As noted on the previous page, there are a ton of side quests you can complete now that you have access to a flying ship. The very first thing you should do now that you have (nearly) all of your team members back is to setup your Guardian Forces and magic junctions.
Even though Rinoa is not on your team, if you plan on putting her back on your team, setup the Guardian Forces and magic on another character and then do an exchange when you have her back (which will be very soon).
Here is a potential recommended setup for the distribution of your Guardian Forces but there is lots of flexibility with how you setup your junctions, so these are just suggestions and not requirements:
Character 1:
Equip the following Guardian Forces:
Ifrit
Carbuncle
Leviathan
Alexander
Doomtrain
Character 2:
Equip the following Guardian Forces:
Shiva
Siren
Diablos
Pandemona
Character 3:
Equip the following Guardian Forces:
Quezacotl
Brothers
Cerberus
Tonberry
You may already have the ability learned, but if not, make sure to have Diablos learn 
Enc-None (which becomes available after it learns Enc-Half). Equipping this ability to one of your characters will allow you to travel around the World Map without being thrown into random battles while you are exploring.
There are two more things you should take care of before you jump into any of the side quests. Most importantly though is to get Rinoa back on your team. Fly over to the Esthar Sorceress Memorial.
You can have the Ragnarok automatically fly you to locations around the World Map by pressing the 
Button until the World Map appears, hovering over one of the cities, selecting it, and then selecting the “Yes” option when it appears.
Rescuing Rinoa is as simple as entering the building and pushing through the dialogue and short cutscenes. Squall will push his way into the building, break Rinoa free, and help her escape with the team.
The group will be ambushed by a number of guards when they leave the Sorceress Memorial but will be allowed to pass through unencumbered by a man that Squall is sure he recognizes… don’t worry, the mystery will be revealed very soon.
The team will decide where to head next and will settle on heading back to Edea’s House. Once again, bring up the World Map and have the Ragnarok fly you over automatically. Follow Angelo off to the left side of the screen when you arrive to continue with a ton more dialogue.
Your party will automatically consist of Squall, Rinoa and Zell when you leave Edea’s House this time. Rearrange your team if you need to as soon as you leave.
Edea will accost you on your way out with some more expository dialogue, but then its time to make your way back over to Esthar. Again, you can do this by opening up the World Map and selecting “Esthar/Airstation”.
Hover the Ragnarok over the landing pad and press the 
Button to have the ship land directly inside the city.
Esthar is the first place you visit that has its own dedicated landing pad for the Ragnarok. You don’t need to land your ship outside of the city and walk in.
There are two other locations that also have landing pads: Fishermans Horizon (FH) and the Deep Sea Research Center (more on this coming up soon).
The city of Esthar is currently under siege! You can now encounter random monster battles while running through the city. Consider using Diablos’ Enc-None ability to make traveling through the city (although they are all fairly easy to defeat.
Travel over to the Esthar Presidential Palace either by referring back to the Esthar Map below or following the instructions underneath it.
Note that areas 14 and 11 have upper platforms and lower platforms. You cannot reach the upper or lower platform from one another. In order to reach either the upper or lower platform you will have to approach the area from the appropriate side.
From the Airstation, head right and you will start off in Area (3). Exit out the back of the screen into Area (2). Continue heading down the path and take the far back exit into Area (1). Go all the way right from here to arrive at the Presidential Palace.
Step off the elevator and into the next screen. Continue running left through this next hallway, left through one more hallway, and then go through the doors guarded by the two Esthar Soldiers.
You have quite a bit more dialogue to work your way through! Have Laguna and his crew explain the current situation: the mission to defeat Ultimecia, where Ellone can be found, about Raine and about how Laguna found him self becoming the president of Esthar.
Laguna, Kiros and Ward will follow Squall and his crew out to their new ship and will accompany you on the rest of your journey in the passenger section of the Ragnarok. More importantly though, its time to get back on the road and get rolling with some of these side quests.
Not all Final Fantasy VIII players are looking to do a full complete of the game. For those of you that are interested in skipping the side quest portions of the game and want to get things rolling with the story, head to the next page and make your way directly over to the Lunatic Pandora to continue the game.
For the rest of us that are interested in completing all of the side quests and challenges that Final Fantasy VIII has to offer, continue reading below. There are quite a few new side quests that have opened up now that you have access to a flying ship.
But before you even step foot off the ship, consider challenging Laguna to a game of Triple Triad. He can be found inside the Ragnarok.
Triple Triad: Squall CardThe Squall Card is a one-of-a-kind rare card and it is the best Triple Triad card in the game (at least raw stat wise). Make sure that you don’t accidentally spread the Lunar rules to anywhere else - those rules were wacky and terrible! Make sure you decline the game every time that Laguna asks to combine the rules, and then have Squall take his own card from Laguna.
There are a total of 3 new Guardian Forces (GFs) that you should pick up. First things first though, if you did not have the proper raw materials (namely 6 Steel Pipes and 6 Malboro Tentacles) to create Doomtrain, you should do so now. Check out the Doomtrain section for more information:
Next, before you start trekking through some of these side quests, consider making sure that your characters have their most powerful weapons. Check out the Best Weapons section for more information:
The next Guardian Force to acquire is one that you have probably seen before while you were leveling up your other Guardian Forces near Cactuar Island. This Guardian Force, of course, is the Jumbo Cactuar (or just Cactuar when you get it). Check out the section below for more information:
With Jumbo Cactuar on your team, its time to make your way out to the Deep Sea Research Center. There are two new Guardian Forces that you can pick up in this area along with a number of other great items.
While you are down there, you may wish to take the opportunity to stock up on some 
Curse Spikes. Check out the following section for more information:
Make sure you checked the bottom of that page and have a good idea of whether you have gathered the number of Curse Spikes that you want before proceeding to defeating Ultima and obtaining Eden. Information on how to do this is at the bottom of the Deep Sea Research Center page:
The next side quest that you can complete involves tracking down a small UFO and meeting up with PuPu the alien. Click on the link below for more information:
You can now complete the last remaining steps of the Queen of Cards side quest. Note that the page below walks through all of the various interactions you have with the Queen of Cards, but the steps you need to complete now are those mentioned in the “After Ragnarok” section.
The next quest to complete is the Obel Lake side quest. This small, mini-quest offers some fairly meagre rewards, but its very easy to complete:
Take this opportunity to stock up on some 
Energy Crystal using the Fixed Encounters trick:
The previous section will have given you all of the Energy Crystal you need to manufacture enough Ultima magic for your characters, but there are all sorts of other high level magic that is worth collecting to power up your characters. Check out the section on the “Best Magic” for more information:
Finally, now that you have all of your Guardian Forces, go back to Cactuar Island to level them up.
You’re now ready to get back to the main story. The story continues at the Lunatic Pandora.
