Blitzball is Confusing

[Trugo314]

I went through all the tutorials and in them I was attacked by two people, could breakthrough, and then pass. But in the first actual game, the same scenario happens but when I select breakthrough, I just get kicked in the face. I even checked my EN was at ten and their AT combined was 7. What's going on? 

[SnowxSakura]

If I recall, when they use a "strong attack" it's similar to a critical hit and you will sometimes lose the ball even if you have higher endurance

[Trugo314]

Just now, SnowxSakura said:

If I recall, when they use a "strong attack" it's similar to a critical hit and you will sometimes lose the ball even if you have higher endurance

Well. That sucks. 

[Nihiris-]

Yeah Blitzball has a steep learning curve, but once you get it, it's one the the best minigames in any Final Fantasy. Hell, it could have gotten its own game. I'm sure there's a list somewhere online to recruit the best free agents. And then once Blappa gets released from the Al-Bhed Psychs, grab him because he's one of the best shooters in the game. Between him and Tidus as your front offense, you'll win a ton of tournaments, especially if Tidus knows Jecht Shot 1 and 2.

[Trugo314]

3 minutes ago, Death_Ninja said:

Yeah Blitzball has a steep learning curve, but once you get it, it's one the the best minigames in any Final Fantasy. Hell, it could have gotten its own game. I'm sure there's a list somewhere online to recruit the best free agents. And then once Blappa gets released from the Al-Bhed Psychs, grab him because he's one of the best shooters in the game. Between him and Tidus as your front offense, you'll win a ton of tournaments, especially if Tidus knows Jecht Shot 1 and 2 

I got the Jecht Shot from the boat but is there something I have to to do use it? 

[Nihiris-]

Just now, Trugo314 said:

I got the Jecht Shot from the boat but is there something I have to to do use it? 

 

Yes, you have to set the abilities for the characters. Also I suggest you wait until you get the airship to really get into Blitzball, that way it's easier to go recruit people.

[TheLakota]

Sign free agents Brother, Nedus (trust me), Larbreight, Vuroja, Nimrook. You won't lose. 

 

Make sure you you equip your moves (you can even swap out at halftime). Blitzball 

is addictive, gl!

[Dr_Mayus]

27 minutes ago, Death_Ninja said:

Yeah Blitzball has a steep learning curve, but once you get it, it's one the the best minigames in any Final Fantasy. Hell, it could have gotten its own game.

... ...sure

 

I never really got why people found Blitzball to be fun. Now if you could actually play the game and got rid of all the turn based stat attacks then it could have actually been fun. I mean if you took the premise behind Sega Soccer Slam and put it in a 3 dimensional field then you could have had a really fast paced intersting game. The way Blitzball is played though, it is a really slow paced game moving on a 2D grid (despite the whole point of the game is Soccer in a 3D environment) where you have to worry about a guy behind you blocking your pass to a guy in front of you...because his stat numbers are slightly higher than yours.

 

The only reason it is one of the most fun Minigames in Final Fantasy is because it is competing with Sphere Grid, Triple Triad and that weird numbers game from 13-2.

 

As for the OP. Just look up a guide online on where to find the best players and then you will never not win 10-0. I was able to beat the whole thing without ever trying because my stats were so much higher than the rest of the teams.

[Yadilie]

22 minutes ago, Trugo314 said:

I got the Jecht Shot from the boat but is there something I have to to do use it? 

 

Tidus has to level up once for you to able to put a Blitz Tech on him.

 

I would suggest going here to Split Infinity's FFX Walkthrough and go to the section titled 'XI - QUICKLY ATTAIN ATTACK REELS, STATUS REELS, AUROCHS REELS, JUPITER SIGIL'  This is one of the quickest ways to get done with Blitzball. He lists the best people you can get right off the bat if you've played 0 BB games. People telling you to get players such as Nimrook are wrong. He won't be available and you'd have to wait games upon games to hope his team doesn't resign him.

[SunsetHysteria]

I'm currently doing tons of Blitzball. Definitely recommend waiting until you have the airship so you can recruit new players. I'm using Tidus, Wakka (shooters), Brother (midfielder), Ropp, Wedge (defense) & Miyu (goalie) and I win every game. All of these players are available early on and I've stuck with them the entire time. Although I wouldn't mind having Nimrook on my team, as he can be troublesome on the other teams. All I need from Blitzball is the Jupiter Sigil. It was really confusing for me in the beginning, but once you know what you're doing it's actually really easy and fun.  

