Old Save Bonus: Difference between revisions

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=== 4X ===

=== Action Adventure ===

=== Action Game ===

=== Adventure Game ===

=== Arcade Game ===

=== Beat'Em Up ===

=== Card Battle Game ===

=== Driving Game ===

=== Edutainment Game ===

=== Fighting Game ===

=== First-Person Shooter ===

=== Hack and Slash ===

=== Interactive Fiction ===

=== Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game ===

=== Maze Game ===

=== Party Game ===

=== Platform Game ===

=== Puzzle Game ===

=== Racing Game ===

=== Real Time Strategy ===

=== Rhythm Game ===

=== Roguelike ===

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* The somewhat obscure [[Roguelike]] for Windows 3.x, ''[[Castle of the Winds]]'', came in two parts. The Shareware first part allowed you to save your game after beating the [[Big Bad]] of the game, where you could then continue it in the commercial second part exactly as left. This created a bit of a problem for characters created anew in the second part, since it was tuned for an already-leveled and geared character. It got around this by giving new characters some instant levels and gear, although characters brought forward from the first part were typically significantly better off.

=== Role-Playing Game ===

* Unlocking Japanese as an audio option for Theater Mode instead of the default English in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]: [[No Export for You|Final Mix+]]'' requires having a finished ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|Re: Chain of Memories]]'' save file on the memory card. Notably, ''Final Mix+'' added a few cutscenes not in the original edition of the game, which means that there is no English voiceover available for them. ''This'', in turn, means that these cutscenes ''are essentially muted'' until you get around to finishing the other game. Which, naturally, is [[Guide Dang It|entirely in Japanese]]. At least ''Re: Chain of Memories'' [[Embedded Precursor|comes with]] ''Final Mix +''...

* Though this trope was dead for many years, it's not really all that new on computers: in early installments of ''[[Ultima]]'', ''[[The Bard's Tale Trilogy|Bards Tale]]'' or ''[[Wizardry]]'', it's possible to import a player from each game in the same series into the next game - although this ended at least a decade before the release of Ultima 9.

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** ''Wizardry VIII'', the last game of the series, pushed the envelope by having you not only keep your character, but some of the allies and affiliations they had made in the previous game. This changed your starting location to your ally's base, and severely altered the way in which you could resolve the plot... assuming, that is, you were one of the few who still had their ''Wizardry VII'' saves from '''ten years ago!'''

* Many, ''many'' [[Dungeons & Dragons]] licensed games published by SSI featured this, forming several separate continuums. The classic "Gold Box" games included two separate series set in [[Forgotten Realms]], and one in [[Dragonlance|Krynn]], in addition to the sci-fi [[Buck Rogers]] games. Later series which also allowed character importing include ''[[Eye of the Beholder]]'', ''[[Dark Sun]]'' and ''[[Ravenloft]]'' series.

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* The somewhat obscure [[Roguelike]] for Windows 3.x, ''[[Castle of the Winds]]'', came in two parts. The Shareware first part allowed you to save your game after beating the [[Big Bad]] of the game, where you could then continue it in the commercial second part exactly as left. This created a bit of a problem for characters created anew in the second part, since it was tuned for an already-leveled and geared character. It got around this by giving new characters some instant levels and gear, although characters brought forward from the first part were typically significantly better off.

* Both ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' games allow you to save your characters and load them into the expansion packs and free content modules so that you can continue their adventures over multiple stories.

* ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]] II'' allowed you to import player characters from ''Baldur's Gate''. Though you lost most of your equipment, you could start at a higher level this way if you installed the expansion pack and made it to the (increased) level cap from the first game. In addition, some of your equipment from the last game would turn up in-game. This included the golden pantaloons, and item that could be combined with the silver pantaloons from the second game and the bronze pantalettes from ''Throne of Bhaal'' to make a ''very'' powerful suit of armor and accompanying weapon.

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** In ''Baldur's Gate'', you could do this to much bigger benefit, quickly collecting some magical gear and starting the game much better equipped than usually.

** Originally, ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' was intended to be compatible with character files imported from the BG games. As it spent five years in [[Development Hell]], and was ultimately released using 3E rules rather than 2E AD&D rules, however, this became impossible, and was left out of the final release.

