[General Discussion] Save-a-holics Anonymous

I never have had corrupt save data. Maybe that's why I've dedicated over 75 save slots on two seperate PS2 cards JUST for FFXII. Call me stupid and crazy, but shit man, no way in hell I can afford to lose 56 hours of hard work, which really isn't that much, but still.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

75 slots for one game? That is a lot for just one game. Mind you I once dedicated at least four separate memory cards for FFVII, this was back in the days when I was playing for something crazy like 7-9 hours a day. These weren't me being a save-a-holic though. Each save was from a different part of the game, so if I only wanted to fight against one of the weapons, then I would load up the save file that I had made before beating them.

Unfortunately though I lost all of it when all 4 memory cards corrupted on me. Damn cheap ass memory cards, I had well over 150 hours done in that game, but I had it all taken away from me. I haven't been able to play that game again in fear of losing my save files.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well, I have confidence in my ability to not die in RPGs so I do not save many times in a 1 hour period. If there is a save point before a boss or something, of course I will take it when I see it, but I don't purposely go back anywhere to save.

In fact, some friends of mine were trying to "scare me" over FFXII before I bought it. They said "Save often - this game is very hard". Since I have MMORPG experience, I have not seen the Game Over screen 20+ times like them, but have only seen it twice in the whole game. And those were because I was screwing around with enemies in 20 levels higher than me.

I grew up with RPGs. STarted with DW1, have beaten all 8 Dragon Warriors. Have beaten 10 Final Fantasies and plenty of other RPG series before.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Borg1982

I grew up with RPGs. STarted with DW1, have beaten all 8 Dragon Warriors.

Actually, I wish I had made more saves in DW VII, because I found myself missing one of those tablet things that make up the maps, and I had gone past the point where I could retrieve it, so I was literally "stuck" 10+ hours into the game. It was marginal at best, but that did the game in for me and I haven't played it since. It's going to Ebay someday...

I just remembered how much I saved in Might & Magic VI last time I played through. Let's just say a lot. In some dungeons, literally every 5 steps. The problem is that unless you cheat big time, you get into dungeons where the mobs hit you with effect after effect until you are incapacitated completely. For example, you can be turned to stone, poisoned, have your spellpoints taken away, feared, any number of things. In M&M the fights are truly massive, you can be fighting 30 mobs at one time and they're all hitting you. Yeah, M&M VI = savefest for sure...

I was speaking idiomatically.

Dragon Warrior 7 is just about the longest RPG in history. So many caves, towns, storyline happenings in each town, leveling up, and bosses.

You have to be precise in what you do when it comes to collecting Shards and advancing the game. I recommend using the gamefaq for DW7 done by "AIex".

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Are you guys like me and forget that you saved?! I do it all the time!! When I save, I sometimes forget that I saved and instead of assuming that I did in fact save, I save AGAIN just to be on the safe side. Sometimes I'm so bad that I save three times in a row. YES! I AM SERIOUS!

I apparently have short term memory loss sometimes!

FELIPE NO

Hmm...I guess it really depends on the game.

In games like Breath of Fire V saving a lot would lower the rank you got at the end of the game, because when you finished it it graded your actions, and your rank would go down. It was vital because there were several scenes you could only see with a lower rank.

I gotta say it was pretty risky in that game. It is a pretty hard game, and the PAL version didn't get that special save option.

But otherwise I don't save that much to be honest. I can usually tell whether a save is in order. I mean in most games a save usually indicates a boss in coming when it's at the end, it's usually there that I save. It bites you in the ass sometimes when you got defeated by something unexpected. A while back in Valkyrie Profile 2 I lost like 3 hours work because my entire party got frozen. I knew the enemies were capable of that, but I didn't expect that to be game over. =/

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

When I first played Final Fantasy IX, I only used one save file. One day I decided to start a new game to check something I missed during the first few hours of the game. When I got to the very first save point again, I carelessly saved over my original save file (about 40 hours in). After that, I constantly saved for all other RPGs I played using multiple files.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yup, that's one reason why I don't just do 1 save file. Most other RPGs I do about 10 different files, but for FFXII, sure 75 might be overkill, but whatever.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I don't think I'm necessarily a save-a-holic, but I will save my game after some unexpected and pleasant occurrence (finding a rare item, gaining a level, etc.)

Of course, I'd save a lot more often if game developers would wake up, realize that it's not 1989 anymore, and get rid of the COLOSSALLY FUCKING RETARDED concept of "save points." Save-on-the-fly is possible. You did it in SaGa Frontier and Lunar. Time to implement it industry-wide. Guys? You listening?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I liked how instead of taking your experance from you, you'd only lose non-important items and half your gold in Dragon Quest 8 (Now If I only knew how to store items and gold, it was possible in DQM and I will find it), it realy premoted going out and geting expeiance and throwing caution to the wind.

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Originally Posted by CelticWhisper

I don't think I'm necessarily a save-a-holic, but I will save my game after some unexpected and pleasant occurrence (finding a rare item, gaining a level, etc.)

