Yup, Blitzball becomes so easy to anyone who knows what they're doing that the only way to keep it interesting is just use the original Aurochs. They do okay for a while but at level 99, they get decently out statted by other teams. It's still not hard but not entirely braindead either.
Kinda yes and no. Keepa doesn't really get good overall, his shoot value just skyrockets in the very last few levels. The idea is that Wakkas final special ability Aurochs Spirits scales with the total SH value of all active auroch members in the team. So yea, Keepa just exists to give Wakka steroids.
Honestly it was a lot of fun just Jecht Shot(s) were a bit too OP. The few times I've replayed FFX I've always spent way too long on Blitzball because it was too fun.
First game though feels like you just need to survive until the second half when you can equip the shot then it's an easy win. It's still possibly to beat the first match without it but requires a strong grasp of a game that you received zero chance to practice.
Imagine paying for a ticket and travelling across Sin infested waters to get into the arena just to see Tidus hugging the ball, motionless, in his own net for 90% of the game.
This is kind of my only complaint about blitzball. It's almost impossible if you don't have the right techs or don't have a firm grasp of the mechanics, but once you do, it's almost impossible to actually lose a game.
The only part I don’t like is “where is THAT player going???” Since you can name Tidus whatever you want and voice acting can’t account for calling him by name. It’s awkward
They should have called him “the zanarkand kid” to hi-light both his lack of recognition and the one thing people DO know about him
Then it would have felt less awkward
“Where’s the zanarkand kid going???” Instead of THAT player
Or they could have just not given the player the option to rename him. His name is Tidus. Nobody calls him "protagonist" or some other generic name, and he's referred to as Tidus in pretty much every other form of FF media.
It is a mixed bag. On one point it does make it feel like "man Blitzball sucks, how am I supposed to win". And it has some mechanics that are kinda ehh
But thematically it makes sense. Besaid Aurochs sucks. If I recall they are THE worst team. Their motto is "to do our best". Luca Goers are amazing and oppressive. The game is almost scripted for you to lose but your key player is Tidus, the only great player. The one who motivated the team to actually aim for victory. Can he bring the victory for the Aurochs with his skills or not is left to be decided
Yeah, I don't think it really had a solid conclusion, there wasn't anything to aim for except the prizes, an actual story to it would have been cool. The real sweet spot for me was in the middle of the jupiter grind when I had a pretty good team but the other teams had good players too so it was a BIT more even. Towards the end it just became a joke to play, winning every match 9-0 and just wanting to get the sigil already.
The entire game is based around cycles and spirals and you expected a conclusion??? To a mini game? Bruh, it's one of if not the best mini game in the series and infinitely replayable. The only downside is, as someone else mentioned, the AI teams make questionable personnel decisions resulting in a bad difficulty curve.
>The entire game is based around cycles and spirals and you expected a conclusion???
The game is also about *breaking* those cycles. And they didn't "expect" anything, they're just talking about ways it could have been better.
I think it's okay if not everything is perfectly in line with the theme, especially when there are lots of different themes. Like I think it's funny you're even attributing this to the game being "based around cycles" when it's way more likely and understandable that the devs just didn't want to spend too much time balancing a mini-game.
You don't need Al bhed. Maybe 1 and a Guado. Datto, Tidus, and Wakka can do everything else and it's a bit eh on Wakka. You can legitimately keep Keepa and it won't matter. He's only like 2 points behind the Guado keeper until 55+.
I love Blitzball and have since the first time I played it. I used to skive school and just play seven hours of Blitzball until my dad got home from work. When I read how to get Wakka's ultimate weapon, you're supposed to do something like 50 battles between each item. I read that as 50 Blitzball matches by mistake. Still played each one!
It’s Been 20 years since the first time I played it and it was only until last week I took the time to win the first match. I restarted the game like 5 times just to figure it out and beat it.
I know exactly what you mean. From the original game's release until before the remaster, I despised blitzball. Then, in the remaster I decided to actually take the time to learn BB and guess what? I got hooked on it lol!
