to ride back, you won't be able to find or purchase Gysahl Greens from him again. Make your way back on the chocobo to the Ragnarok to continue to the next chapter.