Stadium
-Went back to the opposing locker room area and found another Al Bhed Primer, vol VI. V -->F. Must’ve missed volume V somewhere.
-I’m able to get inside the crowd area, nice!
-Into the locker room. The game is in a few minutes. Wakka is pretty exhausted. They’re playing the Goers.
-Yeah, no chance Wakka will come.
-Yuna enters the locker room, feeling guilty for having put everyone through the stress of what just happened.
WAKKA: “How can you let some Al Bhed kidnap you?”
Wakka? This may be the first and hopefully last time I’ll say this but: fuck off.
-Wakka announces his impending retirement after this game. Wakka’s sitting, Tidus in his place.
-Lulu saw Wakka on the sphere, and tells him. He’s embarrassed, but the stress and injury overtakes him. He collapses into her arms. She embraces him.
-HDSJKLFHDSJKLFHDKLS THE LOCKER ROOM HAS WAKKA’S WRITING ON IT
This is really touching.
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Game Time
-The voicework for the announcers is hilarious and great. A small touch I like is how they mispronounce Besaid. “buh-SAYD” instead of “BEE-sayd.”
-AURON??? In the crowd. And he really looks worse for wear. Walking slowly.
-This isn’t a great sign. Last time Auron was at a blitzball game that we saw, he was Sin’s harbinger.
-Not sure if this is the same music as the last blitzball game, but already I can tell it’s gonna be fucking incredible.
-Goers are being full on Disney sports villains. Taunting, mocking.
-I’m trying to get control, but not quite sure how… ah. It’s automated.
-I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but it’s halftime.
-Nice halftime speech from Wakka. He’s a good, positive captain.
-Tried setting up marks, but don’t think it did anything. I get the sense that the purpose of this is just for me to watch the pace of a full game without having to participate much.
-Not much time left. “The fans are getting impatient - they’re calling for some action!” Can’t blame em. I suck lol.
-Everyone’s calling for WAKKA!! “If I can change, you can change…”
-Is Tidus… YES!! He’s leaving, faking injury to let Wakka in.
TIDUUUUUUUSSSS
-See, this is FFX AGAIN doing something I love that it did with Yuna. Even though Tidus is the protagonist of the game, he’s not the protagonist of these individual stories. He’s on the sidelines, and gracefully accepts that Wakka is the hero in the current story.
-I’ve seen literally any sports movie ever, so I’m doing everything I can to get the ball to Wakka.
-Yay! I poisoned their keeper.
-Overtime, 0-0.
-And overtime is over.
-Double overtime. God, the game is trying to make me win. It really is trying to hand me the win here. I just can’t. I don’t understand this game enough, and can’t get a shot on goal that’s not 1v2 or 1v3, and it’s getting frustrating not having had any practice at it.
-Like, I have had a few times where Wakka has the ball right near the goal, just him and the goalie, and even though I tried pressing X to pull up the shot/pass options, he swims backwards then into three defenders. Wtf. Maybe auto isn’t the way to go.
-Triple overtime. Come on. Finish already.
-Going with manual. Maybe I’ll have better luck.
Lol nope. Lost. Sorry Aurochs fans.
-This is a really promising beginning blitzball effort, and has the potential to be fun, but felt a bit anti-climactic tbh to start me out in the championship game that goes triple overtime with no goals because I don’t know what I’m doing. Wish I had the chance for at least a few practice games first.
-I really do think I’ll enjoy it more with practice, and based on the game modes of exhibition and season and tournament or whatever it was, I think it’ll be a mini-game that I’ll get the chance to practice and improve in.
[Later edit: in hindsight, I can think of this as my practice game. The word “championship” made me feel a bit more pressured, but I feel pretty confident this is just the first of many games.]
-Wakka is exhausted. And sad – looking mournfully at his last stadium water.
And strangely enough, I’m a bit happy that we lost. It adds a bittersweet note to Wakka’s farewell here that appeals to me more than raw jubilation. Like how I feel the moment in FFVI’s World of Ruin where Cid dies is much stronger than if he doesn’t. Wakka would’ve liked to win, but it’s ultimately secondary for him. He always believed in playing hard, playing his best, and I fully believe he did. He can be proud.
I’m also CHAMPING AT THE FRIGGING BIT TO PLAY AGAIN!! I want to try out manual more, and review the tutorial again now that I have context for breakthroughs and shots and all the different elements of the game. The main issue I had in this game was that the only time I could take action was when I encountered defenders, and usually encountered like 2-3 at a time. Hence being unable to score or build offensive momentum. If I solve that, I think I’ll be in way better shape.]
-OH SHIT SAHAGIN INVASION. Poor Wakka didn’t have much time to mourn the loss or say goodbye to the sport he loved.
-Sahagin Chiefs. A metric ton of them. An early Cheer from Tidus helps me one-shot them.
-Pretty funny to see the crowd still in the background cheering.
-Whoa, monsters EVERYWHERE. Auron’s always here. He looks so tired and hurt.
Just shrugged off his cast.
-So . Many. Monsters.
-Seymour! Is he behind this?
Casting something. An anchor into hell- an aeon?
-It’s HUGE. Looks like something dreamed up by Clive Barker.
Did it kill the monsters? I think it did. I didn’t know Seymour was a summoner. It’s possible I misjudged him. But if I were putting money on it, I’d still bet that he was the one who called the monsters to attack in the first place so that he could then be the person to save the day. Build popularity, if he really is after power.
[Later edit: I’ve had a chance to look at the screenshots of the aeon Seymour summoned more closely, and something about them causes me to distrust Seymour even more. I’ve written that part of what I love in Yuna’s role is how she gets the consent of the aeons she uses. Seymour instead has this particular aeon in chains. It does NOT look like it wants to be here.]
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Next time: the save file says “back to the pilgrimage,” so…probably back to the pilgrimage.
