History Main / SaveGameLimits

* The ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series use of saves changes a lot between games and even versions; ''all'' of the PC versions of the original Core Design games let you save anywhere you want (and in ''Franchise/TombRaider 3's'' case even kept the former save crystals and made them give a health boost instead). On the console versions:
** ''VideoGame/TombRaider 1'' had a type of checkpoint system with stationary crystals that could be used whenever you want, but only once.

** Due to complaints of the ''Tomb Raider II'' system being "too easy" from various people (perhaps in a rare proof of ViewersAreMorons). ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' took the save system of the first game and expanded it by letting you carry the crystals and save them up for use at any time. This backfired, as the "checkpoint" feel of the original game's was gone, leaving many players wondering when to use them, resulting in a case of TooAwesomeToUse, combined with the fact that the game was much harder than the first game and that the save crystals were very rare (with there only being around sixty in the whole game, with a lot of them being hidden in secret areas).

* ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'': UpToEleven - once save per ''installation''. It's literally only possible to have one save. This means when you start the game, you play that game until you win, die, or restart and overwrite the save - you can't, for example, have multiple campaigns with different ships saved at the same time.

*** Other examples: infinite silver keys (but don't go above 30...I heard that too many will cause a glitch) and doing the Arena multiple times.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' removed the constant auto saving (understandable considering it's a console release that relies on memory cards), meaning that you could ONLY save at the beginning of the chapter, though you could suspend data in the middle. This can become frustrating as the chapters increase in length, as one bad move could force you to restart an hour of gameplay. In addition, the fight against [[LuckBasedMission The]] [[TimedMission Black]] [[ThatOneBoss Knight]] took place after a long chapter, and if you failed that fight you had to restart the chapter all over again.
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' gave you the option to save whenever you pleased during your turn, which invited SaveScumming, but also made the chapters a lot less frustrating as you could continue from wherever you last saved. If you hope to scrape your way through Hard mode though, you don't get that luxury (only ''[=PoR=]'''s options).
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Shadow Dragon]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' introduced permanent save spots in most of the chapters, where any character could save your progress for that chapter by stepping on them, but the spots disappeared once used.

* One of the worst examples of this trope comes from the 2000 action-adventure game, ''The New Adventures Of The Time Machine''. Saving your game cost you half of an in-game magic point- magic which was essential to progress and which could only be restored by incredibly rare items. Oh, and did I mention that you only had six points at the beginning of the game?

** The later games wisely went back to the save anywhere approach. After the Crystal Dynamics ContinuityReboot the series now uses a checkpoint system, with them being regular enough that it amounts to saving after every room... [[FakeDifficulty Most of the time]]

** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' has an infamous save system. You can save only after beating a boss or mini-boss, or collecting and spending 5 star coins to open a bonus area. The game's supply of star coins and bonus areas is finite. There's no temporary save system. It being a UsefulNotes/NintendoDS game, you can suspend this game by simply closing the DS to put the game in Sleep Mode, and plugging the DS into an AC adapter.)Your "reward" for finishing the game is the ability to save after every level, proving that this save system was not a technical limitation (it was, in fact, done deliberately as a throwback to older Mario games).\\\

* Only allowing a limited number of save files (especially if its OnlyOneSaveFile). Or, alternatively, requiring that subsequent saves always overwrite the ''same'' file, thus preventing the player from keeping multiple active saves. In games where a player's decision early in the game can have later repercussions (including unwinnability), this can become a challenge for the player. In most games, however, the effective result of this is just that only a finite number of players can track their progress on a single installation at one time.

* The ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'' series was getting infamous because of this, ''Rune Factory'', ''VideoGame/RuneFactory2'' and ''VideoGame/RuneFactoryFrontier'' not only give you a small number of save files (two on the first two, three in Frontier) but they also required that every subsequent save always overwrote your file with no way to keep multiple active saves for a single campaign. This was an particularly big problem for Frontier, since it basically forced you to complete the game more than 10 times from the very beginning (around 50 hours each, at least) if you wanted 100% completion. The latter games thankfully averted this, Rune Factory 3 reverted back to 2 save files but you could overwrite both at any time, and Rune Factory Tides of destiny not only discarded the restriction but also gives you around a dozen of save files to use.

** ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} II'' does not allow you to save in any way except by quitting the game. Doing so respawns all monsters and teleports you to the town of the act you're in.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' lets you save by calling the lead character's father. Free phones are usually found in hotels (though the cheapskate city of Summers has a pay phone), although for some reason ''he'' can call ''you'' anywhere to [[AntiPoopSocking remind you to take a break]]. Quite annoying in the pyramid. Your cell phone is explicitly designed only to receive calls, which is just fine and dandy (unless you're, say, in the pyramid, when you might start really wishing that asshole fruit kid who invented it gave it buttons to dial with). Incidentally, Summers isn't the only city with a payphone. It's just the only one with''out'' a free one (the game even cautions you that green phones cost money, so be careful about using them so you don't fritter away all your money).

** ''Videogame/PaperMario'' has only save points, which means you have to continue from the last place where you saved. You better save frequently, as not only is this game long, it also has many side-missions that could require you to battle lots of enemies, and seeing as Mario's stats stay very small (Maximum 50 HP) for the whole game, it's easy to get a Game Over. Luckily, there is a save point just before all "dungeons", just before all rooms where a boss is fought (optional bosses not included), and in all towns.\\\
The sequels also have save points. ''Videogame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' has a better save system because it saves automatically after every level.
** ''Videogame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' and its two following sequels also need you to save on save points. The fourth game in the series, ''Videogame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' finally adds a save-whenever-you-want feature, but keeps the save blocks as a reminder, [[SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity specially before boss rooms]].

* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain: Soul Reaver'' had an interesting savegame system: You could save anywhere in the world and the game would store the entire game world as it is when you do, but restoring the game throws you back into the starting room, requiring players to use the many teleport gates spread across Nosgoth to get back to where they were.

* Not so much in the later VideoGame/WingCommander games, but there were only a limited number of save slots. In ''Wing Commander IV'' and ''Prophecy'', however, there were two-stage missions, and you weren't allowed to save between the stages, resulting in an annoyingly long stretch of gameplay if you were pressed for time.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Geneaology of the Holy War]]'' lets you permanently save at the beginning of your turn... until you make one of your units do something. Then you must wait until next turn to save. While it lets you [[SaveScumming Save Scum]], considering the complex and grandiose scale of the game, that's not such a bad thing.
** In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe the GBA]] games, the game autosaves EVERYWHERE in a chapter, at every significant action. If say, a character is killed or any otherwise unpleasant scenario occurs, turning the game off does nothing, because resuming that file will instantly put you in the same battle, with the same result (even if the attack had low accuracy), though you can make a permanent save before every chapter and choose to restart the chapter from there. ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Sacred Stones]]'' includes two optional multi-level dungeons with NO chance to save between levels.
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Path of Radiance]]'' removed the constant auto saving (understandable considering it's a console release that relies on memory cards), meaning that you could ONLY save at the beginning of the chapter, though you could suspend data in the middle. This can become frustrating as the chapters increase in length, as one bad move could force you to restart an hour of gameplay. In addition, the fight against [[LuckBasedMission The]] [[TimedMission Black]] [[ThatOneBoss Knight]] took place after a long chapter, and if you failed that fight you had to restart the chapter all over again.
** ''Radiant Dawn'' gave you the option to save whenever you pleased during your turn, which invited SaveScumming, but also made the chapters a lot less frustrating as you could continue from wherever you last saved. If you hope to scrape your way through Hard mode though, you don't get that luxury (only ''[=PoR=]'''s options).
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Shadow Dragon]]'' and ''[[NoExportForYou New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' introduced permanent save spots in most of the chapters, where any character could save your progress for that chapter by stepping on them, but the spots disappeared once used.

* The ''Videogame/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' computer game features a particularly fourth-wall-breaking example. Throughout most of the game, you can save whenever you want, but once you get to the final area, the save function is disabled for no discernible reason. This means that if you fail any of the challenges in the cave after that point (one of which is a PixelHunt and another of which is a LuckBasedMission if you happened to miss a vital clue earlier in the game), you have to start the whole thing over again. There's even a sign right outside that tells you you can't save.

* VideoGame/{{D}} not only has no saving, but no ''pausing'', and a two-hour [[TimedMission time limit.]] Fortunately, that last part means that the game is relatively short.

* ''VideoGame/LiEat'': First game: Save anywhere out of battle. 20 save slots in 5 pages of 4 slots."

* ''VideoGame/LEGORacers'' for the Nintendo 64 required you to have a nearly-empty Memory Pak in your controller to save your data. Children left consoles on for days just so they can beat it on a more lenient schedule.

* In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E24WorstCaseScenario Worst Case Scenario]]" from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', in order for Paris to play from the start, Torres has to "reset" the ''Insurrection Alpha'' program. Apparently the holoprograms in the 24th century don't have a way for multiple players of scenario to save different states.