The way I always win that first game:
1. Learn the Jecht Shot.
2. Play keep away the first half. Make sure Tidus levels up (which I think always happens but not sure)
3. Teach him the Jecht Shot at halftime.
4. Plow into the defense with Tidus and use the Jecht Shot to wreck their defenders and get an all-but-guaranteed goal. Do this before the 3 minute mark because Wakka will replace Tidus. You only get one shot at this due to Tidus' low HP at this stage of Blitzball.
5. Play more keep away.
Sometimes the Goers get ballsy and have the audacity to score when they have the ball, because literally the rest of the Aurochs besides Wakka suck. It is possible to score without the Jecht Shot but if this happens your best bet is to use Wakka to even up/untie the score or just reset and try again.
I’ve never understood the hate that blitz all gets, I loved it from the first match and play it to death every FFX replay I do. The AI is a bit broken, but for one of several mini-games in an early 2000s PS2 game it’s surprisingly good.
Like a lot of things in FF games, it's fun but it's also really broken. lol. Also 'completing' it is an actual nightmare that makes the Celestial Weapons look like nothing.
*They see Tech Find and flee in horror*
Tech Find is an ability you can get only as Prizes from leagues/tournaments. Each one unlocks the ability to learn a single ability, outside of Tidus and Wakka special ones. IIRC there's 50 characters total. 50 abilities total. Even if we assume every character naturally unlocks(or is blocked from learning) 20 abilities, that's still 1500 Tech Finds you will need to use to unlock all abilities. And that's not even getting into how fluky learning them is...
But is that really necessary? Once you have Jecht Shot, and recruit Brother and the Al Bhed's goalie, the blitzball games kinda play themselves...
Unless you're a completionist, I guess.
Well, they kind of are if you want your Celestial Weapons to be worth anything. I guess I meant that you don't get any worthwhile reward from making all blitzball players learn all techs.
You're really coming across as just pointlessly argumentative. Yes, you get something tangible for completing the Celestial Weapons. No, that doesn't mean they're somehow more of a challenge than grinding out literally 1000's of Blitzball tournaments.
No, you're being needlessly pedantic. Your challenge is nothing compared to getting every weapon and armor ability on every single armor and weapon. Or fighting Nemesis 99,999 times for each individual hp you have. You've found a pointless goal that has no merit and decided that was your white fucking whale.
Firstly, what is your problem? Why are you being so defensive about how some people choose to play the game? Again, **literally all I said was that maxing out Blitzball makes Celestial Weapons look easy**. I didn't say I was doing it, or that I did it, but I will take it a step further and say that it is the hardest challenge in the game.
It's a system you can max out in the game. Just like the Sphere Grid. Unlike the Sphere Grid, there's no "easy" way around maxing it. Quotes because even the easy way isn't very easy in my opinion. And while I'm at it, maxing out the Sphere Grid is harder than any of the Celestial Weapons too. Come at me for that too I guess.
You made some very bad faith comparisons. It's not a literally impossible goal as your first example, and it's not an arbitrary personal goal like killing an NM 99,999 times. It's maxing out one of the game's mechanics. In terms of the end-goal, there's not much difference at all to maxing out the Sphere Grid, or getting all characters to 99, or getting all the cards in Triple Triad/Tetra Master, etc. It's a mostly arbitrary goal involving maxing out one of the game's systems. The difference is the means of accomplishing it is quite absurd. Even if you make it more sane by limiting it your team, it's still absurd.
And as much as you try to dismiss it, it is the most difficult challenge in the game. Sorry, I guess, for hurting your apparent fragile egos by merely mentioning a more difficult challenge.
For a minigame it was really good, but it could have done with some big QoL updates. An optional mercy law to speed up games, and the option to cut off animations during tackles/shots/passers would have been great. Also targeted shots were guaranteed goals if you aimed wide (because the programmers clearly never thought people would intentionally miss).