=== Shoot'Em Up ===

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* The ''[[Ratchet & Clank|Ratchet and Clank]]'' sequel ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando|Going Commando]]'' rewards players of the previous game with the five returning weapons being sold for free if you have bought them in the first game beforehand. The third game, ''[[Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal|Up Your Arsenal]]'', does it for the two previous games seperately, with price discounts from a ''[[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|Ratchet & Clank]]'' save and the five returning ''Going Commando'' weapons for free if you have upgraded them to Mega in that game. Justified: the player is told by the Gadgetron head after a certain quest of the first game that the player is entitled to the employee discount in two years time. The second game takes place in a different galaxy with a different main corporation you buy things from. The third game returns to the galaxy in the first game; these games are developed at a rate of one a year, so the third game was released almost exactly two years from the time the first game was... turns out the man's true to his words.

=== Simulation Game ===

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** The ''Future'' [[Story Arc]] does it too: While ''Quest for Booty'' doesn't get anything unlocked from ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction|Tools of Destruction]]'', ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future A Crack In Time|A Crack in Time]]'' gets seperate bonuses from both predecessors (Price discounts from ''Tools of Destruction'' and a wearable pirate hat for Ratchet from ''Quest for Booty'').

=== Sports Game ===

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* Most [[Sports Game|EA Sports]] titles reward players for playing earlier versions of the game, specifically versions from the previous year.

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** The College Football players you create in recent edition EA's ''NCAA Football'' series can have pro careers by being imported to your copy of corresponding editions of the ''Madden NFL'' series. If you also owned ''NFL Head Coach 09'', you could use its advanced play editor to import custom plays into ''Madden 09.''

=== Stealth Based Game ===

=== Survival Horror ===

* ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'' has an [[Easter Egg]] only available if you have a ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' save file on your memory card. Examine a toilet in one of the mall's bathrooms, and the game will say there's something stuck in here, then ask if you want to retrieve it. If you say "yes", Heather will try to get whatever is stuck here, but will eventually gross out and refuse to do it. This is a [[Shout-Out]] to ''Silent Hill 2'', where you must retrieve a safe box combination from a wallet stuck in a toilet.

** You can find a few other easter eggs if you examine the mailboxes in Woodside Apartments, inspect the fencing on the roof of Brookhaven, and look around Heaven's Night.

=== Tower Defense ===

=== Third-Person Shooter ===

=== Turn-Based Strategy ===

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* If you have a [[Game Cube]] memory card with ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'' save data plugged into your Wii when you make a new game on ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Radiant Dawn'', characters that were in both games (most of the cast) can have their stats improved. In theory anyway. A rather nasty bug in the North American version of ''Radiant Dawn'', caused by the arbitrary renaming of difficulty settings in the localization, makes the game crash when this is attempted if there are any easy difficulty saves on the memory card.

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** Also, ''Path of Radiance'' had some bonus unlockables of its own that could be achieved by linking up with a GBA with ''Blazing Sword'', ''Sacred Stones'', or (Japanese version only) ''Sealed Sword'' inserted.

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** In order to hear a conversation between Soren and Ike in ''Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn'', you would need a save game file from ''Path of Radiance''. The relationship level between both characters needs to be A in both games. There are other requirements but this is the main one.

=== Visual Novel ===

=== Wide Open Sandbox ===

=== Other Game Genres ===

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* The ''[[Ratchet & Clank|Ratchet and Clank]]'' sequel ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando|Going Commando]]'' rewards players of the previous game with the five returning weapons being sold for free if you have bought them in the first game beforehand. The third game, ''[[Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal|Up Your Arsenal]]'', does it for the two previous games seperately, with price discounts from a ''[[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|Ratchet & Clank]]'' save and the five returning ''Going Commando'' weapons for free if you have upgraded them to Mega in that game. Justified: the player is told by the Gadgetron head after a certain quest of the first game that the player is entitled to the employee discount in two years time. The second game takes place in a different galaxy with a different main corporation you buy things from. The third game returns to the galaxy in the first game; these games are developed at a rate of one a year, so the third game was released almost exactly two years from the time the first game was... turns out the man's true to his words.

