Dear Square Enix: please bring back Final Fantasy's minigames

Ask me to pick two moments that sum up Final Fantasy X and I'd probably roll with 1) Yuna dancing on the ocean at Kilika to send the souls of the dead to the Farplane, and 2) Tidus performing a Sphere Shot in Blitzball. The first because it's a mesmerising performance of grief and transcendence, the second because it's patently daft in the best of ways. Blitzball, in case you haven't had the pleasure, is FFX's central minigame. It's essentially rugby but played in a stadium-sized water bubble, with stats and status effects cheerfully lifted from the turn-based combat system. Sphere Shot is Tidus's signature move as a young Blitzball star - it sees him backward-somersaulting in slow motion to perform a kick on goal with a randomised buff.

I once tried to perform a Sphere Shot in my local pool's deep end, and can attest that this is not how aquatic physics works - at the very least, it should involve more nosebleeds. But it looks dang swish in action, and while Blitzball has its flaws as a virtual sport - why can't I swim up and down? Why don't the players drown? Why is poisoning the ball not an automatic red card? - it's an immensely fun addition to one of the great PS2 RPGs, not least for how it slops over into regular exploration. You'll scout new Blitzball players from all across Spira, and flushing out the local talent gives each settlement in the game that extra element of intrigue.

Final Fantasy has a proud tradition of minigames of all shapes and sizes, from the hidden number puzzle in the very first game through fishing in FF12 to pinball in FF15. I could have done with some of that while playing Final Fantasy 16. As you may have read in my Final Fantasy 16 review, I found the game to be full of good things with lots of less-good things between them. The story quests can be thrilling but many of the sidequests feel like office admin. The combat sings, but half the fights are with reluctant scorpions and rando bandits who seem to barely understand the mechanics of swinging a sword. A proper side activity of some kind would have been a pleasant relief. Sadly, the nearest FF16 offers to this are those feats of spectacular genre-splicing you encounter during larger Eikon bossfights.

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