Playing after The End?

[Lyuba]

Hello everyone.

I bought FF8 because it is the game of my childhood. I'm willing to play the 100% of the game (cards, side quests...) but I felt lazy about doing the sidequests so I told myself - "Meh. Better kill Ultimecia first and I'll do them later." - Problem is I thought I could keep on playing after defeating the witch, or at least that's what I remembered (Maybe I'm mistaken with the last FF I played [XIII] in which you could play after defeating the boss), but I can't.
Once I kill Ultimecia I watch the animation and after "The End" the screen goes black. Is that a problem of mine or game works that way and I'll have to restart a new one to be able to complete everything?

Thanks in advance for answering!

[Ex-SOLDIER]

It's the end of the game. If you wanna get everything, start again or play from older saves.

[Lyuba]

Thanks!
I will start a new data then. I had to start again anyway to unlock the achievement of no-leveling Squall.

[Camtaro420]

You could go to your last save before fighting Ulti and go all the way out of the castle, through the portals, search for the ragnarok and complete almost any sidequest.

[t3n]

Not everything can be completed on disc 4. There's some stuff that has to be done prior to finishing Lunatic Pandora at the end of disc 3. One such example is the Card Club quest. The NPCs do appear onboard the Ragnarok on disc 4, but that's only if you first beat them in Balamb Garden.
Therefore it's a very good idea to make an extra "safe" savegame just before you beat Adel. After that it's pretty much a point of no return.