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Save Points

Hiikaru

Hiikaru

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Sometimes there are save points, and sometimes you can just go into the menu at any time and click the diary button.

I guess the type depends on the game. For the Mario games, as the developer stated in an interview, the lack of saves points removes the frustration of playing the same part repeatedly and the repetition of entire levels improves your skill at the game (as opposed to your skill at jumping over a particular gap or defeating a particular enemy). It is frustrating when you have to go too long without saving, but this is mostly avoided by going back and beating an easier castle, or blowing up a new star, or bringing your friends with you.

For a lot of RPGs it's really convenient to just be able to save whenever you want, but even if you can't, you can usually just run back to a save point now that all the traps/monsters are defeated or disabled.

There are some games where save points are a big issue, though. I've been playing Ace Attorney for the past few days and when you lose a case you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the case. And it's not like a Mario game or even a Pokemon game where there's something to do again if you lose. There are no puzzles to re-examine or jumps to perfect; if you lose a case, you just have to sit there for several minutes pressing the A button until you get back to where you were. It isn't challenging or interesting, just really really tedious. I guess it forces you to actually figure out the clues instead of save scumming and trying every option, but when you do lose...

But then sometimes when you can save whenever you want, you save before something annoying and end up spending several weeks tossing Pokeballs at Lugia or refreshing for a cute baby.

What are some other examples of games with useful or annoying saving options? Which kind is your favorite?

How do you feel about saving?
 
I'd like to point out that... You can save the Ace Attorney games at any time you like by pressing Start. Literally, any time. Heh.

Anyway, I prefer being able to save whenever I like, but I do see the logic behind save points - as well as adding a sort of challenge, it gives you a chance to improve and, uh, train yourself I guess.
 
Ridiculous? Try Impossible Mode of IWBTG.

Insanity aside, I prefer the save whenever out of battle things in RPGs. But in a platformer like Mario, I think it's good. In Mario Galaxy, for instance, it auto-saves after every level. I think that's a good thing.
 
I particularly like the save points that also heal your characters--that way, I can go into the next boss fight or annoying part at full power.

Save points are also nice as "panic buttons"--so if a boss fight goes horribly wrong, you can just reset and reload.
 
I don't particularly care about saving methods in my games. As long as the function allows me to finish doing whatever it is I was doing, then it serves its purpose.

Unless of course, I'm playing Resident Evil, particularly REmake (Best RE game everrrr <3), then I make it a point NOT to save, given the limited number of saves that one could easily blow through in less than an hour if they don't plan their routes, and suck at zombie dodging; if you use all 33 ink ribbons in that game, you're probably doin' it wrong.

When playing an RPG, I like the use of save points. It adds to the challenge just a little bit, and since most of the time they fully heal your party, you don't need to worry about dropping 10,000 gald on 99 tents, or whatever. Plus, the use of save points in an RPG allows you to keep more than one file, as opposed to a game that lets you save anywhere; saving anywhere is only a quick save function, and sucks, 'cause most of the time, depending on the code, only allows you to save one or two files, which is just plain irritating. Especially when there's a boss that I really liked, and may wanna go back and fight it again (That fight with Crosell in Star Ocean 3, Cyril in Star Ocean 2, Lezard in Valkyrie Profile...)

In a game like Devil May Cry, or Bayonetta the use of quick-saving for checkpoints is quite nice, but I don't think I've ever used them; usually when I end up dying, I just restart the whole mission over from the beginning, so as not to get a lower rank upon completion.

Demon's Souls, being an MMO, also saves after everything you do. It also saves after you die, but not until after you respawn. Which lets you cheat the game out of taking your souls by turning it off before it has a chance to start saving :D So I also like being able to cheat a function as simple as auto-saving.
 
I think The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is an interesting case. You can save anywhere any time but doing this makes you lose practically everything, if you want to save but not lose everything you have to find a save point. It's more like a 'rest' point since the save is erased once you return, like choosing to rest between battles in the Battle Tower in Pokémon.

