The Garden Festival

Guide to Final Fantasy VIII Remastered's Garden Festival. Learn how to select instruments, trigger Zell's love scene, and gather key items before the big event.

Alright, so you've made it to the Garden Festival! This is a pretty chill part of the game, mostly focused on story and some important choices that don't have huge gameplay impacts, but it's good to get everything right. We'll walk through selecting the band, grabbing some useful items, and triggering a specific scene.

First things first, head over to the Quad. You'll find Selphie there, and talking to her kicks off a bunch of cutscenes. Just go with it!

Next up is picking the instruments for the concert. Now, there's no 'best' combo that gives you a reward, but the song you choose *does* get used later, so you might as well make it sound decent. You've got two options for how the song will sound:

• Irish Jig: Guitar, Violin, Flute, Tap
• Slow Dance: Sax, Electric Guitar, Piano, Bass Guitar

It doesn't matter who plays what instrument, just the combination itself. Pick the one you like the sound of!

Before you lock in Zell's instrument choice, there's a quick detour you should take. Head over to the Grease Monkey's house. You'll need to talk to the Officer outside, then go inside and back out again. After that, chat with the Grease Monkey to snag a Phoenix Down. Then, talk to the Officer again – he'll give you some handy ammo: 15x Fast Ammo, 10x AP Ammo, and 5x Pulse Ammo. Don't skip this; it's a nice little haul!

Zell Love Scene #6

While you're in this area, and specifically while you're playing as Irvine, you can trigger a specific scene. You need to visit the Library Girl with Pigtails. This scene is only available for a very limited time, so make sure you do it while you're controlling Irvine solo. It's important you talk to *her* directly; just talking to the other Library Committee members won't count towards triggering the scene.

Once you've got all those items and triggered the scene if you wanted to, make your way back to the area near the Mayor's house to finalize your band selection. After that, the game switches control to Squall. Just head out of the Dormitory, and get ready for more cutscenes. Feel free to answer however you like during the dialogue – some of the negative options lead to some funny lines, and they don't really have any lasting negative impact, other than maybe a bit more talking.

After the scenes, talk to Irvine twice. Then, head towards the Mayor's House. From the stage area, go to the right and examine the magazine to keep things moving. You're almost done with this section!

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