A short cinematic will play as Balamb Garden crashes into the piers and docks of Fishermans Horizon. Headmaster Cid will ask everyone to remain calm using the intercom before asking Squall to head to shore with your other two party members.
Note that this will be the same two party members that accompanied Squall as part of “Team 2” in the previous mission. Your other party members that traveled to the Galbadia Missile Base are not available for this section of the game.
Follow Headmaster Cid’s instructions and take the elevator down to the second floor (2F). Proceed out the back of the hall and out to the balcony.
Squall and his team will be greeted by some representatives of Fishermans Horizon (FH) and will be told not to cause any trouble during their visit to the town.
These first few screens that you access in Fishermans Horizon are referred to as the “Factory” due to all of the warehouses and equipment that can be seen in the background.
Keeping heading to the right along the catwalks until you reach an area with a hidden ladder up against the smokestack (and shown in the screenshot below). Climb down the ladder and proceed left.
Speak to the man sitting at the edge of the dock. This is the “Master Fisherman” and he is involved in two small side quests that you can do while in Fishermans Horizon.
The first side quest is fairly easy. Speak to the Master Fisherman and select “I’m sorry… It’s our fault” when presented with that option. The man will thank Squall for his honesty by providing him with the Occult Fan III book.
The second quest has quite a few more steps. Speak to the Master Fisherman one more time and he will ask Squall for a favor. He will explain that he wants you to find his pupil over by the docks. He asks that you speak to him once you get there. You need to speak to the Master Fisherman this second time in order to enable these next steps.
Climb back up the smokestack ladder and continue heading to the right. Talk to the man standing near the elevator (“Familiar Face”) and select “Yes” to use the elevator to go down to the lower level. Continue to the right until you reach the large solar panelled area, but don’t take the stairs down to the house just yet.
This area of the city is just called “Fishermans Horizon” when you pull up the menu screen. Travel to the right and find a Save Point to save your game. There is also a Draw Point that contains Regen magic.
It is very likely that your characters are already carrying the maximum amount of Regen magic that they can have, if you have been playing a fair bit of Triple Triad that is, but if not, make sure that one of your character’s draws this magic if they have room and make room for it if they don’t.
Are you starting to run out of space to store magic? Final Fantasy VIII limits you to 8 pages of magic (or 32 spells total). You can free up some space by accessing the Magic menu, selecting the “Exchange” option and pressing the Button to discard spells.
Follow the set of train tracks that lead off to the right from the Save Point and Draw Point.
Walk past the man sitting on the tracks and enter the doorway on the left side of the screen. This is the Fishermans Horizon Inn and you can rest up your characters for 100 gil. More importantly, however, is that there is a Timber Maniacs issue upstairs on the floor.
There is a shop in this area which sells the following items:
On the right side of the screen, opposite the Inn, are some docks that you can walk across. Head right into the next area where you can find a young boy out on a boat. The old man in the shop also offers access to a Junk Shop where you can upgrade your weapons.
Speak to the boy in the boat. When he asks if you like fishing choose “Sort of” and when he asks if you saw an old man fishing by the port choose “I saw him”. Next, when he asks what you thought of the old man, choose “I was sort of… impressed”.
A short cutscene will take place with the young boy nearly strangling the shop owner to death. This is all that you can do here for now but we will come back to this area shortly.
Travel back to the large solar panelled area and take the stairs towards the house in the center of the panels and at the center of Fishermans Horizon. Consider saving your game at the Save Point before heading down.
Follow the stairs to the right until you reach the house in the middle.
Take the stairs and head through the doorway of the house in the middle of the solar panels. Go up to the second floor to find the mayor of Fishermans Horizon, Mayor Dobe, and his wife. They will cut right to the chase by asking when Squall and his team will be leaving FH.
The Quezacotl Card is a one-of-a-kind rare card. Mayor Dobe himself holds this card.
This set of Triple Triad rules in Fishermans Horizon can be a little challenging for first time card players. You may wish to consider saving your game at the Save Point if you haven’t already just in case you lose any important cards to him.
The Irvine Card is a one-of-a-kind rare card. Mayor Dobe’s wife, Flo, who sits behind the mayor on the second floor of his house, holds the card.
Note though that Flo will only have the Irvine Card if you have been following the Queen of Cards side quest notes. More specifically, you need to have lost the Sacred Card to the Queen of Cards back in Dollet. This was referenced on the Tomb of the Unknown King side quest note.