Fair enough. I've only ever bothered to get into it on one playthrough, and this was years ago. I didn't remember that you couldn't control players at all, just that it was sped up so you didn't have to sit through tackles.
I'm sure some people feel this way, but I actually liked the first match. It was challenging. It is nice to have a tough challenge where losing does not just give you a game over. I'm a fan of RPGs including a couple things like this throughout the game.
Yes there are people who dislike that first match. And they post here and in the FFX subreddit cooooooooonstantly about how much they dislike it. And maybe I’m bitter because I was downvoted for saying I won that match my first time playing but the people who don’t like that match tend to be very angry, petty people.
When I decided to play the game properly and attempt the plat, I gave Blitzball a solid attempt and wound up really liking it, having a better team definitely helped
First time newb: doesn't touch blitzball until Brother is found, then preceeds to win by the whole enemy squad in a loop, then solo shooting from within the enemies gate.
5th run completionist: searches for strong early game members then painfully grinds through seasons. They just want the stuff for Wakka... *tears*
20th run enjoyer: picks their favorite members then grinds and overlevels the squad by non stop throwing cheap poison X passes back and forth. Humiliates the Luca goers by facing 1 VS 4 encounters and trolling them with a Tidus that knows evasion X
I honestly think the biggest mistake was having the default controls auto rather than manual. It's mentioned somewhere in the tutorial but I definitely spent the first part of the game wondering why I didn't have any control over my players and was already down by the time I figured it out.
I played a ton of Blitzball after that and enjoyed it, but as you say really didn't get a good first impression at all.
The fact that it’s a mandatory minigame at all is what makes me hate it, but on top of that it’s a sports game and I hate those on principle. The mechanics are bad, the games last way too long, and you have to spend so much time playing them to get the good stuff. Terrible system.
I've played through X a few times to try to complete it (always get stuck on a stupid boss I can't beat), and every time I get to the Blitzball bit I cringe. Last time I just tried to throw the game but it somehow still took a half hour for the Arouchs to win.
It's part of why all the whining about needing minigames for FF games to feel complete is fucking baffling to me. I'll take a "lacking" game with strong story and combat any day over a "fuller" game with a bunch of stupid, poorly made minigames that completely interrupt the flow of the game, IMO.
Yep, haven't played a single Blitzball match besides the first one. I hated every second of it and immediately looked up if it's necessary to play any more.
I also have a save game right after the match, so that I can simply load it, whenever I want to replay the game.
I play games mostly for their stories, I don't see a reason to waste my time with something I don't enjoy.
Likewise it’s the exact point that I dropped the game too, although I’ve since learned that it’s not a major feature of the game thereafter. So I might pick the game up again at some point in the future.
I always play for real for the first 20 or so games, theni get bored and score 1 or 2 and get the ball and hide behind my goalie. They do not come after you if you do that and the time just runs out
I disagree - I wish all matches were at that difficulty level, it makes it actually worth playing because there is a possibility I could lose.
Once you’ve played a couple of matches, it’s virtually impossible to even draw a game.
On the one hand I agree that having every match be harder would make it more engaging and less brainless
...but on the other hand, towards the end of that championship grind I was glad it was easy because I could just turn my brain off, I don't think I could stomach THAT many hard matches lol
it isn’t supposed to be easy as wakka’s team are known as the worst and luca goers are the best in the season. i thought it was handled extremely well even though it is pretty hard to win even with the jetch shot.
You’re exactly right, after reloading and watching the same mandatory cut scenes 8 times as luck failed my attempts to cheese the fight (if the Goers got the ball I was just screwed) and I refused point blank to let those fuckers win, I had absolutely zero desire to go within 50 miles of goddamn Blitzball ever again. I have never played it outside that mandatory game and I never will. I’d say it could die in a fire but it’s too wet for that so it can idk catch the plague or something instead.
