I Get Why People Hate Blitzball Now

[Damedius]

That first tournament is awful and you can't play the first game. In the second game you could be just about to score and they stop the game, take you out put Wakka in. I'm not sure how I missed that the first time playing but after just replaying the game, that left a bitter taste in my mouth.

[Hinnyuu]

I'm not sure what you mean by "first game" - do you mean the first half of the match you get to play, or do you mean the Al Bhed Psyches match that you don't get to participate in for story reasons?

If it's the former, then something is wrong. You absolutely get to play in the first half. It's not even extraordinarily difficult to score a goal in the first half; I've scored two goals before, with luck.

The second half you get one goal for basically free thanks to Jecht Shot, which should be trivial to achieve.

The substitution in the second half happens when you either hit the 3:00 minute mark, or when you score two goals in the second half (whichever comes first). So it's not unpredictable or random.

Sure, Blitzball has some randomness to it - sometimes you just get unlucky on rolls, and there's nothing you can do. But on average, it's not hard to win the first match; and any match after that you can steamroll with ease by building the right team, to the point of never having a goal scored against you basically ever (let alone losing a match).

[Damedius]

What I'm saying is that the introduction to blitzball is awful. They build it up and when you finally get to do it they don't let you play the first game and then they make you leave in the second half of the next game. You could be just about to score but sorry we got to pull you from the game. I don't know what they were thinking.

[Hinnyuu]

To be fair, you're kind of meant to lose that game.

This is THE WORST TEAM IN HISTORY. Famously so.

[Damedius]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hinnyuu:

To be fair, you're kind of meant to lose that game.

This is THE WORST TEAM IN HISTORY. Famously so.

I guess you are right. You know what's also kind of weird, Tidus isn't that good of a Blitzball player. Outside of Jecht's shot he isn't that good because his stats are average at best.

[Hinnyuu]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Damedius:

Tidus isn't that good of a Blitzball player. Outside of Jecht's shot he isn't that good because his stats are average at best.

Yes outside of the single most OP ability that makes him better at scoring goals than any player in the game not close, he's not great.

In other news, other than his skill at painting, Van Gogh was just, you know, some dude who liked to drink and hang out with strumpets a lot.

;)

[in]

First match is only hard cause you don't know how to play.

[Damedius]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hinnyuu:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Damedius:

Tidus isn't that good of a Blitzball player. Outside of Jecht's shot he isn't that good because his stats are average at best.

Yes outside of the single most OP ability that makes him better at scoring goals than any player in the game not close, he's not great.

In other news, other than his skill at painting, Van Gogh was just, you know, some dude who liked to drink and hang out with strumpets a lot.

;)

Van Gough is the perfect comparison to Tidus. Over rated. There are much better blitz ball players than Tidus who is slow, can't pass, can't tackle and can't take a hit either.

[Hinnyuu]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Damedius:

There are much better blitz ball players than Tidus who is slow, can't pass, can't tackle and can't take a hit either.

If those are things you want to do, sure. But it's a bad idea to be doing... almost all of those things with a Forward.

Tidus of course has the added luxury of not having to do any of that anyway, because he just eliminates defenders regardless of stats.

His position is Forward. His job is to shoot goals. No one in the game, PERIOD, shoots goals better than him. SHT scores mean nothing, because it's not the Goalie that's in your way, it's the other players. No Goalie save Nimrook is worth anything to begin with, and he should be... on your team.

Tidus doesn't have to be fast. The Midfielder is fast (i.e. Brother).

Tidus doesn't have to tackle hard, the Midfielder and the Defenders tackle.

Tidus doesn't have to take hits, because Jecht Shot means nobody gets to tackle him in the first place.

(And it's not like his scores SUCK, they're just not the theoretical highest in the game)

Pass scores are largely irrelevant in general, since even low-medium scores are enough to pass the entire length of the field. And besides: if you get into a situation where people are trying to block your pass as a Forward, you've done something very wrong to begin with. Tidus should never be in a position to pass.