 

I should add, make sure you look up a guide on how to obtain new techniques from other players. They will help A LOT. 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Stardust

[Nihiris-]

17 hours ago, Dr_Mayus said:

... ...sure

 

I never really got why people found Blitzball to be fun. Now if you could actually play the game and got rid of all the turn based stat attacks then it could have actually been fun. I mean if you took the premise behind Sega Soccer Slam and put it in a 3 dimensional field then you could have had a really fast paced intersting game. The way Blitzball is played though, it is a really slow paced game moving on a 2D grid (despite the whole point of the game is Soccer in a 3D environment) where you have to worry about a guy behind you blocking your pass to a guy in front of you...because his stat numbers are slightly higher than yours.

 

The only reason it is one of the most fun Minigames in Final Fantasy is because it is competing with Sphere Grid, Triple Triad and that weird numbers game from 13-2.

 

Amazing how opinions work, right? 

 

I loved it, but I know many people that don't lol

[Dr_Mayus]

32 minutes ago, Death_Ninja said:

 

Amazing how opinions work, right? 

 

I loved it, but I know many people that don't lol

Have you played Sega Soccer Slam? Go play that and you will be like "damn, Mayus was right. This is how Blitzball should have been ^_^"

[EternalChaos72]

Hated blitzball with a passion, even in the PS2 era i still hated it. 

[Joe56780]

17 hours ago, Dr_Mayus said:

... ...sure

 

I never really got why people found Blitzball to be fun. Now if you could actually play the game and got rid of all the turn based stat attacks then it could have actually been fun. I mean if you took the premise behind Sega Soccer Slam and put it in a 3 dimensional field then you could have had a really fast paced intersting game. The way Blitzball is played though, it is a really slow paced game moving on a 2D grid (despite the whole point of the game is Soccer in a 3D environment) where you have to worry about a guy behind you blocking your pass to a guy in front of you...because his stat numbers are slightly higher than yours.

 

The only reason it is one of the most fun Minigames in Final Fantasy is because it is competing with Sphere Grid, Triple Triad and that weird numbers game from 13-2.

 

As for the OP. Just look up a guide online on where to find the best players and then you will never not win 10-0. I was able to beat the whole thing without ever trying because my stats were so much higher than the rest of the teams.

 

I remember playing Blitzball a ton on FFX-2 just since I really enjoyejd it, though I was 9 at the time maybe there's some slight nostalgia bias towards it.

[Razza]

9 minutes ago, Dr_Mayus said:

Have you played Sega Soccer Slam? Go play that and you will be like "damn, Mayus was right. This is how Blitzball should have been ^_^"

 

Damn I saw your praise for soccer slam so I just searched it on YouTube and it would of made blitzball a lot faster paced of a mini game ..... Although I really enjoyed playing blitzball the way it was on X once I got to grips with stats and what moves did what

Edited January 23, 2017 by Razza

[Dark Layla]

5 minutes ago, EternalChaos72 said:

Hated blitzball with a passion, even in the PS2 era i still hated it. 

On my old ps2 i lost hours to make the characters reach level 99 (tidus, wakka,vuroja, ropp, kulukan and nimrook

At first time i hated blitzball but later i managed to adapt well. IMO its better than ffx-2 blitzball

[Nihiris-]

13 minutes ago, Dr_Mayus said:

Have you played Sega Soccer Slam? Go play that and you will be like "damn, Mayus was right. This is how Blitzball should have been ^_^"

 

For you, I will play it now lol

[EternalChaos72]

3 minutes ago, Rose_Dark said:

On my old ps2 i lost hours to make the characters reach level 99 (tidus, wakka,vuroja, ropp, kulukan and nimrook

At first time i hated blitzball but later i managed to adapt well. IMO its better than ffx-2 blitzball

Haha i dunno how you had the stomach for it, i had to do it unfortunately for the platinum trophy. Got there in the end though, i was basically firing the ball everywhere hoping to get a goal.

[Trugo314]

I ended up losing the first game. I made two save states though, one before the game and one after. So if I want the satisfaction I guess. My biggest complaint is how the stats are "randomized." Where yeah, my EN might be like, 1 higher than their AT, but they would still win the encounter. Kinda takes away all the thought I needed to put in to it. Honestly I don't think I'll spend more time than I have to on it. 

[Dark Layla]

1 minute ago, EternalChaos72 said:

Haha i dunno how you had the stomach for it, i had to do it unfortunately for the platinum trophy. Got there in the end though, i was basically firing the ball everywhere hoping to get a goal.