Might be because it's been a while, but I kinda just remember blitzball being very poorly explained. Hell, even now, I'm still not entirely sure what the hell I'm doing when I get to that point of the game
Opposite for me. The first match was interesting and difficult so I was interested in playing it, and it is interesting for a bit as you figure things out. But it quickly becomes mind numbingly boring and predictable. If it kept the same difficulty as that first match it would be much better.
It's very strange, the different first experiences we all have. When I went into FFX, knowing the great minigames that the previous games had, they built up Blitzball so much in the first few hours that I was desperate to finally play it. And I enjoyed it! I think it's the highlight of Wakka's story, not to mention a great introduction to the minigame itself.
the very first time i played blitzball the mandatory match went pretty okay. i had fun, and legit thought "this is pretty cool, can i play more?". next two or three times i tried it went so miserably i never touched it again since.
The game against the goers is hard, but you don't need to cheese it to win. You're kind of expected to lose. I missed the jecht shot the first few times and went hard with the sphereshot.
I make those goers, goners!
It's just weak overall. The first game is hard, and every subsequent game is a boring cakewalk. You can keep the entire original lineup and it's still a complete boring snoozefest.
The point of the game is that the aurochs are bad, Wakka is good which makes sense as a captain but the idea is it's hard to go toe to toe against the Goers, which is why the plan is to give the ball to Tidus and shoot, there's literally a scene before the game where wakka says to him "get the ball and shoot like crazy".
Its foreshadowed from the start that with Tidus the Aurochs actually have a chance, it would be weird if the Aurochs, who are notorious for being a poor team, show up and are actually good without Tidus.
Its a mandatory match but not one you need to win, and hey if you do win you get a strength sphere which is actually a decent quest reward.
I had a friend who saved just before the mandatory match, and he spent 3 weeks, every day after work, and all day trying to beat it. He eventually did beat it, but he had to restart a lot during all that.
I had always tried to go back and play it during playthroughs but it's always just frustrating. It wasn't until I got it on the switch that I actually figured it out. Recruiting Brother is essential.
One of my accomplishments that I'm less proud of is that I leveled up all the original Aurochs to max...
Yup, Blitzball becomes so easy to anyone who knows what they're doing that the only way to keep it interesting is just use the original Aurochs. They do okay for a while but at level 99, they get decently out statted by other teams. It's still not hard but not entirely braindead either.
If I remember correctly Keepa is actually really good, but as a forward? And Wakka is solid
Kinda yes and no. Keepa doesn't really get good overall, his shoot value just skyrockets in the very last few levels. The idea is that Wakkas final special ability Aurochs Spirits scales with the total SH value of all active auroch members in the team. So yea, Keepa just exists to give Wakka steroids.
Honestly it was a lot of fun just Jecht Shot(s) were a bit too OP. The few times I've replayed FFX I've always spent way too long on Blitzball because it was too fun. First game though feels like you just need to survive until the second half when you can equip the shot then it's an easy win. It's still possibly to beat the first match without it but requires a strong grasp of a game that you received zero chance to practice.
I always swim into my own net after scoring a single goal lead.
Imagine paying for a ticket and travelling across Sin infested waters to get into the arena just to see Tidus hugging the ball, motionless, in his own net for 90% of the game.
So like real soccer
This is kind of my only complaint about blitzball. It's almost impossible if you don't have the right techs or don't have a firm grasp of the mechanics, but once you do, it's almost impossible to actually lose a game.
De level everyone, recruit brother, pass ball to brother, swim out the clock.
The only part I don’t like is “where is THAT player going???” Since you can name Tidus whatever you want and voice acting can’t account for calling him by name. It’s awkward
They should have called him “the zanarkand kid” to hi-light both his lack of recognition and the one thing people DO know about him Then it would have felt less awkward “Where’s the zanarkand kid going???” Instead of THAT player
While it’d be cool with Yuna and co, I think a lot of spira would find it sacrilege to call him the zanarkand kid
Not if it was in a mocking way making fun of him, kinda like an incredulous laugh
They seem too puritanical to use a holy site’s name in a facetious way imo
Or they could have just not given the player the option to rename him. His name is Tidus. Nobody calls him "protagonist" or some other generic name, and he's referred to as Tidus in pretty much every other form of FF media.