Of course, I'd save a lot more often if game developers would wake up, realize that it's not 1989 anymore, and get rid of the COLOSSALLY FUCKING RETARDED concept of "save points." Save-on-the-fly is possible. You did it in SaGa Frontier and Lunar. Time to implement it industry-wide. Guys? You listening?

However there "might" be programing errors or loop errors, like saving in a spot of no return - so far Lunar hasn't had any problems, but instead of sparse save points, I want save points at almost every 2nd location, or something. Wow, a lot of save points. Of course this makes the intensity of the battles less hectic. SAVE TIME.

:SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE :

I was speaking idiomatically.

Actually, in an attempt to STOP my save-a-holic-ness, I was playing Twilight Princess... and well, I went from the end of Dungeon 7 to the end of the game without saving... Thinking partially that the end of the game would give you the option.

I was disappointed when I went to load up my save, and I was back outside the seventh dungeon... D:

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

Are you guys like me and forget that you saved?! I do it all the time!! When I save, I sometimes forget that I saved and instead of assuming that I did in fact save, I save AGAIN just to be on the safe side. Sometimes I'm so bad that I save three times in a row. YES! I AM SERIOUS!

I've done that before, but it was primarily when I was getting ready to turn the game off.

Honestly I don't really consider myself a save a holic except in one game. Resident Evil, I know it's not an rpg but I save like crazy in that. There are times in that where something unexpected and unlucky just happens. I go through ink ribbons really fast and what happened to my friend in Resident Evil Zero is a perfect example. He didn't save first thing when he got off the train, he went into a room got attacked by one of those crazy zombies with the whip arms and died.

In regular rpgs I just tend to save whenever I get to a save point or if you can save on the world map just before enterting a dungeon and stuff like that. If I'm sitting around an area trying specifically to level up though, I save it just about everytime a character levels up.

FELIPE NO

In games that use memory cards (or the like), I only make a new save if something epic/legendary/awesome/ridiculous happens after that last save, like a really cool FMV/plot twist/ending-deciding moment. For most PS2 games, I'd end up with about 10 saves by the end of it, as I decide later to go ahead and overwrite some old saves that I deemed no longer awesome enough.

For games with limited save slots (like GBA/DS games), I keep the one main one. If there's 3 total save slots, I'll use one more sometimes, but I like to keep one slot free to let other people play.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yeah I'm one too. I also keep multiple save files just incase.
I've left an entire dungeon to go save in the case of the optional dungeon in Star Ocean 2. There is no saves inside. In regular dungeons cases I'll back track only if I got a rare drop or something important and can't find a save before the boss.

Originally Posted by Spatula

That is what I fear most, Cobalt Katze. I was spending close to 1 hour leveling up in FFX, just walking around.

Fucking Great Malboro. psssssshhhhhhhffffffffttttttttt BRAGGHHH!!

Urgh that happened to me too. After that I stuck right next to the save sphere and saved after every battle until I ended up with a staff weapon with anti-confusion/bezerk so I could just have Yuna run away after it cast all it's status crap on the party.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

Are you guys like me and forget that you saved?! I do it all the time!! When I save, I sometimes forget that I saved and instead of assuming that I did in fact save, I save AGAIN just to be on the safe side. Sometimes I'm so bad that I save three times in a row. YES! I AM SERIOUS!

I apparently have short term memory loss sometimes!

I do that pretty much all the time. I've even been known to save a third time if I get distracted. If I'm not watching the screen when it says "Save successful!" then I have to save again. The worst are games that simply go back to the screen showing all your saves after it finishes with no message. Couple that with my tendency to save after ANYTHING, even re-saving just because I went back into town to sleep at the inn, and I save a LOT.

I try to keep two slots per game usually, but since my PS2 memory cards started to get too full for that I sometimes just have to use one and live in perpetual fear. I'm far too cheap to simply go out and buy a third memory card. The two slot method doesn't usually have the best results for me anyway. Two problems always screw it up:

1) The secondary file is too far out of date to be of any use.
2) Both files were updated right after permanently missing something.

There was one time that it saved me though. While turning on Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando I accidentally picked new game and get selected my main save. BAM. Thanks to one moment of half-asleep stupidity I lose the file that was about 85% of the way through the game. My secondary slot was 15 hours behind, but it was better than starting over from the beginning at least.

Final Fantasy IX was the only RPG that's gotten more than two save slots for a single play-through. I think I had four or five during my first time through the game since I wanted to keep save files right before the coolest cutscenes. I forget where most of them were, but I know I had one right before the scene of Atomos swallowing Lindblum.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I used to save pretty much every chance I had over the same file, but recently I've started making many many copies, on that off chance I want to see that thirty second cutscene halfway through the game.

I remember dying right in front of a save point in Valkyrie Profile 2. And after three hours of levelling... ;_;

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I save every time as I can, unless theres something about saving that'll affect the game (well, the only time I saw this was in RE but in RPGs, I dont think there is such a big effect ).

I do this especially in FF games where save points heal up my party. I'm so used to it that I expect every RPG I game would give me the same option...but sadly no... still, its a challenge.

Also, I try to make a backup save for my games, especially when I think that this certain action I did this last event would greatly affect the story or my stats, other than that, I keep backup just in case a blackout would occur during my saving (which has a chance of around 5/100 of happening).

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