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

Thank You for not Saving

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Drew "Hobbes Lionheart" Robarge
FAN EDITORIALIST

This editorial is in defense the system of Breath of Fire V. Although to my regret, I have yet to finish the game or play more than half of it, I was somewhat frustrated by the system, but I understood the system. The system was designed to make you frustrated. Breath of Fire V system was innovative and designed to be hard by encouraging some risks and advising more caution than an ordinary RPG would expect from you.

The first reason Breath of Fire implemented the save system was because they wanted the game to be hard. Nothing kills difficulty levels other than saving or even free recovering at save points. One of the trademarks of Final Fantasy is that in a dungeon if you see a save spot, and you have been in the dungeon for quite a while, expect a boss battle in the next chamber. That kills the suspense or the cautious approach that one may normally take. On the other hand, in Dragon Quest/Warrior at least I-VII, the only place you could save was at a priest in town; however, party deaths are forgiving, well depending on what you died for. When you die in a dungeon, you are whisked back to the town priest with half of your money robbed and only one person alive so not only is half your money gone in a game where money is hard to come by, you have to shell more money to resurrect your fallen comrades. It is like double dipping; however, you keep the experience which in most cases is worth dying for. The save system contributes somewhat to difficulty level of the series.

Now for Breath of Fire, the previous 1-4 games were similar to typical RPGs in where you could save outside for the most part and maybe some places to save in dungeon and towns. However, Breath of Fire V was a different story. They wanted to make the game hard, and they wanted to do something that nobody has done before. First, permanent saves were limited to using tokens at save stations which meant if you died, you were able start at where you saved with everything. Tokens and save stations were few and far in between; however, they did have suspend save to save the game at wherever you were. Suspend data is erased after reloading like almost every game. Suspend save is unlimited, but it is not useful as a back up since it is gone when you reload it. Secondly, once you picked a slot to save, that is the only slot you could save to. You can't save in another slot where someone would save in three or four slots so you could go back for whatever reason. Thirdly, stated before, tokens are rare to get. You will have maybe one or two at your possession at all times. You can't just plunk tokens like quarters at every save station. You would maybe use one at that station at one time. You can't go killing monsters nearby then save again. You have to economize your tokens thus your saves.

One half of the save system was to make the game hard. The other half was to help implement the SOL (Scenario OverLay) system that Breath of Fire V implemented. SOL allowed you to restart from anywhere with the things that you had in your locker and the party experience points (not your characters). Why would one want to restart? Well, that is also complicated since there are many other reasons, but sometimes you will face areas that are too hard, you could pad yourself with experience saved to beat it. Also, the restart allows you to see more of the story like a cut scene that might not been there in the first run through. So if you stashed a good sword in the locker and started over, you could breeze through the first parts and gain experience and save up on tokens.

So the save spots few and far apart force you to decide: do I want to use my only token on this save spot, or could I hold out for another half hour to hour until the next save spot? It's about risk. If there is nothing to risk, then there is no excitement, no pressure. Imagine sweating through a dungeon knowing that you could die the next battle, and you would waste hour and half of your life. Don't you think you would be a little more careful or cautious? Also, choices are needed to be made. With the limited tokens, where or when are you going to use them? You can't choose another slot to save in so you are stuck with your choice. You ask yourself: did you really need to save, or you could have held out? There are several times where I had to skip a save spot, because I had only one token and I decided to hold out. I might have made a gamble that involved risking two hours of my life, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. Breath of Fire V encourages those risks and that's half the fun.