Remember that players have roles. Don't try and make every player do everything, that's just a bad idea in general.

[xHans]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hinnyuu:

To be fair, you're kind of meant to lose that game.

This is THE WORST TEAM IN HISTORY. Famously so.

No? That game is possible to win, there is no being "meant" to lose...

What's our goal? Victory!

It is indeed annoying and it has happened to me several times, that al bhed Goalkeeper is OP af and when I had a chance to shoot from a good angle wakka gets put in. There is also a hidden scene where if you are blowing them out, scoring 3 goals Tidus leaves and wakka goes in anyways but that is really hard to do. RNG has to be on your side.

[Hinnyuu]

Opprinnelig skrevet av xHans:

No? That game is possible to win, there is no being "meant" to lose...

What's our goal? Victory!

Saying so doesn't make it so ;)

And of course it's possible - veteran players win that match practically every time. I can't even remember when I last lost it, it's been many years.

But in terms of the STORY, you are dealing with the worst team Spira's ever seen. The announcer even says he's never seen a team this bad. One star player isn't suddenly going to turn that around, that's not quite realistic. So them losing isn't that unexpected, even if it's entirely possible for a player to win it.

Opprinnelig skrevet av xHans:

It is indeed annoying and it has happened to me several times, that al bhed Goalkeeper is OP af and when I had a chance to shoot from a good angle wakka gets put in.

IDK what game you're playing then, because that "OP af" Al Bhed goal keeper is indeed from the Al Bhed team, and you're... not playing vs. the Al Bhed. You're playing vs the Luca team. Their goalie doesn't exactly suck, but Nimrook he is not. Regular shots do go in without too much of a problem; a Jecht Shot is basically guaranteed to.

Opprinnelig skrevet av xHans:

There is also a hidden scene where if you are blowing them out, scoring 3 goals Tidus leaves and wakka goes in anyways but that is really hard to do. RNG has to be on your side.

As I explained, that happens when you score 2 goals in the second half. Tidus gives a cheer, the crowd responds, and Wakka is subbed in. Otherwise the sub happens at 3:00 minutes.

[xHans]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Hinnyuu:

lul

Yeah you're right, it's been a while since i last played so I kinda forgot... but yeah, it's the luca goers but they still have higher stats overall. i've had times where I simply only came in possesion of the ball once and rng fail a goal.

[Hinnyuu]

The key is to avoid engagement as much as possible. Your stats don't really compare, so don't get into a comparison - long passes between unobstructed players, and strategic movement to isolate/draw away opposing team members. Slowly and steadily, until Tidus can get into a position to shoot freely, or break 1 max (which has a fair chance to).

That's for the first half, of course. In the second half, all you need is Tidus vs max 2 defenders, and Jecht Shot will virtually guarantee a goal at short distance. After that you can play defensively and just waste time until the clock runs out.

It's still possible to lose, of course. As you say, sometimes there's just really bad RNG and they break everything and you never even get to have the ball until they goal you and then you're behind and your one Jecht Shot isn't enough to win. That happens, but it's not super common by any means.

[Hinnyuu]

Opprinnelig skrevet av ライアン・コリーモア:

Cannot stand Square and their affinity for mini-games in FF.

BB is the best of the lot, though.

I mean this game has Lightning Dodging, Catcher Chocobo, AND the Butterfly Hunt - some of the worst minigames in the entirety of FF. And if you count X-2 it also has Lightning Towers.

That's like 4 out of the top 5 worst minigames in FF.

[Casurin]

Opprinnelig skrevet av ライアン・コリーモア:

Cannot stand Square and their affinity for mini-games in FF.

Ah - so you do not like to have options available? The mini-games are nearly always "here, this is the tutorial on how to do it" and then never again required.

[Damedius]

Opprinnelig skrevet av ライアン・コリーモア:

Yeah the chocobo racing be damned.

Chocobo racing is cancer. It's so lucked based. You can tell from the very start whether or not you can do it. If first couple balloons are on the left hand side it's impossible to complete in time.