Do you remember the controls on GTA3? man really sucks but we both love the game

The best strategy is to play by the sides and "pull" a player of the opposing team, then you wait for tidus (or another player) to clear and score! its so simple and easy believe in me   my record was 17-0 against ronso! they are very slow but strong enough in a one-on-one, you just need to attack on the sides and goalllllllllllll

[sephiroth4424]

I liked blitzball at the beginning but after a while it was too easy

19 minutes ago, Trugo314 said:

I ended up losing the first game. I made two save states though, one before the game and one after. So if I want the satisfaction I guess. My biggest complaint is how the stats are "randomized." Where yeah, my EN might be like, 1 higher than their AT, but they would still win the encounter. Kinda takes away all the thought I needed to put in to it. Honestly I don't think I'll spend more time than I have to on it. 

If stats weren't randomized,it would be very boring.Also Al-Bhed would be unstoppable in the beginning.Keep playing and levelling and start learning techniques.Prefer the nap ones (tackle,pass,shot)

Edited January 24, 2017 by sephiroth4424

[Kapika96]

There's some randomisation when actually using your stats, although I think that's true of pretty much every game that uses stats right?

 

Besides, Blitzball is far too easy anyways. Don't even need to recruit any of the OP players, the starting team develops really well as is, and since the players team levels up faster than AI teams... yeah too easy

[SnowxSakura]

My main issue with the blitzball is the game doesn't ease you into it, the very first match you play is the absolute hardest in the game to win

[Kapika96]

6 minutes ago, SnowxSakura said:

My main issue with the blitzball is the game doesn't ease you into it, the very first match you play is the absolute hardest in the game to win

Gotta disagree with that. Sure it's not an easy game and you have very few genuine chances for a goal, but Al Bhed Psyches in the first season before your players have developed much or before they've let all their good ones leave... That's hard!

 

Besides, your team is supposed to be the underdog, so the first game being difficult actually makes a fair bit of sense.

[MMDE]

My team usually get super over powered pretty quickly playing this game. It's super easy once you understand the game. I mean, once my players has played some few rounds, I can catch the ball, swim a bit closer to the goal and just shoot and score. When the opponent gets the bell at next throw, I just take it from them, pass it on to the shooter and then just shoot and score. Over and over. IIRC, you can get around 8 to 10 or something goals in one match.

 

Ok, so what to do?

 

You usually have some control over the characters, at least when you got the ball. Watch the map! If opponents are around you when you press the button to make a move, they will flock in front of you and you will have to shoot past all of them to get anywhere with the ball. If you run into people, you will also be forced to deal with them. How much each opponent player blocks is decided by their block stat and your pass and shoot stats. You can also decide to take some of them on in a dribble, where you must defend against their attacks with your defense. The stats you see aren't necessarily correct, there's some luck and they may use special attacks to. Knowing this, you should make sure not to gather too many opponent players around you before you decide to throw the ball.

 

The game works the same way around when it comes to you defending and taking the ball from the opponent.

 

The goal keeper and shooting is basically so that the ball loses power as it closes in on the goal keeper and the goal keeper likely has some special moves to grab it more easily, just like you got special shots to shoot harder or some other special ability. Because the ball loses power while closing in on the goal keeper, you want to be as close to the goal as you can.

 

Your players gets XP from doing things in the match, like dribbling or shooting or passing etc etc. The more they do, the more XP. That is if I remember correctly.

 

You can before both rounds of a match set your players to learn special moves from your opponents. If that opponent uses the special move you will get a special QTE-ish trigger message, and you gotta press X or something to learn the move. This is super useful.

 

There is also some limit to how many special attacks etc they can do in a match, but this is usually not a problem other than very early on. I think it's the HP stat, but I can't remember. Basically a cost to using a special move.

 

Tidus is a great shooter, so I always use him for that. The Jetch shot is great, especially early on. Know your opponents and know when to use what attacks really. But Jetch shot is nice to knock out two blocking enemies while shooting. As I've said before, later you don't need to go that close to shoot that you would need to knock players out or you can take their dribbles head on without any issues.

 

Focusing on taking the ball from opponent, get it as far to the goal as possible without getting crowded too much, pass it to Tidus, let him shoot near the goal with few opponents around for a pretty secure goal. Later you can just pass it to Tidus rather instantly, and then he shoots rather quickly. And just repeat over and over.  If opponents got strong shooters, your defense will get a lot of xp rather quickly and be strong against them. Same with your keeper. 

 

Your starting team isn't all that bad, you may want to change some of the players. Some of them get great at very high levels or learn special moves you want. No player can learn all special moves, what they can learn differ, same with their stats and what they are good at.