⚫

** The ''Future'' [[Story Arc]] does it too: While ''Quest for Booty'' doesn't get anything unlocked from ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction|Tools of Destruction]]'', ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future A Crack In Time|A Crack in Time]]'' gets seperate bonuses from both predecessors (Price discounts from ''Tools of Destruction'' and a wearable pirate hat for Ratchet from ''Quest for Booty'').

* ''We Love Katamari'', the sequel to ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'', can import the star data created in the previous game into the new cosmos map.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' used the save data to mess with the player's head. Psycho Mantis can read your mind (actually, your memory card), and not only comment on your playstyle, but also tell you what games you like to play. In the original, it looked for Konami titles (such as ''[[Suikoden]]'', ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'', and even ''[[Snatcher]]'' and ''[[Policenauts]]'' in the Japanese version - having a save file for both unlocks a special message from Hideo Kojima); in the Gamecube remake (''The Twin Snakes''), it looks for Nintendo titles (including ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Melee'', which is [[Hilarious in Hindsight]], and [[Eternal Darkness]], made by the same team behind the remake).

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** ''.hack//G.U.'' also names one character after your main character in the original games, if it finds a save file for one of them.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' and ''[[Assassin's Creed]]: Bloodlines'' can connect to each other, so that in AC II, you get the weapons from each of the bosses that you defeated in Bloodlines as well as some extra money, and in Bloodlines you can now [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower|block with the hidden blade]], [[Improbable Weapon User|fire knives from your hidden blade]] and get a health extension.

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* Most [[Sports Game|EA Sports]] titles reward players for playing earlier versions of the game, specifically versions from the previous year.

⚫

** The College Football players you create in recent edition EA's ''NCAA Football'' series can have pro careers by being imported to your copy of corresponding editions of the ''Madden NFL'' series. If you also owned ''NFL Head Coach 09'', you could use its advanced play editor to import custom plays into ''Madden 09.''

* There are simply ''tons'' of [[Nintendo DS]] games that have small bonuses when you put an appropiate GBA game into the GBA slot.

** Putting a Sega game in the GBA slot while playing ''Project Rub/Feel the Magic XY/XX'' on DS unlocked special hats for the girl. The same items can be unlocked without the GBA games, but it takes a lot longer.

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* Having a save file from the ''[[Iron Man]]'' video game on your system unlocks Iron Man (in Hulkbuster armor) as a playable character in the ''Incredible Hulk'' video game.

* The ''[[Naruto]]: Ultimate Ninja'' series of video games reward you for having save files from the previous games on your memory card, typically with in-game cash and ([[Memetic Mutation|quite mysterious]]) ninja (info) cards.

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* If you have a [[Game Cube]] memory card with ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'' save data plugged into your Wii when you make a new game on ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Radiant Dawn'', characters that were in both games (most of the cast) can have their stats improved. In theory anyway. A rather nasty bug in the North American version of ''Radiant Dawn'', caused by the arbitrary renaming of difficulty settings in the localization, makes the game crash when this is attempted if there are any easy difficulty saves on the memory card.

⚫

** Also, ''Path of Radiance'' had some bonus unlockables of its own that could be achieved by linking up with a GBA with ''Blazing Sword'', ''Sacred Stones'', or (Japanese version only) ''Sealed Sword'' inserted.

⚫

** In order to hear a conversation between Soren and Ike in ''Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn'', you would need a save game file from ''Path of Radiance''. The relationship level between both characters needs to be A in both games. There are other requirements but this is the main one.

* ''[[Need for Speed]]: Most Wanted'' started you off with $30,000 to buy your first car, which basically meant a choice of three out of the four initially unlocked cars. If you were playing this game on a system that also saw the release of ''Need For Speed: Underground 2'', if you had the save file for that game (all platforms) or at least installed it (PC), you get an extra $10,000 to start with, expanding your available starter choices to all four.

** If you had the demo for ''Most Wanted'' on your PC or [[Xbox 360]]'s hard drive, you would also unlock an extra performance marker.