duskjome Another week goes by and I haven’t finished a game but I swear I’m really close. Luckily I found a story that I think needs to be told. You see I’ve been playing this game recently, a remake of a old classic from the early 2000’s. It tells the tale of a professional sports star who triumphs through great adversity and not a little bit or poor decision making on the part of his coach and fellow teammates to become the star player of the Besaid Aurochs, going on the bring hope to an entire world and aid in the quest to defeat Sin and bring eternal peace to the world of Spira. I am of course talking about this guy:
That is Datto, right fielder for the Besaid Aurochs Blitzball squad and all around cool, cool guy. If you are unfamiliar with the game, Blitzball takes place entirely underwater with five minute halves. This means that to even take part in the sport one needs to be able to hold one’s breath for at least five minutes. Add to that the amount of impact involved and the difficulty that goes with making any sort of object move quickly through water and you end up with some talented men and women. At the beginning of his story Datto is… one of the least of those men and women, but that’s what makes his story so compelling. In a world of ordinary people, Datto chooses to join a field that he is one of the bottom ten rather than to excel at some other, lesser field. For Blitzball is the only source of hope in a world ravaged by a terrifying demon that focuses on any technological advancement or buildings of any sort in society. People come to see these teams compete and can briefly forget that they don’t dare gather in large groups often else they all will be, to put it bluntly, killed.
But Datto is a poor player and, on top of that, he plays for a poor team. The Besaid Aurochs have not won a single game in ten years. Seasons consist of approximately ten games with tournaments lasting from two to three games. That is a lot of time to suit up, dive under water, get tackled and swim your heart out for ten minutes and then go home with a loss, just like every time for the last nine years. But Datto and the Aurochs do just that, year after year even through their only “star” player trying to be a guardian for the summoners who try to rid the world of the aforementioned demon.
The “star” player, and coach, is a man named Wakka. Wakka is not exceptionally bright and does not have an eye for running or participating on a sports team. He more often chooses to run practices on land and his team slogan of “do your best” belongs more on a grade school playground than in professional sports but Datto doesn’t mind. He just wants to make people happy and he knows he’s not that great so the chance to play on any team is good enough for him. The fates have a different role for him to play, however.
When the team is practicing on the beaches of their native Besaid they notice a strange man in what appears to be a Blitzball uniform (or possibly a pipe fitters garb, it’s sort of hard to tell). Coach Wakka hollers at him to grab their ball and he executes a maneuver that adds more power to his shot than Datto had thought possible. Immediately intrigued, Coach Wakka asks the young man to join the team. Datto is initially hopeful. Could this be the winning formula for which the Aurochs have been searching? But things are never as easy as all that, at least not for poor Datto.
You see Blitzball is played with a team of six, one goalkeeper with excellent catching ability, something Datto lacked. Two defense generally strong and large people capable of doing damage with their bodies underwater. Datto himself was quick, but small. A midfielder with strong throwing arm and solid knowledge of the game. Datto had the knowledge but he couldn’t throw an accurate pass to save his life. Lastly, the team needed two durable kickers to play the frontline. Datto speed made up for his lack of durability but he could kick with the best of them. And by “the best of them” we of course mean just slightly better than everyone is Besaid except Coach Wakka but still worse than the rest of the Blitzball league. This new guy could kick better than Wakka to, of course. In fact he could probably kick better than anyone else in the league. Datto knew where that left him. There was only room for two kickers and if they wanted to win, the Aurochs would be best served to field Wakka and this new guy and Datto be damned.
But Datto wasn’t bitter. He kept going to practice, knowing his position was forfeit as long as the team had seven people. Coach Wakka was too soft-hearted to tell him to stay in Besaid. Besides, being both Coach and Captain and knowing that another summoner was soon going to be taking up his time, Wakka let the team know that this would be his last tournament and it just wouldn’t be right to break up the team when they’d need everyone they could get if they hoped to stay in the league after Wakka left. So when the time came to go to the next tournament Datto left with the team, hoping to at least cheer for them in what seemed to be their best hope for a win in over a decade. This is where things get interesting.
