Whoops! Looks like you got lost on your way to the Fire Cavern. And, to be honest, I can't blame you.
Final Fantasy VIII is a great game, but it's not an intuitive one, particularly if you're playing it as a kid. Here's an overview of the many ways I got lost or stuck the first time I played this game. I was thirteen years old at the time, but, let's be honest, that's no excuse for some of these.
Fire Cavern
It took me four hours to find the Fire Cavern when I first played Final Fantasy VIII.
I genuinely don't know how this happened. I could have run around the entire island so many times in four hours! But I listened to Quistis telling me the cavern was to the east, nodded, and then spent the next four hours exploring the town and the Garden and the beach with a bunch of little question marks over my head. Looking at the undersea train tunnel, trying to work out if I was meant to be going in there.
Somehow, despite getting stuck immediately, I was still enjoying the game, so I never gave up. I'm glad I persevered!
Eventually, I did spot the entrance to the cavern. You'll never believe this, but it turned out it was east of the Garden, exactly where Quistis had said it would be.
Tomb of the Unknown King
In Deling City, you're told to go to the Tomb of the Unknown King and find the ID number of a student who disappeared there. You get this number from a sword just inside the entrance of the tomb.
I did not see the sword. I plunged straight into the navigational nightmare that is the Tomb of the Unknown King and was never seen again.
Deling City
This is, by some distance, the stupidest way I have ever got stuck in a videogame.
During the Deling City assassination mission, you're supposed to enter a trapdoor and pick up a sniper rifle. I entered the trapdoor. Great; I was in position for the assassination. But, because I was playing on a very dark screen, I didn't notice the sniper rifle and didn't pick it up.
When the game didn't progress, I decided that, when General Caraway had said 'you'll take the shot at 20.00', he must have meant when I got twenty hours on the game clock. Because I'd been getting lost so frequently and GF-spamming my way through every fight, I was already at over nineteen hours, which perhaps made it seem more plausible to me.
It did not occur to me that 'make the player just sit and wait until they reach twenty hours of gameplay' would be ludicrous game design. I obediently waited and was confused when nothing happened.
D-District Prison
At one point, while you're crossing a bridge at the D-District prison, the entire prison starts drilling down into the desert sand. I sat there, watching the cutscene, while the prison drilled down and Squall dangled helplessly from the side of the bridge.
I was confused and outraged when the 'game over' screen popped up. Game over?? I was just watching an FMV! What was I supposed to do!
I ended up having to look this up online. It turned out that, while Squall is hanging from the bridge, you're supposed to make him shuffle along it to safety. It was a cutscene; I had no idea I could move!
Incidentally, this was the moment at which I realised I was playing Final Fantasy VIII, rather than Final Fantasy VII. I'd accidentally been sold VIII in a VII box, so I thought Squall was the main character of Final Fantasy VII. When I tried to look up advice, I was very confused to find that sites about Final Fantasy VII were all talking about some Cloud guy.
Battle with Galbadia Garden
Towards the end of disc two, the characters decide to visit the old orphanage. But, as the player, you're not actually supposed to go to the orphanage. Galbadia Garden is flying near the orphanage, and you're supposed to notice it and engage it in combat.
As is so often the case, I tragically failed on the 'notice it' step.
I just kept trying to enter the orphanage, mystified by the fact that the game wouldn't let me. Squall just kept commenting that he sensed something huge nearby. It did not occur to me that this meant I should probably look for the huge thing.
Eventually, I looked up what I was supposed to be doing. I was perplexed by the answer. Galbadia Garden was around here? Where?
I turned around and, oh, yeah, there was indeed a big flying school there.
White SeeD Ship
I don't need to explain this one. Everyone who has ever played Final Fantasy VIII has got stuck while looking for the White SeeD ship. It's a rite of passage.
If you've stumbled across this page because you're struggling to find the White SeeD ship right now, try this video guide by SullenCoder. If the ship isn't showing up for you, try going into Balamb Garden and visiting Rinoa in the infirmary first.
Adel
At the start of the final disc, you're supposed to fight Adel in Lunatic Pandora. It took me forever to find the path up to her. I think I eventually had to look up what I was supposed to be doing.
When I did reach Adel, I had an even bigger problem.
It turned out that I did not know how to play this game.
I didn't understand how to junction magic. I never bothered to draw, except from draw points and the rare occasions I heard in advance that a boss had a drawable GF. I'd just been spamming GFs and Leviathan's Recover ability throughout every battle.
When you reach Adel, of course, spamming GFs is no longer an option, because you'll hit Rinoa. I was forced to actually learn how junctioning magic worked. But it was too late; I couldn't get enough useful magic at this point to make my team viable, and, because I almost never drew, I had very few GFs.
In the end, I had to restart the entire game. It's a mark of how much I loved Final Fantasy VIII that I was willing to play through the whole thing again, rather than just abandoning the effort.