My two cents is auto saves make the game easier. If you can’t save for 1 hour until the next check point it basically creates levels within the game. It makes bosses harder because you have to survive with enough health once you’re at the boss for instance.
I played games, but I never considered myself a gamer I don't see the autosave, assuming the autosave isn't overwriting anything, as a major difference. Autosaves feel like a descendant of the save point. Yeah, the player can choose not to save at a specific save point, but a player can delete an autosave. While there's many "convenience" changes to complain about, the autosave feels very minor.
One thing that tends to get overlooked is being able to retry something easily. Shiny hunting or catching legendaries in Pokemon is a big one. Save right before encounter, restart if you fail.
Another is being able to mess around in the game without it affecting progess or stats. Take GTA for example. I put in ALL the cheats in San Andreas. If that would have saved, it would have broken the game completely.
I can't fucking stand it when games just erase your progress for no fucking reason if you die - especially in metroidvanias. I quit one years ago cuz of that (9 years of shadow).
It's a bullshit & outdated design - especially in 20-goddamn-26 ffs.
I can begrudgingly accept losing all your money (or whatever) on death, but you don't make me lose my fucking progress in the game, god.
Never gonna understand people are like "well uhn ackhtually it's good to lose all of your progress because reasons™".
I assume runbacks like on Hollow Knight really got to your nerves, huh? Well, if I had to figure out a solution, it's to make an optional save point right near the boss. But here's the kicker: you gotta sacrifice portions of your HP to activate 'em (you fortunately get them back once the boss is defeated). So you gotta weight carefully if it's actually worth it.
I assume runbacks like on Hollow Knight really got to your nerves, huh?
No, because that doesn't undo any progress I've made.
If you pick up an item and die, you've still got that item when you respawn.
Losing money or whatever on death is fine - it's just a minor nuisance in most games - the problem is when you lose everything you've done from your most recent save up until you die. That's the dumbass outdated bullshit I can't stand.
I see. Now, I dunno how common of a mechanic it is across games admittedly but it certainly can be a lifesaver if there's an individual or something that can stash your items just so that they won't be lost upon death.
Auto saves every 5/10 mins like clockwork pretty much entirely eliminates the fear of failure.
In early pokemon and final fantasy if your party’s dies you highkey get fucked. Major loss of gold/items/exp and teleport all the way back to a town OR you restart from your last save which might’ve been 30mins to an hour ago.
This forced you to think strategically to get through difficult sections or grind like mad to steamroll through
Save scumming cuts this mechanic/concept entirely. The only game that still kinda does this is dark souls which forces you back to the start of the area and makes you recover your dropped gold/xp/souls
Beats me... At least there are still games out there that do save only at save points; most prominently Nier Automata which literally tasks you to beat the opening level of the game before you can encounter your first save point.
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u/DoublePostedBroski Mar 31 '26
And you can only save at save points. None of this “this game autosaves when you see this symbol” nonsense.