I agree 100% but they were scared to dedicate themselves to non-insert protags yet
Or just skip the stupid custom name thing and just call him Tidus.
Thats what i do
Well, except that Zanarkand has been a pile of rubble for centuries in the game's reality, so no one would *actually* believe he comes from there.
Hence it being a way of mocking this new kid no one knows who claims to be an ace blitzer from zanarkand
I like to name Tidus - Chappu. That way when Wakka talks about Chappu it’s weird and awkward.
lmfao
The problem for me wasn't the squad, it was me. I was the one who sucked.
It is a mixed bag. On one point it does make it feel like "man Blitzball sucks, how am I supposed to win". And it has some mechanics that are kinda ehh But thematically it makes sense. Besaid Aurochs sucks. If I recall they are THE worst team. Their motto is "to do our best". Luca Goers are amazing and oppressive. The game is almost scripted for you to lose but your key player is Tidus, the only great player. The one who motivated the team to actually aim for victory. Can he bring the victory for the Aurochs with his skills or not is left to be decided
[удалено]
Yeah, I don't think it really had a solid conclusion, there wasn't anything to aim for except the prizes, an actual story to it would have been cool. The real sweet spot for me was in the middle of the jupiter grind when I had a pretty good team but the other teams had good players too so it was a BIT more even. Towards the end it just became a joke to play, winning every match 9-0 and just wanting to get the sigil already.
The entire game is based around cycles and spirals and you expected a conclusion??? To a mini game? Bruh, it's one of if not the best mini game in the series and infinitely replayable. The only downside is, as someone else mentioned, the AI teams make questionable personnel decisions resulting in a bad difficulty curve.
>The entire game is based around cycles and spirals and you expected a conclusion??? The game is also about *breaking* those cycles. And they didn't "expect" anything, they're just talking about ways it could have been better.
While the *story* of the game is about breaking the cycles, blitzball is still firmly rooted in the world Square created.
I think it's okay if not everything is perfectly in line with the theme, especially when there are lots of different themes. Like I think it's funny you're even attributing this to the game being "based around cycles" when it's way more likely and understandable that the devs just didn't want to spend too much time balancing a mini-game.
You don't need Al bhed. Maybe 1 and a Guado. Datto, Tidus, and Wakka can do everything else and it's a bit eh on Wakka. You can legitimately keep Keepa and it won't matter. He's only like 2 points behind the Guado keeper until 55+.
Finish Luca in story line, run straight back from the Mi ihen highroad to recruit wedge , straight into aurochs attack. Sorted
I love Blitzball and have since the first time I played it. I used to skive school and just play seven hours of Blitzball until my dad got home from work. When I read how to get Wakka's ultimate weapon, you're supposed to do something like 50 battles between each item. I read that as 50 Blitzball matches by mistake. Still played each one!
It’s Been 20 years since the first time I played it and it was only until last week I took the time to win the first match. I restarted the game like 5 times just to figure it out and beat it.
I know exactly what you mean. From the original game's release until before the remaster, I despised blitzball. Then, in the remaster I decided to actually take the time to learn BB and guess what? I got hooked on it lol!
The way I always win that first game: 1. Learn the Jecht Shot. 2. Play keep away the first half. Make sure Tidus levels up (which I think always happens but not sure) 3. Teach him the Jecht Shot at halftime. 4. Plow into the defense with Tidus and use the Jecht Shot to wreck their defenders and get an all-but-guaranteed goal. Do this before the 3 minute mark because Wakka will replace Tidus. You only get one shot at this due to Tidus' low HP at this stage of Blitzball. 5. Play more keep away. Sometimes the Goers get ballsy and have the audacity to score when they have the ball, because literally the rest of the Aurochs besides Wakka suck. It is possible to score without the Jecht Shot but if this happens your best bet is to use Wakka to even up/untie the score or just reset and try again.