My brother found it really annoying, but I quite like it. It's basically the mechanic that defines the entire game, and without going back to the beginning every time you have to, the game has lost its point. I really like the game for having so many sidequests that can happen simultaneously that give so many characters depth and backstory. The saving system is what allows you to do this. They could have made you able to save anywhere any time like in the other (3D) Zelda games but they didn't. I might just be looking too deeply into this here, but maybe the reason for this was to make it more 'realistic'. What I mean is if Link in the game messes something up, he can't just turn the game on and off and start from the last time he saved, he has to start from the very beginning, many times if he keeps failing. It must have been as frustrating to him as it was in Groundhog Day.

I go on about Zelda way too much.

The main flaw I find in Pokémon Colosseum was that it had save points rather than save anywhere, though it isn't exactly game breaking. Generally though, I do prefer being able to save anywhere any time, so long as it doesn't interfere with gameplay. Games like Zelda help with that by sending you to the beginning of a dungeon when you load from a save, meaning you can't just reset if there's a jump you can't make and you want to try again straight away. That can lead to annoyances though; in some games where it saves after everything you do it still sends you to before you achieved something when you load (like if you're supposed to collect 10 of something, and you get 9, it sends you back to 0). This wouldn't bug me so much if my computer would actually stay turned on, so I lose my progress in games far too often. Another reason why I like save anywhere.
 
Really I don't mind either, they each have their merits. Save points are good as long as they are placed before important events or decisions, like boss battles or other potential game overs/Unwinnable situations. That way not only do you never need to do a whole chunk of the game again if you lose, but you know that something important/difficult might be on the way and know to start preparing.

Games that force you to save at regular intervals or at certain points (Digimon World is the only example I can really think of here) are also good so you never forget to save, but then Digimon World's save system was also shit because you could only save when your 'mon wanted to go to sleep unless you went to the one Save Point in the starting town, which could be miles away and your Digimon may not want to go to sleep for about an hour or two in real-time. But that wasn't a great game to begin with.

Save-anywhere is good because you can put the game down whenever you want, and don't have to run back to a save point getting dozens of random encounters on the way. This is particularly annoying when you're really fed up of playing and you just want to turn the game off but the monsters won't let you go. But save-anywhere, as said before, adds the temptation to save-scum which removes some of the challenge.
 
Personally, I prefer save anywhere. But in some games, save points work better. Games like Metroid work better because they have save points.
 
I really don't see why you shouldn't be able to save at any time, in any game...

Well, in some games like Castlevania, Metroid, Paper Mario, Final Fantasy, etc when you die you go back to the last time you saved, so in those games it makes no sense for you to be able to save anywhere. But I generally think that save points and check points should be independent of one another, so you don't get to a scenario where you only have 5 HP left when you saved and now you need to go around finding some life, but everything kills you in one hit, but then you die and go back to your last save, and you have 5 HP again. Also because I don't think that every time you die you should have to go through the same story dialogue over and over again (in games where that applies).

^^^ this is awkwardly worded but maybe you get my point.
 
I'm used to save points. I'm used to games where if you make a mistake, you can't go back and fix it (unless you're a dirty save scummer). It's gotten to the point where save points don't really bother me much any more.
What's unforgivable is a game with save points but without a quick-save option.
...I also dislike when you have to go through a long unskippable cutscene over and over again after a save point but before a particularly tough battle or whatnot. But that's just 'cuz they're unskippable cutscenes.
 
H-land said:
...I also dislike when you have to go through a long unskippable cutscene over and over again after a save point but before a particularly tough battle or whatnot. But that's just 'cuz they're unskippable cutscenes.
Click to expand...


This. The cutscene before battling an epic boss needs to be skipable, so one can watch it, fail against the boss, skip the cutscene, figure out what they did wrong, get killed, skip cutscene, and beat boss because this time they know what to do.
 
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