R P G A M E R . C O M   -   E D I T O R I A L S

Are We There Yet?

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Michael "Macstorm" Cunningham
STAFF EDITORIALIST

Are we there yet? No, I'm not talking about going on vacation with kids. This is something much more annoying; not being able to save when you need to. You sit through about twenty minutes of cinematics, a boss fight, and then you have to make your way out of a dungeon. I really hope you don't have anywhere to go or anything else to do, because there is no save point until you get out. You better hope your friends don't call to do something or your wife wants you to help her with something or your boyfriend wants to go out, because it's not happening. You need to find a save point first.

I guess developers figure that it adds to the challenge of the game if you have to go through all of these trials before you can save. My recent start of Radiata Stories had me exploring an entire area with nowhere to save until certain goals had been met. This was frustrating due to the fact that I had to pause for an hour to run out and pick up my wife. Had the power gone out at my house, I would have had to start over completely. I understand that being able to save anywhere could make the game too easy or in some cases get you stuck and unable to escape, but it is still annoying. I believe that there are other work arounds that many games have implemented to allow for saving anywhere without taking away from the game's challenge.

Console RPGs are the worst for doing this, as many portable RPGs have solved the problem via a "quick save" feature. A temporary or "quick" save allows for a save that gets overwritten once you load it again, but is a simple solution for gamers that need to stop in the middle of a dungeon. It doesn't take away from the game's challenge, because you cannot resort back to that save later. It's basically a pause feature that lets you turn the game off. Why all RPGs don't have this, I don't know.

Long, drawn out cut scenes are another issue that arise for gamers short on time. Thankfully, games that are heavy into cinematic cut scenes such as the Xenosaga series, do allow for gamers to pause during cut scenes. This is just the first step. Why not allowing saving during the middle of a twenty minute cut scene? I like being able to stop a DVD movie at any point and come back to it later, why can't I have the same option with an RPG? Maybe I should just be thankful that games like Xenosaga allow me to even pause during cut scenes, because many games don't even have that option. Not every gamer has tons of free time on their hands.