10 replies to this topic

[cimerians]

I just spent the last couple of hours playing in the optional final dungeon in Eternal Sonata.

I saved at a stupid Save Point and began Dungeon Level 11.

After fighting in 15+ battles and gaining 50 million gold I get to the end boss with no save point in sight.

I enter the boss battle and get my ass handed to me and on top of that a wasted 2 hours of real time.

Now I face the task of throwing the disk across the room or trying again.

Why in this day and age do we still have save points? WHY?

@!@##$!

Someone at Bandai is laughing.......

Edited by cimerians, Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:36 AM.

[moycon]

I beat it.

I feel your pain though. Its been awhile, but I recall I was a very high level when I did it (Maybe in the 80's?).
Its frustrating when that happens. Even on RPGs where you can save anywhere I always get killed when I haven't saved in like an hour. LOL I have to say though. I loved Eternal Sonata. One of the best RPGs ever I think.

Edited by moycon, Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:14 AM.

[cimerians]

I edited my post, dont want to offend anyone but I was pissed big time.

Yeah its a great game and Ill just have to go at it again.

Thanks for the level tip.....I was "trying" to stay away from guides on this one but I think that would help.

Im around level 60 etc.

I still say down with save points!

[Atari5200]

this is the exact reason why my Final Fantasy III for DS remains unbeaten. I die at the last boss and then I don't feel like taking 2 hours to get back to that point.

[Lastblade]

Atari5200, on Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:44 AM, said:

this is the exact reason why my Final Fantasy III for DS remains unbeaten. I die at the last boss and then I don't feel like taking 2 hours to get back to that point.

FF3 is definitely horrible, that last dungeon is so long and tough. I think I powerlevel myself for a few hours in the last dungeon before trying to go thru it. It is not THAT bad, but typical JRPG design where you have to powerlevel at certain points (usually the end) of the game to get thru.

[2600Lives]

Resident Evil is the grand daddy of this particular gaming caveat. While I absolutely LOVE the games to death, I loathe that damn ribbon and typewriter save system. I mean, come on, all you had to do in Metal Gear was make a Codec call, and voila.

[BydoEmpire]

I don't mind save points as a system, as long as they're well-placed and frequently found. Right before bosses, for example. Being able to save anywhere at any time can ruin certain types of games, imho. Autosaving is better, and ought to be the standard. There's no reason you should manually have to walk up to some glowing rock and press A to save your game. The game should do it for you automatically.

[Quadhorn]

Maybe not so much now, but it used to be down to storage space for save games, wasn't it? A complete core / RAM dump to restore a game exactly to a particular moment takes up a lot of space - a more limited save at a few select points means smaller save files. With older games that did allow you to save anywhere / anywhen, they tended to save essential stat's and things, but reset your location to the start of a level / region and all of the monsters / temporary items when you re-loaded.

[Mendon]

I wish all games were like Uncharted: Drakes Fortune for the PS3. Not only does it have autosave but also allows you to save anywhere at anytime. This feature makes it very, very nice for when unexpected company comes over or you suddenly have to leave the game for whatever reason.

As a counterpoint to Uncharted, I just got Call of Juarez from GameFly and was trying it out. Early in the game, after cleaning up a town and fleeing into a barn, I had to stack a bunch of boxes at two different points to climb out of the barn. This was frustrating going as getting the boxes to align properly for climbing wasn't an easy chore (at least for me). After several attempts - several knocked over boxes - and several falls, I made it to the top of the barn and the exit point. I now had to shoot a swinging weight, which in turn would drop a pipe which would allow me to escape. I shot the weight, the pipe fell, and I started to make my exit when for whatever reason I fell and died. Game returned me to life BEFORE entering the barn and stacking the boxes. After several more attempts to stacking boxes, I made it to the top only to die a 2nd time at the pipe and again had to start over from before entering the barn. I ripped the game out of my 360 and shipped it back to GameFly.

If I could have SAVED upon reaching the top of the barn, I would have almost no complaints. But having to continually repeat a part of the game that I didn't particularly enjoy playing through the first time, left me feeling nothing but frustration.

For myself, I prefer the method used by Uncharted over the method used by games like Call of Juarez.


Mendon

[remowilliams]

Mendon, on Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:57 PM, said:

I wish all games were like Uncharted: Drakes Fortune for the PS3. Not only does it have autosave but also allows you to save anywhere at anytime. This feature makes it very, very nice for when unexpected company comes over or you suddenly have to leave the game for whatever reason.

Exactly, that's the type of system I far prefer.

Completely inconsistent save points, the craptacular control/accuracy, and long set piece battles in Turok almost made me literally snap the disk in half on the PS3 lately. It's unlikely I'll ever pick that game up again.

[moycon]

Mendon, on Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:57 PM, said:

Game returned me to life BEFORE entering the barn and stacking the boxes. After several more attempts to stacking boxes, I made it to the top only to die a 2nd time at the pipe and again had to start over from before entering the barn. I ripped the game out of my 360 and shipped it back to GameFly.

Mendon

I wonder if that's one of the reasons this game gets such mediocre reviews. I totally think that frustration like you mentioned is a valid reason to get a lower score on a review. I play games to discover new exciting things and to have fun...not to be frustrated. Things like you just mentioned can turn a decent game, into a steaming pile. Why do they do it?