Just What IS Blitzball? (And Other FFX Questions You Might Have Been Afraid to Ask)

Have you got some questions about FFX? Well we have some answers! Get a glance at some of the elements of Squaresoft's newest addition to the Final Fantasy series.

Blitzball, Tidus' claim to fame, is a sport in FFX which is sort of a combination between soccer, basketball, and hockey. Actions will be carried out by a series of commands, such as block, pass, and shoot - with success being determined by the stats of the players. Players can be traded and recruited - and once it is played for the first time in FFX, it can be played again at any save point.

Overdrive is a special attack all party members and Aeons (Summoned characters) can use. Each character will have an Overdrive meter which, once filled, will allow the character to perform their special attack. Eventually, this attack and how the meter is filled can be customized by the player. Players can either use the attack right away or save it for a later battle. Shown above are two examples: Tidus and Lulu. Tidus' Overdrive attack is determined by stopping a moving bar in the center, while Lulu's will depend on the number of times the joystick is rotated. Tidus' Overdrive, when successfully completed will cause major damage while Lulu's will cast a chosen spell.

Customizing Equipment will take an important role in the weaponry of FFX. Players will be able to customize armor to add to their favorite abilities. Show above is Tidus with a supercharges weapon. 

The Sphere Grid is FFX's new system for leveling up characters, obtaining abilities, and raising stats. After each battle, characters will gain AP points. After accumulating enough AP, the characters' sphere level (SLV) goes up, allow they to move on the sphere grid and activate new abilities and raise stats. Sphere nodes are placed to correspond to the character's abilities - hence a white mage's sphere grid will look different from a black mage's. It will be possible for characters to learn each other's abilities - provided certain conditions are met.

Character Rotation can now even take place during battle!

See Shiva as graphically impressive as you've never seen her before.

Additional features:

• Voice overs will be featured for the first time in the series. 
• Tetsuya Nomura returns as character designer.
• The camera will automatically shift its perspective to correspond with the movements of the characters, now possible because they game is largely polygonal.
• Once all monsters in a region are defeated, they will be moved to a special area where they can be combined and defeated again, giving the player special items, magic, abilities and so on.
  

And yes, there are Chocobos and Moogles!