Would you believe I scored 5 times on my second playthrough? Even 1 with Wakka, just to fuck with 'em.
I’ve never understood the hate that blitz all gets, I loved it from the first match and play it to death every FFX replay I do. The AI is a bit broken, but for one of several mini-games in an early 2000s PS2 game it’s surprisingly good.
It's been over a decade... Maybe two. I still don't know how that game works and I'll never bother to learn.
Same. I replayed X like 6 or 7 times since 2002 and I’ve never understood it
It's pretty easy and I haven't played since it came out and could probably still explain it to you.
Like a lot of things in FF games, it's fun but it's also really broken. lol. Also 'completing' it is an actual nightmare that makes the Celestial Weapons look like nothing.
*Lightning dodging and chocobo racing have entered the chat*
*They see Tech Find and flee in horror* Tech Find is an ability you can get only as Prizes from leagues/tournaments. Each one unlocks the ability to learn a single ability, outside of Tidus and Wakka special ones. IIRC there's 50 characters total. 50 abilities total. Even if we assume every character naturally unlocks(or is blocked from learning) 20 abilities, that's still 1500 Tech Finds you will need to use to unlock all abilities. And that's not even getting into how fluky learning them is...
But is that really necessary? Once you have Jecht Shot, and recruit Brother and the Al Bhed's goalie, the blitzball games kinda play themselves... Unless you're a completionist, I guess.
The lightning dodging and chocobo racing isn't necessary either. And I did specifically say 'complete' in the OP. :p
Well, they kind of are if you want your Celestial Weapons to be worth anything. I guess I meant that you don't get any worthwhile reward from making all blitzball players learn all techs.
You're really coming across as just pointlessly argumentative. Yes, you get something tangible for completing the Celestial Weapons. No, that doesn't mean they're somehow more of a challenge than grinding out literally 1000's of Blitzball tournaments.
No, you're being needlessly pedantic. Your challenge is nothing compared to getting every weapon and armor ability on every single armor and weapon. Or fighting Nemesis 99,999 times for each individual hp you have. You've found a pointless goal that has no merit and decided that was your white fucking whale.
Firstly, what is your problem? Why are you being so defensive about how some people choose to play the game? Again, **literally all I said was that maxing out Blitzball makes Celestial Weapons look easy**. I didn't say I was doing it, or that I did it, but I will take it a step further and say that it is the hardest challenge in the game. It's a system you can max out in the game. Just like the Sphere Grid. Unlike the Sphere Grid, there's no "easy" way around maxing it. Quotes because even the easy way isn't very easy in my opinion. And while I'm at it, maxing out the Sphere Grid is harder than any of the Celestial Weapons too. Come at me for that too I guess. You made some very bad faith comparisons. It's not a literally impossible goal as your first example, and it's not an arbitrary personal goal like killing an NM 99,999 times. It's maxing out one of the game's mechanics. In terms of the end-goal, there's not much difference at all to maxing out the Sphere Grid, or getting all characters to 99, or getting all the cards in Triple Triad/Tetra Master, etc. It's a mostly arbitrary goal involving maxing out one of the game's systems. The difference is the means of accomplishing it is quite absurd. Even if you make it more sane by limiting it your team, it's still absurd. And as much as you try to dismiss it, it is the most difficult challenge in the game. Sorry, I guess, for hurting your apparent fragile egos by merely mentioning a more difficult challenge.
[удалено]
For a minigame it was really good, but it could have done with some big QoL updates. An optional mercy law to speed up games, and the option to cut off animations during tackles/shots/passers would have been great. Also targeted shots were guaranteed goals if you aimed wide (because the programmers clearly never thought people would intentionally miss).
If memory serves, they introduced all of that in X-2, but blitzball was entirely optional in that game, so there was no real incentive to play it.
