I’m a casual gamer so perhaps this has been made hundreds of times and I just ignore it.
So let’s say you play your game, things don’t go well so you go back and reload a save. Now, with your current knowledge you can get things right and that’s usually how it goes with games.
Is there any game that takes this into the plot as something necessary by design (say for example, the main character is supposed to be clairvoyant or something)? You play, your character gets things wrong the first time, but now when you reload your character will obviously do everything right, almost as if they were clairvoyant/psychic/etc because that’s exactly what your character is. The only way to beat the game is to explore a variety of outcomes in order to gather information until you get it right, but instead of this being immersion breaking it’s actually supported by the plot itself.
Not sure if I’m making sense here or maybe I ate the wrong kind of cookies, you tell me…
idk if this is on topic but I remember playing jak3 as a kid and after i constantly died, that stupid fkin rat pops up and said something like “You suck”. I think i cried for a bit lmao
Katana Zero does this. You have precognition and work out how to win an encounter before you actually do it. Later, it explores more interesting concepts like, “what if your opponent also has the same ability”. The story is really good, so i won’t go into it too much, but I highly recommend.
Nice, I haven’t heard about this one either. Thanks!
Note that it’s not an RPG, though.
Isn’t that just Undertale and Deltarune?
I don’t know, you tell me. Never played either
Yep, narratively Undertale uses the exact concept you’re talking about.
It’s not much of a mechanic for most parts of the game though.
Yes, IIRC Undertale it will only taunt you a bit at first, you have to play almost to the end before you really notice. But then it masterfully beats you against the 4th wall, hard, several times. (Speaking about eating the wrong cookies, yes it does feel like that.)
And then, when you start a second play-through, the 4th wall stays broken. (Personally I didn’t care enough for the game for a second play-through, but if you read it up it’s a whole thing, the game will not simply reset.)
Thanks for providing some context! I’m definitely intrigued now, I’ll keep this one for my wishlist
Yes.
This.
The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games notoriously do this. It’s like half the exploits of the game if you’re a speedrunner.
Though, not necessarily in the way you intended to mean. It’s just how the save system works mechanically. Shit like having your momentum preserved to get massive speed boosts by simply saving and loading real quick, but also you can quickly backtrack by saving where you wanna be, doing a quest and then reloading as, for some reason, the quest being completed will also be saved eveb though you did it after you made the save.
Yes but there is nothing in game to explain how your character suddenly knew where to go or how they got the power boost. I’m looking for something that actually takes this into account as an essential part of the plot.
Undertale does this. It even goes so far with breaking the 4th wall, that for one of the possible endings you need to close the game and delete your save file from Windows (and it tells you this in-game). It knows you did this, and is the only way to continue with that particular path.
It has other nods to you reloading a save at various times throughout the game, as well.
Yes, it seems to fit the bill pretty well. From all the comments I think I should definitely play it sometime
No Man’s Sky.
spoiler
The game’s lore is that it is a simulation. Some of the expeditions require you to live/die/repeat per se.
Interesting, this would fit the bill, thanks
Maybe check out deathloop?
This game has a game mechanic that is similar to what you describe: https://store.steampowered.com/app/311240/Zero_Escape_Zero_Time_Dilemma/
You are faced with lots of challenging and deadly traps/puzzle that almost always end with your death. But you can jump back to earlier times in the story and with your new knowledge you can make better choices.
Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter isn’t quite the what you are describing, but it is built around saving and reloading regularly.
I now want to make a game that does exactly that.
If you quick save in an area with killable NPCs they would know and some would look at you and back away slowly, others would turn an run like in GTA, maybe one or two go wide eyed and freeze and just stare at you waiting. If you had previously killed any and reloaded then one goes “Oh no, not again.”
I would make puzzles or locked areas that are impossible to open UNTIL you figure out that knowledge, but if you reload after learning that and try to shortcut the process the puzzle would either change so you fail again or even better, you could solve it and like a door opens, but then when you go into the next room there is a scroll or book tome thing that would lecture you about cheating or something funny and then make you do a second different puzzle to proceed, that would be an infinite series of rooms if you reloaded, but if you solved then organically then you could finally escape the loop and the door exits the loop.
If you don’t play for a while and load up an old save, make some characters aware of the passage of time and comment things like “oh I thought you forgot about us.” Or even specifically call out the exact amount “Really? 49 days waiting on you. Did you even think about me?”
I LOVE the idea someone else mentioned of an in-game antagonist being able to corrupt your save file or even transfer themselves to one of your other save files. How freaky would it be if they corrupt your save, so you have to load an old save before you met that antagonist and then they fucking show up and KNOW WHAT YOU DID.
Or if it reads your other saves and the NPCs could make rude or insulting comments about them. “Been playing Mario instead of spending time with us again? Is a plumber really better than us? Ouch.” Or if you played any spicy games one of the characters would look at you and wink and go “I was watching you Friday night, you animal.” And really freak you out.
I really love the 4th wall break idea of an antagonist that becomes self aware and breaks out of the game. There was a Star Trek TNG episode where Data and Geordi do a Sherlock Holmes holodeck thing and create a Moriarty character that could “outsmart data” and he becomes sentient and breaks out of the holodeck and it’s a whole thing and I love that concept for a game.
There are so many amazing possibilities.
OneShot’s plot focuses on the gamer’s relation to the protagonist, Niko, so try that!
Oh interesting! I was also going to ask about games with that plot/narrative device in this post, but I typed so much to explain myself with the saves already I thought I might leave it for another occasion.
Yeah I don’t know if that game is anything like this, but one could say the player directly manipulates, influences, controls and /or gives information to the game protagonist… What if the protagonist could interact directly with you as a player? That’d be a cool concept to explore too. Cheers
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/
Don’t read into it too too much. It’s better experienced knowing as little as possible, but things are absolutely not as they seem
This one rings a bell… I can’t remember much but I’ve heard it’s a good game
Depends on your pet theory as to what sort of soul the player character has in the elder scrolls, but being adjacent to the missing God isn’t far off.
This reminds me of the book “Only you can save mankind” by Terry Pratchett. The aliens surrender once they realise the player is apparently immortal!
This gimmick instantly reminds me of The Stanley Parable. It isn’t really related to saving and loading but it does “reset” you all the time. I find it an absolute gem of a game.
Never heard of it… Will keep in mind!
Animal Crossing O o O
Resetti has always been one of my favorite parts of the series.