There is a hidden Draw Point on the second floor of Mayor Dobe’s house which contains Ultima magic. Do not miss out on the opportunity to Draw this magic! Ultima is the strongest magic spell in the game and is very helpful when junctioned to your character’s attributes.
Exit the house and look for a man off to the right of the platform, sitting with his legs hanging off the ledge. This is Martine, the headmaster of Galbadia Garden, and he plays a fairly important role for the Triple Triad side quest (if you have lost any cards so far).
Martine will have any of the cards that you have lost to Galbadia students, if you lost any, and you can challenge him to card games in order to win them back.
At this point of the game, Martine should have the Ifrit Card if you properly lost this card to General Caraway in order to obtain the Rinoa Card back in Deling City before going to the Galbadia Missile Base. Challenge Martine to a game of cards to win back your Ifrit Card.
Exit the residential area once you have completed all of these tasks.
Travel to the left, back up the panel, and some dialogue will automatically pop up as you make your way back to the upper ridge of Fishermans Horizon. The town is being attacked by Galbadia Soldiers!
Flo will follow the group up the stairs and will blame Squall and his team for Galbadian Soldiers attacking Fishermans Horizon. Mayor Dobe will then proceed through the group suggesting that he will “go talk to them”. Consider saving your game again and then follow the tracks back down to the Residential Area.
As you pass through this area for the second time, you can now be thrown into random battles against Elite Soldiers, G-Soldiers, GIM47N and SAM08G enemies. Each of these enemies are very easy to defeat, but consider Drawing Protect, Reflect or Life magic from a SAM07G enemy if you run into them. GIM47N enemies also have Esuna magic and Curaga magic (if they are high enough level, so not all of them) that you can Draw if you need any.
Go north into the next screen and another cutscene will occur. Mayor Dobe can be seen attempting to reason with a Galbadian Soldier looking for Ellone. Choose to “Go help” when presented with the option. To make an upcoming boss battle much easier though, consider junctioning Blind magic to your characters if they have a Guardian Force with the ST-Atk-J ability.
The first battle will be against an Elite Soldier and two G-Soldiers. Defeat them and the next boss battle (if you can call it that) will begin.
In Game Description: Out of control after being destroyed at the Missile Base. Can only fight for a short amont of time.
This is a very easy boss battle. There is no timer as you face BGH251F2 this time, making the battle much easier. Attack the boss with regular attacks and, if you junctioned Blind magic to your characters’ Status Attack junction, continue attacking until the Blind status sticks.
This boss has even less HP than the last time you fought it. It’s a complete pushover, so keep attacking until its defeated.
Your other three party members will emerge from the wreckage of BGH251F2 once the battle has concluded. Speak to Rinoa once all of the party members have left. Finally, speak to Mayor Dobe after Rinoa has left and select “(I want him to understand us)”, then “(Try to continue)”.
Leave the area by heading south and then come back to this area and speak to the new person who has appeared near where Mayor Dobe was standing. This is the cafeteria lady’s son. Choose the option to respond with “Isn’t he the cafeteria lady’s son?” when you have the choice.
You may have missed it or may not have had the option to speak to the cafeteria lady as many players have reported that this side quest is bugged (especially in the remastered versions of the game). This isn’t an important side quest so don’t lose sleep if you aren’t able to complete this section of the game.
Before leaving the area where you fought BGH251F2, take the train tracks up to the residence and go through the doorway.
This is the Grease Monkey’s house and you will be returning to this area again as part of the Shumi Village side quest later on in the game. Grab the Timber Maniacs issue on the ground for now though and leave the area.
Go back south to the docks and speak to the young boy again for another short cutscene where he will ask Squall to tell his master of the young boy’s fishing skill. Now continue back along the pathway towards Balamb Garden until you run into Irvine.
With Irvine following you, go down the smoke stack again and speak to the Master Fisherman. After a short discussion about the Master Fisherman’s pupil, he will ask you to meet him at the Inn.
Travel back to the Inn and take the stairs up to the second floor to meet with the Master Fisherman one more time. The Master Fisherman will ask if you will keep him company for a bit longer. Select “Why not…?”.
Follow him out to the docks and speak to the shopkeeper again. Select “I think you’re right” when given the option. At the end of the dialogue you will receive a free Megalixir; definitely worth all of the extra work!
Travel back to the Factory and then back aboard Balamb Garden. Irvine will suggest that you meet up with Selphie in the Quad which is your next destination once you re-board the Garden.