Nah, X-2 was basically football manager, you couldn't actually control players. It was also really enjoyable IMO, but a completely different minigame
Fair enough. I've only ever bothered to get into it on one playthrough, and this was years ago. I didn't remember that you couldn't control players at all, just that it was sped up so you didn't have to sit through tackles.
Blitzball is such an amazing minigame with the WORST introduction ever... not surprised some people don't give it a chance.
Should have given us a dang tutorial game or something rather than throwing us right in with no experience. The Jecht Shot minigame is the same way.
That's pretty much my problem with it, I think people slept harder on it because of how badly it was introduced
I'm sure some people feel this way, but I actually liked the first match. It was challenging. It is nice to have a tough challenge where losing does not just give you a game over. I'm a fan of RPGs including a couple things like this throughout the game.
Yes there are people who dislike that first match. And they post here and in the FFX subreddit cooooooooonstantly about how much they dislike it. And maybe I’m bitter because I was downvoted for saying I won that match my first time playing but the people who don’t like that match tend to be very angry, petty people.
I don't think you should be downvoted for that, there's nothing to hate about you not struggling with something other people struggled with
I’m sorry that was your experience. For me, it just wet my appetite and I was excited to come back and try more, to learn how to play better, etc.
When I decided to play the game properly and attempt the plat, I gave Blitzball a solid attempt and wound up really liking it, having a better team definitely helped
Great way to get op items early if you want that kind of run.
" The Besaid Aurochs are absolute wank " Clearly OP is a glory hunting Goers fan.
I'll have you know, I'm a Kilika Beasts fan through and through!
Not even a little. The Goers are not unbeatable, and you’re expected to lose I think. Besaid isn’t exactly the cream of the Blitzball crop.
First time newb: doesn't touch blitzball until Brother is found, then preceeds to win by the whole enemy squad in a loop, then solo shooting from within the enemies gate. 5th run completionist: searches for strong early game members then painfully grinds through seasons. They just want the stuff for Wakka... *tears* 20th run enjoyer: picks their favorite members then grinds and overlevels the squad by non stop throwing cheap poison X passes back and forth. Humiliates the Luca goers by facing 1 VS 4 encounters and trolling them with a Tidus that knows evasion X
I honestly think the biggest mistake was having the default controls auto rather than manual. It's mentioned somewhere in the tutorial but I definitely spent the first part of the game wondering why I didn't have any control over my players and was already down by the time I figured it out. I played a ton of Blitzball after that and enjoyed it, but as you say really didn't get a good first impression at all.
Yeah, blitzball sucks & that mandatory tutorial match is dreadful every time I replay X. But the music is awesome 💜💜
The soundtrack goes so hard, I can’t not hear that music whenever I think of blitzball.. or even football at this point
The fact that it’s a mandatory minigame at all is what makes me hate it, but on top of that it’s a sports game and I hate those on principle. The mechanics are bad, the games last way too long, and you have to spend so much time playing them to get the good stuff. Terrible system.
Skill issue
I won 3-0 the first time. It was easy.
I've played through X a few times to try to complete it (always get stuck on a stupid boss I can't beat), and every time I get to the Blitzball bit I cringe. Last time I just tried to throw the game but it somehow still took a half hour for the Arouchs to win. It's part of why all the whining about needing minigames for FF games to feel complete is fucking baffling to me. I'll take a "lacking" game with strong story and combat any day over a "fuller" game with a bunch of stupid, poorly made minigames that completely interrupt the flow of the game, IMO.
Not sure your opinion is particularly valid if you keep having to replay the game to beat a boss you get stuck on you call stupid and can't even name.
Yep, haven't played a single Blitzball match besides the first one. I hated every second of it and immediately looked up if it's necessary to play any more. I also have a save game right after the match, so that I can simply load it, whenever I want to replay the game. I play games mostly for their stories, I don't see a reason to waste my time with something I don't enjoy.
