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My first mistake was going four hours without saving.
In Dragon Quest VIII, I had spent two hours on a fetch quest, an hour upgrading equipment through the time-eating alchemy, and came to find out I had enough money to go shopping. Saving didn't even cross my mind as I returned to watch the scene to complete my fetch quest. I just went straight from shopping to the castle and got caught up in a text/voice heavy scene.
Then it happened...
I couldn't progress the text. I punched all the buttons on my controller, but the little icon to progress never appeared. My heart skipped a beat as I glanced at the clock and realized how many hours it had been since saving last. As an indication of where I was in the game, I had just got done babysitting a very stuck up prince. I did not want to do that again, and I know that redoing that fetch quest would have been a game killer for me. I would have never picked it up again on account of my own stupidity.
So, I threw the controller on the floor and started freaking out. I sighed and randomly decided to try opening the disc tray and hope it reloaded. My PS2 has a nasty habit of not responding to that, though I've heard other people use this little trick in the past. For a whole minute, though it seemed like forever, I saw nothing but a gray screen.
And then music started...
Then the screen reappeared, with the little arrow flashing at the bottom of the text, no less! I hurried up and finished the scene and literally raced to the nearest church to save my game. After the game was saved, I turned it off and sat back to catch my breath and be grateful my PS2 actually reloaded the game.
I've always had a bad habit of not saving often enough. In most games, its really not a big deal. Most of the games I've done it in aren't much longer than fifty hours, where it gets harder for me to pick a game up. I'm past the fifty hour mark in Dragon Quest VIII and it has been hard enough to pick the game up when I have time for it. I love the game, but it gets to a point where I just don't have an urge to play, knowing there is so much more to do yet.
In most games, save points are everywhere. Some are in the next room from the one before it. It's easy to remember to save when save points are jumping out at you. But in games like Dragon Quest VIII, where you have to save at a specific location, it gets harder to remember to save. Another problem I tend to have is oversaving. I miss something important in a game and after I save I can't go back to get it because it's too late. This is why I always tend to have a backup save file that is two or three hours earlier than my current status. If I have to go back for something, it's as easy as loading the other file. Oversaving is more common for me in those games where they give you a save point in every room.
One of these days I'll find a happy medium between not saving enough and saving way too often. I think that, until then, I'm going to lean more toward the saving way too often side of the coin. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm doing it again...
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