Save Scumming: Difference between revisions

Some games modify this by giving you limited amounts of saves (similar to [[Video Game Lives]] but perhaps allowing some strategy), bonuses for low numbers of saves, or immediately erasing/saving a game whenever you die or do something important (Iron Man mode). Some games kick it up to 11 by actually detecting whether you cheated by Save-Swapping, trying to obfuscate the game which deletes a saved game by manually putting back a copy of the said save file right after deletion by the game into its save folder. Even worse, wiser games will even call you out for actually trying to feed it an invalid saved file!

Other games, however, especially Japanese-made games designed with the "maniacs" in mind, not only validate it as a tactic, but make it utterly mandatory for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]. The [[Infinity+1 Sword]] is not only dropped only by the ultra-difficult [[Bonus Boss]], but it only has a 1% chance of dropping it, and there is only one of that boss in the game. Beating the boss once after a theoretically infinite number of save scummings may just be a fluke, but beating a difficult boss 50 to 500 times in a row shows not only mastery of the game, [[Determinator|but also]] [[Bladder of Steel|superhuman patience]].

== Video game examples ==

=== [[Action Adventure]] ===

** On the subject of Castlevania, in ''[[Portrait of Ruin]]'', there are specific items and skills that can only be obtained in the Nest of Evil. if the player does not receive the item, they can simply suspend the game and restart, allowing them to refight the enemy without having to go through the entire floor again.

* ''[[Majoras Mask]]'' tries to avert this by requiring you to reset time in order to save, thus undoing all the minor details you'd accomplished. However, you can also talk to an owl statue—they're supposed to only be a ''temporary'' save, but you can cheat the owls by copying your save file before you load the game.

*** If the player refuses to purchase a Saurus enough times in ''[[Quest for Glory II]]'', the game will eventually give a [[Game Over]] for [[Spoiler|undisclosed reasons]].

{{quote|I think the reason was 'terminal stubbornness'}}

* Lampshaded in the fifth [[Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People|Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People]], ''8-Bit Is Enough''. If Strong Bad is attacked by the scorpion monster in the Peasant's Quest realm, the game presents a Sierra-style game over screen, while Strong Bad simply picks himself up off the ground and remarks about how he "never reads those things".

* This is the only way to beat the old [[Infocom]] [[Interactive Fiction]] games. The worst examples being the two [[Douglas Adams]] entries, ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' and the deliberately maddening ''Bureaucracy.'' The process could be very rewarding, since going back and trying different things at certain points in the game often gave hilarious results.

=== [[Platform Game]] ===

* The entire ''[[Masocore]]'' genre, by definition. Save scumming is ''intended behavior'' in many of these games.

** It doesn't help that while there are a few stages where being Mini Mario is downright necessary, there's also quite a few where it just makes everything easier (any stage where walljumping is needed, for instance, due to Mini's increased range).

* This is the entire point of [[Platform Hell]] games to some extent. ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'', ''[[Kaizo Mario World]]'', and various others will require you to basically save before doing absolutely anything and then keep going back to the save when you inevitably fail. More so in [[Game Mods]] with emulator save state features.

** It's also the entire point of Tool Assisted Speedrun only games such as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAzxnJKCEdU&feature=channel_page Pit of Despair/Death], where the whole point of the game is to be played with a constantly supply of save states, frame by frame slow down and a couple of thousand retries after things go wrong.

** Not to mention the Scrappy levels in ''Command&Conquer'' where you only have the secret agent/commando type characters, and a light tank just wandered off into the darkness only to brake and turn around.

* Lampshaded in the ending of ''[[Perimeter]]'', when [[Eldritch Abomination|The Infernals]] inform the player that their [[Evil Plan]] required the participation of an [[Mind Screw|extra-dimensional being]] with the ability to travel back in time at will in order to correct his or her past mistakes.

* In the final mission (two missions, unless you are playing the Harkonnen) of the ''[[Dune II]]'' the enemy periodically launches ''Death Hand'' missiles at your base. The missile has an about 50% chance of hitting; [[Unwinnable|good luck continuing your mission]] if it had destroyed half of your base or - even better - a single bulding, but a vital one that you can't afford (or don't have means) to rebuild.

* In ''[[Warcraft]]'' Nozdormu is the leader of the Bronze Dragonflight, responsible for overseeing time. Fighting him is a bit futile, since if even if you win against the titanic superpowerful dragon he'll just rewind time and fight you again, this time knowing exactly what you're going to do.