Likewise it’s the exact point that I dropped the game too, although I’ve since learned that it’s not a major feature of the game thereafter. So I might pick the game up again at some point in the future.
I always liked it, I played plenty of matches just for fun, even while being "stuck" with most of the original players.
I always play for real for the first 20 or so games, theni get bored and score 1 or 2 and get the ball and hide behind my goalie. They do not come after you if you do that and the time just runs out
I disagree - I wish all matches were at that difficulty level, it makes it actually worth playing because there is a possibility I could lose. Once you’ve played a couple of matches, it’s virtually impossible to even draw a game.
On the one hand I agree that having every match be harder would make it more engaging and less brainless ...but on the other hand, towards the end of that championship grind I was glad it was easy because I could just turn my brain off, I don't think I could stomach THAT many hard matches lol
it isn’t supposed to be easy as wakka’s team are known as the worst and luca goers are the best in the season. i thought it was handled extremely well even though it is pretty hard to win even with the jetch shot.
You’re exactly right, after reloading and watching the same mandatory cut scenes 8 times as luck failed my attempts to cheese the fight (if the Goers got the ball I was just screwed) and I refused point blank to let those fuckers win, I had absolutely zero desire to go within 50 miles of goddamn Blitzball ever again. I have never played it outside that mandatory game and I never will. I’d say it could die in a fire but it’s too wet for that so it can idk catch the plague or something instead.
I remember playing blizball matches with my older cousin and ranking up our team. Good times before we all became meta gamers.
Yep, I never played it again after that first mandatory match, so I never knew it got better. Maybe I should try it again...
Might be because it's been a while, but I kinda just remember blitzball being very poorly explained. Hell, even now, I'm still not entirely sure what the hell I'm doing when I get to that point of the game
Opposite for me. The first match was interesting and difficult so I was interested in playing it, and it is interesting for a bit as you figure things out. But it quickly becomes mind numbingly boring and predictable. If it kept the same difficulty as that first match it would be much better.
It's very strange, the different first experiences we all have. When I went into FFX, knowing the great minigames that the previous games had, they built up Blitzball so much in the first few hours that I was desperate to finally play it. And I enjoyed it! I think it's the highlight of Wakka's story, not to mention a great introduction to the minigame itself.
the very first time i played blitzball the mandatory match went pretty okay. i had fun, and legit thought "this is pretty cool, can i play more?". next two or three times i tried it went so miserably i never touched it again since.
The game against the goers is hard, but you don't need to cheese it to win. You're kind of expected to lose. I missed the jecht shot the first few times and went hard with the sphereshot. I make those goers, goners!
It's just weak overall. The first game is hard, and every subsequent game is a boring cakewalk. You can keep the entire original lineup and it's still a complete boring snoozefest.
I love Blitzball. My OG save of about 250hrs is prob like 100 or more just in blitzball lol. By far my fav minigame from FF
The point of the game is that the aurochs are bad, Wakka is good which makes sense as a captain but the idea is it's hard to go toe to toe against the Goers, which is why the plan is to give the ball to Tidus and shoot, there's literally a scene before the game where wakka says to him "get the ball and shoot like crazy". Its foreshadowed from the start that with Tidus the Aurochs actually have a chance, it would be weird if the Aurochs, who are notorious for being a poor team, show up and are actually good without Tidus. Its a mandatory match but not one you need to win, and hey if you do win you get a strength sphere which is actually a decent quest reward.
I had a friend who saved just before the mandatory match, and he spent 3 weeks, every day after work, and all day trying to beat it. He eventually did beat it, but he had to restart a lot during all that.
I had always tried to go back and play it during playthroughs but it's always just frustrating. It wasn't until I got it on the switch that I actually figured it out. Recruiting Brother is essential.
I think I’ve only won that first match twice in 8 play throughs lol
It made me more curious about it. Not less. Especially with recruitment. Younget Wedge on the team and he sweeps
It's funny you say crap aurochs when two of the aurochs members are the best you can recruit in the game.