pastime

I know, I know. Blitz and Sphere Break? ...well, yeah. But Calm Lands and Zanarkand on top of it, too! Here's a quick guide to all the major attractions and pastimes in Spira!

Okay, let's start with the first game. What does Spira do for fun (besides run away from Sin and call each other heathens, that is)? Well, Blitzball, of course! Blitzall is an underwater sport, where each team has five members and a goalie in the sphere pool at a time. The only way to describe this sport would be that it's like underwater handball, except the teams like to tackle each other like in american football. A game is two halves, each of them five minutes long, plus overtime if it's a tie.

In FFX the only way to get Wakka's overdrives and the Sigil for his ultimate weapon is to play Blitzball. And I don't mind, because I love playing it. Basically, the players level up faster the more you use them (so after one goal just keep on passing the ball and build up loads of EXP!), and the higher the stats, the better. Many players are specialized in certain positions, and new players can be recruited from all over Spira.

The reason Blitzball is so well liked in Spira, is because it provides a distraction from Sin. The people, for once, can have a good time without worrying about their lives. In X-2 Blitzball is still playable, but the controls have changed. Even though it is still a popular sport, new things have taken over Spira in the eternal calm.

New things like Sphere Break, a game that needs a good multiplication head (that must be why I'm so bad at it). It's a little hard to explain, but there's basically a core sphere that changes number every turn, four golden coins that stay the same throughout the game, and twelve surrounding coins that change numbers. What you're supposed to do is pick coins that together make a sum that is dividable with whatever number is on the core sphere. It's easier than it sounds. There's a certain amount of silver surrounding coins you have to select, or you lose.

Sphere Break was invented by Rin, and it's gotten pretty popular in Luca. In Chapter three there's a tournament where you have to defeat Shinra (50 coins in...20 turns, I think?) to get the Lady Luck dressphere. Gold coins can be dug up in the Bikanel Desert, so get breaking!

Other new attractions include the Zanarkand Dome, which was invented by Cid, and is really boring unless you enjoy the fabulous monkeys. And then there's the Calm Lands. Various attractions lie here; Reptile Run, Lupine Dash, and Sky Slots to name a few. Promote one of the competing companies enough and they merge to form a new, better, Calm Lands with new things to do and learn.