Content you’ve missed because of lack of manual saving/bad autosave points

[StaceyPowers]

What’s the worst instance of content you’ve missed because of save issues in a game? For me it happened the other night. Final mission, last conversation with Garrus in Mass Effect 3, missed it by clicking on a door. Game last saved like 40 minutes before. Had to look up the conversation on YT.

[Heatman]

At some points, it would seem like autosave comes with a curse in disguise with how it keeps getting in gamers way instead of helping that it was designed to. 

[Shagger]

I had a horrible experience with Dragons Dogma when it first came out... twice.

 

Just in case anyone is unaware Dragon's Dogma is a classic fantasy RPG with a rather unique party mechanic. You attain followers, knows as pawns, to aid to in combat and provide advice. Every player also has to create thier own pawn that can the be accessed and used by your other players as a follower in thier own game. You can use these pawns at a cost of in game currency (only in game currency that spend on the pawns and nothing else, this is not a microtransaction) , kind of like "renting" them from the player that created them and even rate them once your finished with them. Your friends paws are clearly labelled and put forward to you at a cheaper price, or was it even free, I can't remember. Anyway, an interesting system, but because players profile would have to load a pawns parameters from thier online profile, that profile would need to have a single source to load said parameters from. In other words, you could only have one save. That is a was issue in an open world RPG at the best of times, but when the autosave isn't well programmed, the difficulty can spike badly and with fast travel basically missing from the game, it get's worse.

 

The first time I learned this system's shortcomings the hard way was getting myself stuck in an unwinnable situation right after the point where I could no longer run away. This wasn't a boss fight or anything, this was just much higher levelled enemies just suddenly surrounding me in open play. I must have tries for 3 hours to get out of this situation trying everything, but eventfully I had to give up and start the entire game all over again because that bad autosave was the only save.

 

The second time was the complete opposite. I was much further into my second playthrough. I had spent around 8 hours playing after leaving the main city of the game. Went to another major location, did a number of quests, battled in the open area whilst leaving and entering buildings and locations serval times. Made so much progress, but then got killed in a fight. When I went to load again, I found the game had saved NOTHING since I left the main hub! The game was willing to save just as it was too late to run from an unwinnable ambush on playthrough one, but now would not autosave at all for basically a full day of gaming. I had no choice but to start those 8 hours all over again. You could ague that I should have manually saved, but the point of autosave to help you get immersed in the experience and not have to worry about loosing too much progress.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Shagger

[Heatman]

20 minutes ago, Shagger said:

I had a horrible expericnce with Dragons Dogma whe it firt came out... twice.

 

Just in case anyone is inahare Dragon's Dogma is an classic fantasy RPG with a rather unique party mechanic. You attain followers, knows as pawns, to aid to in combat and provide advice. Every player also has to creat thier own pawn that can the be accessed and used buy your friends as a follower  in thier own. An interesting system, but bcasue players profile would have to load a pawns parameters from thier online profile, that profile would need to have a single source to load said parameters from, in others, you could only have one save. That is a was issue in an open world RPG at the best of times, but when the autosave isn't well programmed, the difficulty can spike badly and with fast travel basically missing from the game, it get's worse.

 

The first time i learned this systems shortcomings the hard way was getting myself stuck in an unwinnable situation right after the point where I could no longer run away. This wasn't a boss fight or anything, this was just much higher levelled enemies just suddenly surrounding me in open play. I must have tries for 3 hours to get out of this situation trying everything, but eventully I had to give up and start the entire game all over again because that bad autosave was only save.

 

The second time was the complete opposite. I was much further into my second playthrough. I had spent around 8 hours playing after leaving the main city of the game. Went to another major locations, did a number of quests, battled in the open area whilst leaving and entering buildings and locations serval times. Made so much progress, but then got killed in a fight. When I went to load again, I found the game had saved NOTHING since I left the main hub! The game was willing to save just as it was too late to run from an unwinnable ambus on playthrough one, but now would not autosave at all for basically a full of gaming. I had no choice but to stats those 8 hours all over again. You could ague that I should have manually saved, but the point of autosave to help you get immersed in the experience and not have to worry about loosing too much progress.

Seriously - If that had happened to me for the second time it did to you, I can very well guarantee that I'd brake the game. That's a complete BS. 

[Withywarlock]

I almost, and I mean very nearly, had to give up over 100 hours of Pathfinder: Kingmaker progress because whilst travelling, the main quest timer ran out, and I struggled to find a save where I could get to the final destination and finish the game. The further into that game you go, the closer you have to watch the clock, especially if you invest more into your barony. I love Owlcat Games, and what they're currently doing with the new Pathfinder game, but they simply weren't talented enough to pull off a game that had so many features that ultimately conflicted with each other. Kingmaker's the exact kind of content a sequel should get, and Wrath of the Righteous a third game.

[Heatman]

Out of my own forgetfulness, I lost over 6 hours of progress with playing Marvel’s Spider-Man. I was actually thinking that I had saved manually since my autosave was off but to my greatest surprise when I had power malfunction as a result of fuse breach, I lost everything.