Edea's House & Laguna Flashback (Disc 3) - FF8 Guide
At the top of every page of my Final Fantasy 8 Walkthrough I will have a list of the most important GF Abilities for you to learn as well as my personal preference for who to junction GFs to for this part of the story. The game's auto order for GFs learning abilities is extremely terrible so it's strongly recommended you interfere and do the abilities in the order I provide here.
Throughout the game you can also refine Cards into Items and then those Items into magic. I've provided a list of the refinements that you can do for the cards that you will most likely have in your possession at this time during the story below as well. This same information will be provided at the top of every page during the full walkthrough, keep checking it as it'll change as the story progresses.
GF Abilities to Learn:
Carbuncle: Vit+20%, Vit+40%, Vit Bonus, Boost, Mag-J, HP-J, Vit-J, ST-Def-J, ST-Atk-J, Counter, Recov Med-RF
Leviathan: Supt Mag-RF, Spr+20%, Spr+40%, Spr Bonus, Mag-J, Spr-J, Elem-Defx2, Boost, GF Recov Med-RF
Pandemona: Spd-J, Elem-Defx2, Boost, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, Str+20%, Str+40%
King Tonberry: Familiar, Haggle, Sell-High, Call Shop, Initiative, Boost
Cerberus: Spd-J, Spr-J, Mag-J, ST-Def-J, ST-Atk-J, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, Auto-Haste, ST-Def-Jx2, ST-Def-Jx4
Alexander: Med Data, Med LV Up, High Mag-RF, Elem-Defx4, Elem-Atk-J, Boost, Revive, Spr+20%
GF Junctioning:
Squall: Siren, Brothers, Carbuncle, Leviathan, Tonberry
Zell: Shiva, Diablos, Pandemona
Quistis: Ifrit, Quezacotl, Cerberus, Alexander
(Or whomever you choose as your party; junction them as you see above)
Once you regain control of Squall you'll want to go to the bridge of Balamb Garden and speak with Nida to land the ship. Travel to Edea's House which is just a tad north of where you are now. There's an issue of Timber Maniacs on the same screen with the bed where Cid comes out to greet you.
Inside you will want to speak with Edea until she stops giving new dialogue and afterwards attempt to leave the residence for a scene. At this time you can also challenge Edea and win the Edea Card from her... However she uses Centra Rules which have Random, Plus and Same which are the worst rules a place can have.
Before attempting to win the Edea Card you will want to (at the very least) abolish Random. If you'd like to learn more about changing the rules in Triple Triad I recommend you follow the link to my guide that covers this in depth.
Zell's Love Quest (Finish it in Balamb Town)
Note: While doing these side quests be sure to stop at Shumi Village every chance you get to collect Ultima.
SeeD Test Answers (Earn more Gil with a higher SeeD Rank)
All previous side quests are available for you to complete too. I'd also recommend you pay a visit to Cactuar Island again now that you got two new GFs. It'll only take 10 minutes or so to max out all of the new abilities so there's no reason not to.
There are a few more things you can do now too. First would be grabbing the Weapons Monthly, July Issue from the Training Center section of Balamb Garden. It's found along the path shown in the screenshot below. Second thing you can do, assuming you told the guy in Timber during Disc 1 to become a Journalist is collect a Pet Nametag from Timber.
When you're ready to advance the story forward you'll want to go down to the infirmary in the Balamb Garden and speak with Dr. Kadowaki then Rinoa. You'll be taken into another Laguna dream sequence once you do this.
After a few scenes you will find yourself in a mock sword fight against a Ruby Dragon. For the most part in order to beat the Ruby Dragon what you're going to want to do is repeatedly swing your sword. The Ruby Dragon takes awhile to recover after you hurt it and you can repeatedly hit it with your sword before it strikes you.
Sometimes however this won't work and it recovers faster than usual and will hit you before you can hit it. One hit from this Ruby Dragon also is about 1/4 of your health so you have to block every hit you can.
Once the sword fight is over you'll watch another scene before being joined by Kiros and Ward. Note: If you picked up the Timber Maniacs issue in Shumi Village prior to this Laguna Flashback Ward will not be with you. Before going into battle against this Ruby Dragon you should know that this is your best opportunity for a short period of time to Draw Meteor and Flare magic.
If you're lower level on all of your characters (like not in your 50s) then the Ruby Dragon will be too low level... However you can use the Tonberry GF's ability called LV Up to increase the Ruby Dragon's level enough for you to Draw Flare and Meteor magic from it.
Note: If you decide to take this route and level up the Ruby Dragon be prepared for a difficult fight. His breath attack can wipe you out in a single turn. To solve this problem, Junction HP+ abilities to one of your characters, or all. Also Spr+ helps too.
For those of you reading this who would like to learn more about the best magics to Junction in Final Fantasy 8 and how to get them I recommend you check out my FF8 Junctions Guide. It has a bunch of information about Junctions and the best magics.
Defeating the dragon will trigger the final scene of this Laguna dream sequence, you'll be back in control of Squall in the infirmary after. Head to the bridge of Balamb Garden and take control of it, our next stop is Edea's House on the southern continent.
Here you'll ask Edea about the White SeeD ship and she'll give you Sorceress' Letter which we need for advancing the story forward later. Next stop, White SeeD Ship! It's northeast of Edea's House, use my screenshot on the following page of this guide for the exact location.
Continue to White SeeD Ship & Esthar Preparation (Disc 3) Walkthrough
Return to Galbadia Garden (Disc 2) Walkthrough