(AfroGamers.com) Over the years, Final Fantasy has been known for many things that come together to form one great game at a time. Great gameplay, engaging stories, stellar characters, and an overall interesting world to play in. The one thing that usually fly under the radar is the mini games that you play as a break from killing bad guys and monsters. In FF7 you had the Golden Saucer and chocobo breeding, in FF8 you played a card game named Triple Triad, in FF9 there was another card game called Tetra Master and Chocobo Hot and Cold. The greatest of all of these is Blitzball in FF10.
What Is Blitzball?
I’m glad that you asked. Blitzball is the national athletic game of Spira in Final Fantasy 10. It would be similar to how soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Everybody either plays Blitzball or is a huge fan. Like sports in the real world, Blitzball is a way that the citizens of Spira escape from the terrible things happening in the world. Sin is attacking at random and the high summoner must sacrifice themselves in order to rid the world of sin, even though sin can come back over time.
Blitzball is a strange sport to explain. It is closest to soccer except that you can use your hands, tackle your opponents, and it is played with six players on each side. Did I mention that it is also played in a giant sphere of water? In FF10, Blitzball serves not only as the main character, Titus’ job, but as a backdrop to many other things in the story. Later on, you are tasked as the leader of the Besaid Blitzball team with former team captain, Wakka, retires.
Blitzball Gameplay
A Blitzball team is made of a midfielder who is the person that usually controls the pace of the game by pushing the ball up the sphere. The left and right fielders are your main source of offense. They are basically there to shoot the ball and score goals. There is a left and right defender that plays defense close to the goal and engages anyone who gets close. Lastly, there is the goal keeper who guards the goal.
FF10 lets you take control of the game by controlling the players, making plays, setting up what offense or defense you want to run, and more. There are tournaments to play for great rewards and it is even the way to get Wakka’s final weapon and I think one of Titus’s final special moves.
One of the most fun aspects of Blitzball by far is leveling up your players, helping them learn new skills, and recruiting new players for your team. Your players can level up by being involved in the game. Usually, the midfielder levels up the fastest because they are your primary ball handler and they are the ones making the passes. If your players don’t participate in the game, then they don’t get experience.
Your players can learn new skills through playing. They have a copy system which gives you a chance at learning a move after seeing an opponent use the move. It’s not perfect because there are many times that you won’t learn the move even though you are at a much higher level than the other players.
Lastly, the recruiting aspect of it really give Blitzball a unique feel. Out in the world while you are adventuring, you can ask random people if they want to join your Blitzball team. There are some very good and very rare players out there if you can find them. You can even get Wakka back later on in the story.
Usually, I stick it out with the original members of your team, but there has been times that I let their contracts run out so that I can take the best players on the other teams just so they cannot beat me. One thing that I would change about the Blitzball that I usued to play for hours is the AI of the computer made teams. There are many times that they will release their star players for no reason leaving you with the opportunity to scoop them up for yourself if you want. You can also see other players signing with other teams if you are not careful.
Modernizing The Game
I have thought many times that if SquareEnix came out with a slitzball tand along game at full price, I would be the first person in line to get it. That being said, I can see a lot of potential in Blitzball and think that it would make an excellent exclusive game for Sony.
The way that I would do the game Is that everyone starts out as regular players and must compete in order to ear money. With this money, you can either start your own team or pay some contracts off. When you do any of these, you would get the chance to basically run the whole team. I would make the Blitzball game free to play with only cosmetics being sold for money and maybe some type of unlockable paid and free season pass.
The final idea that I have that could bring the game back into the present day is that you could incorporate VR into the game where either the players actually play their character in the normal game or can see and move in first person mode. With this idea, I think that everyone would play a locked position and have freedom to move around freely and learn skills.
Either way it goes, Blitzball need more love than it gets from final fantasy fans in general because you can tell that a lot of work was put in this mini game like almost all of the ones before it and after it.
Staff Writer; Tardell Swift
This brother is new to writing yet has many different interests such as gaming, hip hop, wrestling, and manga.
You can follow him on Twitter; PhirewoodGaming and keep up with his thoughts there as well.