Auto-Save has spoiled me. And that's bad.Follow

It's really, really fun losing the data from your entire gaming session because you didn't save. >_<

It's like I've forgotten how to play games that have actual game-overs and no auto-save feature.

Let's hope I actually learn this lesson...

I recently picked up FF 4 Heroes of Light and ran into this problem. Not really thinking, wandering around and not saving. End up dying because I took a wrong turn and stumbled onto some monsters that are 2x my level.

Speaking of that... I hate it when the game sends you in a direction, but there is a branch and the wrong path leads to somewhere where the monsters will kill you in one shot. And there is no warning. It reminds me of playing Final Fantasy 1, and if you walk too far north out of the first town everything kills you instantly. Kind of a bad game design if you ask me, exploring = instant death.

you cannot be serious. what the hell is fun about 'exploring' if there's no consequences for going off the intended path?

one of my favorite things in wow was that moments after i realized there wasn't an invisible wall in river south of goldshire, i got chomped by a big scary wolf.

all my favorite games kicked my *** at some point.

Neverwinter Nights 2 only saves during full moons in February during a leap year, which called into stark view how much I'd come to rely on the auto-save feature over the years.

When it comes to autosaves, I don't care for them much. Every game I've played with them has made it clunky and cumbersome. I do enjoy quick saves, in the sense that having to run back to a specific location to exit a game is arduous and does not increase immersion.

For some people, it is. You can argue that it's not popular, but not that there is no niche appeal.

While I can criticize Dragon Age II for a lot of things, that game has a near-perfect Auto-Save system.

It actually maintains 3 auto-save files, each for a separate character:
1. Once at the start of a chapter allowing you to restart the chapter if you make a major mistake
2. Second file is auto-saved at the entrance to a dungeon.
3. Last file is a checkpoint Auto-Save and is updated incredibly often. Make a wrong decision? You only lose a few minutes by going back to this file.

Details may differ slightly as it's been a while since I played the game, but the system is similar if I'm wrong. I also think the auto-save feature was streamlined- the game never paused for the Auto-Save feature.

While I almost always save often and in different files in my games, this system really helped to reduced my saving frequency and how much time I lost from a wipe. Maintaining multiple files also prevented me from getting stuck- I can't count the number of times I had to restart a level because Auto-Save kicked in before a final boss with 5 bullets in my gun.

So I'd be ok if there was no "stutter"? or completely unknown to the user in general?


I've noticed some recent games have no stutter during their auto-save. As far as buffing up, typically boss locations really aren't surprises and I'll make my own save point immediately before them anyway.

Edited, Aug 1st 2011 7:39pm by xypin

Ugh... I can't stand that. It's one thing to explore too far out and have to turn back because things are too strong. It's quite another when you're in a place with two exits, one leading to your destination and the other leading someplace you're not supposed to be for another 20 levels, and no way to tell which one is which.

(Mostly annoyed because this happened to me a few times recently playing Radiant Historia.)