Save Point Rant

[Scrustle]

This trend in game design has been getting on my nerves more and more over the years, but I've never seen anyone else mention it. But why the hell do games still have designated save points?! In the past such a practice could be excused because of hardware or software limitations, but there are many games now that allow you to save at any point of the game and pick up right up where you left of. So why do we still have so many games that stick to the old system of only letting you save at certain points? It's madness!

I have my own life and sometimes I don't want to or am not able to go through a chuck of a game where I am unable to save. In some games that gap can be quite long, like in many JRPGs (and other Japanese games come to think of it). I don't want to have to go back through half an hour or more (sometimes much more) of a game that I've already done simply because I wasn't able to save when I wanted! On many occasions this has lead me to stop playing a game for good because I can't be arsed with this silly outdated, obtuse and unnecessary system! Please developers, stop it right now!

So yeah that's my little rant. Anyone else feel the same way?

 

[Kahunaburger]

Save points strike sort of an unhappy medium between save-anywhere and permadeath. They give death a cost, unlike permadeath the cost is mostly just annoyance. Perfect example of a pointless tradition in video games.

 

[TehCookie]

Save points never bothered me unless they're horribly placed. Also as Kahunaburger said it's a good punishment that isn't too hard or easy.

I hate games that only have autosave or only one savefile. I don't mean one savefile total but I mean that play though will only have one save, since I normally alternate between two saves in case I fuck something up or want to try something different.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Save points are just cheap design, they don't care to think of a penalty for death or faulty game flow so they just put in checkpoints to reset you X miles away from where things went wrong.

One of the many little things that split mediocre developers from the good ones.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

The only game I've played in recent years that still operated with a checkpoint/savepoint system, and nothing else, was Dead Island.

It frustrated the hell out of me, until I figured out how to abuse it in order to get infinite ammunition and rare items. But then it continued to frustrate the hell out of me since I still had to actually use it for its intended purpose.

 

[Mafoobula]

Save points, as in only being able to save at very specific points? Yeah, I don't see much reason for that anymore. It kinda sucks when a game has to come up with a weak in-universe explanation for them, too. It sucks because, most of the time, the explanation is atrociously forced.
"The save crystals are omnipresent, but you still didn't know about them? They record the memories of anyone who touches them, and that somehow means you can die over and over again, and you'll just come back here!"
Blah. Come on, game, there's no need for hand-holding, here! Show us the crystal and let us figure it out!

Auto-saves, on the other hand, are very, very useful. More than a couple dozen times, I've charged into battle without remembering to save beforehand. It's a load off my mind, for the game to be able to take care of that for me at the beginning of combat.
In that thread of thought: Quick saves. Handy feature, that quick save. I don't know about the rest of you, but if I'm in the middle of a particularly tricky encounter, the ability to make a save right after I pull off a devastating attack on the enemy means my luck and skill don't go to waste if I should happen to, say, roll the wrong way directly into the instant-death thing.

Checkpoints. They allow a game to have longer stages without the anxiety of "Oh god dammit, the last half-hour of my life, wasted!"

 

[krazykidd]

Are you serious? People are complaining about save points now ? I mean really? Will gamers whining know no end? How about we just disregard the idea of playing a game where losing is possible and just play visual novels . Companing about difficulty , linearity , no renegerating health , puzzles that require thinking , not having checkpoints , respawning enemies, anything that requires a minimum of effort from the players part . I don't understand . Fine i get it , people hate challenge , but seriously, if you guys want to be spoon fed so damn much , go read a book , watch a movie , play(?) a visual novel .

For petes sakes guys , is there no end to the complaining from the gamin comunity? It's no wonder games like dark souls and demon's souls feel special , even though the really aren't ( btw i love those games ).

 

[Fappy]

My girlfriend thinks people who don't like them are pussies (she plays a lot of JRPGs XP). I honestly don't mind them as much as long as they aren't spread too thin. Its nice to have an extra challenge sometimes. I am the type of gamer who will take every advantage short of cheating I can get... this includes saving in the middle of tough fights if its possible