Tidus was originally going to be a Plumber

[Albert Whiskers]

In the final version of the game, Tidus is an Athlete, He is a Blitzball player, Blitzball is a fictional sport in the Final Fantasy X Universe. Well in the early drafts of the game,

According to Kazushige Nojima, He was suppose to be an underwater Plumber. He swims in the ocean to clean fix some broken pipes. I think they change it last minute because it is way too similar to Mario. Also it doesn't look cool, They decided to go for an Athlete since before FFX we never had an Athlete as protagonist.

 

[Bartz_FFV]

Usually we have Knights, Warriors, Mercenaries,soldiers and wizards as protagonist. So I am happy they decided to go for an Athlete. The Plumber concept was interesting though, I hope they consider it for a future game.

 

[Kimmy_Howell_Love]

That could have lead to Mario comparisons. Mario is the most popular Plumber in videogames and any Plumber character will be compared to him.

 

[Anachiwo]

Glad they didnt go with that direction. I like Tidus the way he is now. A sports Athlete being a main character is very refreshing direction back then because most protagonists we have in the past are warriors and mercenaries.