Much like Coach Wakka in the past, the new guy becomes very interested in the summoner who, admittedly, was fairly hot:
Also, much like Coach Wakka before him, he lets the summoner get in the way of the game. Word comes to the locker room that the opposing team was going to kill the summoner unless the Aurochs threw the game. Putting aside how bad any team would have to be to resort to such tactics to beat the (up until recently) terrible team from Besaid, the new guy leaves the locker room faster than you can say “Datto, you on the bench” and just like that Datto gets to play in the tournament.
Next to Captain Wakka, Datto and the Aurochs not only manage to keep the game tied but also hold that tie through some teamwork and a lot of tackles endured by the good Captain. They keep up the tie until the Captain gets a signal from outside the stadium that the summoner is safe. Wakka summons the last of his strength and staggers through another series of tackles before netting one of his famous Wither Shots to send the Aurochs on to round two. The stadium can’t believe it, the team can’t believe it, Datto can’t believe it. The Aurochs (with no help from this mysterious newcomer) have won their first game in a decade. As tiny bald members of the team once hoped, it was all a question of the desire to win and the Captain having his head in the game.
So Datto was part of a winning team. At least for the moment. The tournament final loomed and, barring another kidnapping, the new guy was still a far better kicker than Datto could ever be. Sure Datto and Captain Wakka won game one but the smart money was still on getting the new guy to suit up to beat the home team Luca Goers and take away a championship. Datto waited quietly in the locker room while Coach Wakka talked strategy, confirming that the new guy would go in at as kicker in the next game. Hardly able to stand the suspense and not wanting to seem like a bad sport Datto sheepishly piped in:
“Am I riding the bench, Coach?”
It was a fair question. Sure the new guy was a stronger player but Datto bled Aurochs yellow (an unfortunate choice for team colors but there you have it). He’d been with this team for ten years, seen them to their first win in a decade, practiced with them, learned with them, lived with them. Could he not play in their final moments together before Wakka left? Dare he ask for that one thing and possibly cost them the championship.
Luckily, he didn’t have to. The Coach advises him, and the team, that he, Wakka, would be riding the bench. His “injuries were to severe” he said. Whether or not that was true, Datto suited up and took to the water.
It was a different experience, thinking that winning was not only possible but likely, but from the first shot the new guy took it seemed like the Goers had a game on their hands. Datto held his own as best he could, and to his credit the new guy didn’t mind being a team player and spreading the Goer defense a bit so Datto could get the occasional shot. But even given the perfect situation Datto could only barely challenge the Goer defense. This wasn’t some random team that needed to threaten a summoner to win, after all. This was arguably the best team in Blitz, the Luca gosh-darn Goers.
The crowd wasn’t in the game either. They knew who got the Aurochs this far and it certainly wasn’t Datto of this impressive new guy. They started chanting for Wakka. The new guy and Datto shared a meaningful look and the new guy headed to the locker room. Datto was never sure if he meant to sub himself out for Wakka and give the fans what they wanted but we wasn’t about to allow them to ask. He followed the new guy back and watched from the bench as Wakka and the new guy hit the Blitz field.
The rest, as they say, is history. Between the already solid offensive play of a not-quite-as-injured-as-he-let-on Wakka and what was soon seen as the greatest player in the game the Aurochs ran rough-shod over the Goers and walked away with the championship. True to his world, however, Captain Wakka became a full-time guardian for the summoner. With the help of the new guy, Datto kept playing for the Aurochs and became not just “good enough” but damnit good, even great. He never quite learned to play like the new guy but he held his own and learned from watching and, as it turns out, under the proper coaching and with the right teammates, his small size and speed changed the way the game was played. Soon Free Agents who could swim fast were becoming sought-after as frontmen on winning teams. It’s because of Datto that we see teams searching for Brother and Nedus of the Al Bhed to build their winning squads. And what of the Aurochs? Why, they sent their tournament winnings each time they won to the Summoner and her Guardians (including Captain Wakka and the new guy) and, Datto would like to think, played some small part in the eventual defeat of that demon we mentioned before and the “eternal” peace that game with it.
So remember, the next time you’re booting up a game of Final Fantasy X, that before some new guy in yellow pants with anime hair and a winning smile came along and tried to steal the show, that this is Datto’s story.