* Also, ''Liberal Crime Squad'' deletes the save.dat file if you die, or succeed, or really anything that would permanently prevent your character from furthering the goals.

* Sierra/Troika's ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' made save scumming efficient, easy and your best friend when you're about to try stealing something, with no drawbacks or penalties.

* In ''[[Xenogears]]'' there's a part where you can have a doctor try to remove a bomb collar that your character has. It will either explode (or, rather, [[Fission Mailed|the main character will have a vision of the bomb exploding and call off the attempt in a panic]]), or the doctor will successfully remove part or all of it. This doesn't change the plot at all, but you can sell the removed parts. There's no way to affect what happens other than savescumming.

* Try this in the DS [[Dating Sim]] ''[[Love Plus]]'' and you'll have to vocally apologize to your girlfriend. [[But Thou Must!|If you don't, she will not let you play.]]

* In [[The Sims]], there's no way to choose a newborn's gender, unless saving right before the birth and reloading as often as needed to get the gender you want.

* [[The Idolmaster (video game)|The Idolmaster]] suffers poorly from save scumming because one of the stats 'personality' directly affects their tension levels. When a character uses save scumming however their tension levels are useless because you can always win Auditions and do well in Lessons. This makes characters like Chihaya look unfairly balanced compared to others like the Futami twins even though her personality stat is 0. The Japanese call it 'fair play' to play without saving and reloading for better results which is how the game originally played in the arcades.

** ''[[Luminous Arc 2]]'''s Intermissions are chapter-based for almost all characters, but the player can still save scum for Best Breaks.

*** ''[[Luminous Arc 3]]'' makes it even easier by letting you save right before you talk to a character so you can reload immediately after if you don't like the result.

=== [[Turn Based Tactics]] ===

=== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ===

* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games had save scumming in spades when it came to weapons. Any time you died or got busted, you lost all your guns, leading players to save after every single mission and reloading if they died or get busted on a mission. San Andreas and GTA 4 introduced ways to let the player keep their weapons after death or arrest to discourage save scumming.

* ''[[Minecraft]]'', of all things, prevents this in single-player by auto-saving periodically, including when you die. You can easily copy and manipulate your saves when the game is closed though.

** Doesn't even need to be closed. Quit to main menu, alt-tab, copypaste the save, go back to the game, load.

=== [[Fighting Game]] ===

** Having to lose each fight for 100% completion was removed in the sequal. This was done specifically because people complained so much about it. An egg explaining it is found if you lose a match enough times.

* In ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', getting storyline rewards required having a certain number of Destiny Points at the end of a stage. These points are earned by beating opponents within certain parameters. On failure to do resetting the PSP allows the player to repeat the battle.

* The first ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' had save crystals, so save scumming was impossible. People complained about the time between saves, so they implemented a save anywhere feature for the sequel. Unfortunately to compensate they raised the difficulty level to the point where some sections required Save Scumming to get through.

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' only has three ending options {{spoiler|everyone dies, some people die or everyone lives}}. However, given the tendency of some people to become somewhat attached to specific characters (witness the [[Fan Dumb|flame]] [[Internet Backdraft|wars]]) and the real possibility [[Anyone Can Die]], there's a temptation to mess around with saves. The game's morality system also can lead to perfectionism, which reinforces the tendency to do things over.

* ''[[Might and Magic]] VII''.

=== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ===

* Not quite conventional Save Scumming, but ''[[Saints Row|Saint's Row 2]]'' lets you keep all your gear and ammo at the time of when you saved, but if it was during a mission, you start at the beginning of said mission. This can actually be abused, as during the Veteran Child mission there's ''always'' one of the Sons of Samedi in the same location wielding a [[AKA-47|K6 Krukov]]; Assault Rifle ammo is shared between weapons, even if they don't even use the same caliber, much less magazines. Kill, save, load, repeat until you have all the Assault Rifle ammo you want.

** Another method of doing this which can be accessed earlier in the game is to use the betting shop in Blueberry. Catalina's house on Fern Ridge has a save spot and a fast car that spawns on every load. The road down the ridge leads directly to the Shop, and only takes about 30 seconds. Betting on the longshot has a massive payout and can net you a huge income very quickly.

=== Literature ===

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[Discworld/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'', Yetis have learned to do this, and will periodically save their lives, and if they get killed, they'll go back and not be such a fool this time. It's mentioned that the whole species has gone extinct on three separate occasions.