10 Video Games That Punished You For Saving

Save points don't always save you.

Alien Isolation
Sega

It's hard to believe there was a time when saving in a video game wasn't an option. When you ran out of lives, you had to start from scratch.

Nowadays, saving is part and parcel with almost any modern title. In recent years, you don't have to worry about manual saving, since auto-saves are the norm. The younger generation probably can't comprehend the dread that veteran gamers experienced, running around to find a save point to avoid losing hours of progress.

We may have widely different opinions on what defines a good game, but you'd assume we could all agree save files are a universally positive feature.

And yet, saving can have its drawbacks. Certain games make it so inconvenient to find save points, you'll die long before reaching them. Other times, you have to pay a price to prevent your progress from being lost. If you save after running out of guns and ammo, you might have to start all over again. Even though save points should be a blessing, the games on this list made it feel more like a punishment.

10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch

Alien Isolation
Level 5

Ni No Kuni isn't one of those RPGs where you can take it easy once you reach a certain level. At any point in your playthrough, even the lowest enemies can take you out. If you're not monitoring your party's HP, you'll be looking at the Game Over screen before you know it.

When this occurs, you'd assume you have to restart from the last save point. But that's not always the case, since the game allows you to save at the exact moment you died, so you don't lose any progress.

But there's a cost. To utilise this feature, you have to fork over 10% of your coins. Now, 10% of anything doesn't sound like much. If that's the price to avoid losing an hour of progress, it seems reasonable.

But this "to save or not to save" dilemma is a problem, since equipment in Ni No Kuni is REALLY expensive. There are times where you have to grind for an hour and sell dozens of items just to afford one flippin' sword! If you're hoping to fill up your wallet, it might be better to restart from the last save point after you die, rather than accepting this costly compromise.

Contributor
Contributor

James Egan has written 80 books including 1000 Facts about Superheroes Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about TV Shows Vol. 1-3 Twitter - @jameswzegan85