10 Most Unforgiving Checkpoints In Gaming History
5. Riku - Kingdom Hearts
Hearing the same single line time and time again is bad enough, but truly, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of bad checkpoints are those that are placed before cutscenes.
What appeared to be a cutesy JRPG with Disney characters on the surface, Kingdom Hearts turned out to be a wildly complex story about hearts, keys, friendship, and betrayal (and that’s just in the first game, which feels quaint compared to the bombastic nature of all the others).
A particularly important and human thread throughout Kingdom Hearts is the complex relationship between Sora and Riku, which comes to a head later in the game when they’re both fighting for different sides. The two face-off against each other in a Keyblade battle that’s one of the toughest bosses in the title, no question.
Which makes it particularly irritating when Riku beats your face in - as he is likely to do - and you have to sit through the setup once more.
Two minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, but no gamer wants to spend their precious free time being forced to watch the same two minutes over and over again. Thankfully, later reiterations made this boss battle much more manageable, and, perhaps more importantly, added the ability to skip cutscenes.