* In the original ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'', the only way to save your game (or collect a password) was to go from the overworld map into a level, collect a series of hidden bonus tokens and beat the ensuing bonus level, or collecting a gem by beating a level without dying while breaking all the crates in the area. And when you restored the game, you snapped back to just three lives. Fortunately, the sequels made it easy to save your progress in-between levels and keep your lives, and the remake in the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'' allows you to save whenever on the world map, abandoning the password system.

** ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' has no in-mission saves whatsoever. Bad in a shooter, absolutely inexcusable in a stealth game. Later games allow for saving, but they are limited and there's often a catch (the fourth game, for example, allows saves but they are deleted when you quit as they are intended to be on demand {{checkpoint}}s rather than actual saves). One of the biggest differences between the difficulty levels in the later games is the number of saves allowed -- which, at the highest difficulty, is zero (as in ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin Silent Assassin]]'', ''[[VideoGame/HitmanContracts Contracts]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]''), or one save in a single run (as is with ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' and ''VideoGame/Hitman2'').

** ''Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2'' let you save anywhere on the lower difficulties, so long as you're not in combat, and autosaves are frequent and get triggered on a regular basis, or if you do certain scripted events. The highest difficulty levels only allow for one save per run, so you best know what you're doing!"

* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' had saving limited by the use of ink ribbons the player had to find said ribbons were also limited use, though some games had an infinite version of the item if playing on easy mode. The ink ribbons could only be used at a typewriter, thus you needed the ink ribbons and had to know where the save points were. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' lets the player save at a typewriter without needing an ink ribbon and future games would go with the traditional checkpoints and auto saving.

[[DescribeTopicHere Please do not switch off the system or remove your memory card while Describing Save Point Here.]]

* The flash game ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/580638 Guild Dungeons]]'', instead of having a save system, records your experience. When you quit, you lose everything you had, but your experience is used to determine how many resources you'll start with next time. \\

-->-- ''[[https://www.cracked.com/article_16196_the-7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey.html "The 7 Commandments All Video Games Should Obey"]]'', '''Website/{{Cracked}}'''

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'': The games use restrooms as save points. The problem? In rank missions, these are ''only'' found right before their concluding boss battles, so you'll have to survive until then. In the first game, outside the missions, the only place to save (and thus the only default resuming point in your playthrough) is the bathroom located within Travis' motel room; with the massive city Santa Destroy is, it can be tedious to navigate through it to access the assassination jobs, part-time sidequests, and the ''many'' collectible items scattered, and then make your way back to the motel to save all your progress (even when you're using your motorbike to drive). The game also resumes from the latest save file used (for this same reason, it forces AutomaticNewGame when it's booted for the first time), so you have to manually switch to another file ''after'' resuming the urrent one). This is alleviated in the sequels: ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' eliminates the need to traverse the city, giving you access to all activities from a menu; because ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'' brings back the explorable overworld, it adds multiple restrooms that, upon being repaired, serve as helpful {{Save Point}}s. And in these sequels, the inconvenience over file resuming is eliminated by giving you the option to choose which file to load from the title screen's menu (and there are more of them as well: ten in the second and twenty in the third, compared to the first's mere four).

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'': The games use restrooms as save points. The problem? In rank missions, these are ''only'' found right before their concluding boss battles, so you'll have to survive until then. In the first game, outside the missions, the only place to save is the bathroom located within Travis' motel room; with the massive city Santa Destroy is, it can be tedious to navigate through it to access the assassination jobs, part-time sidequests, and the ''many'' collectible items scattered, and then make your way back to the motel to save all your progress (even when you're using your motorbike to drive). This is alleviated in the sequels: ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' eliminates the need to traverse the city, giving you access to all activities from a menu; because ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'' brings back the explorable overworld, it adds multiple restrooms that, upon being repaired, serve as helpful {{Save Point}}s.

* The first few 3D ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' titles (''[[VideoGame/SuperMario64 64]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Sunshine]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]'') save only the number of {{Plot Coupon}}s gathered and associated records for each one (such as coins collected or race times), along with whether you've used them to unlock new areas. Mario himself has his VideoGameLives reset and is placed back at the starting point in the HubLevel whenever play is resumed. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', goes on to save where on the PointAndClickMap the {{Faceship}} is parked, so you don't have to start at World 1 every time. And ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' onward saves the number of lives you've collected.

* ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'' series. ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' has no in-mission saves whatsoever. Bad in a shooter, absolutely inexcusable in a stealth game. Later games allow for saving, but they are limited and there's often a catch (the fourth game, for example, allows saves but they are deleted when you quit as they are intended to be on demand {{checkpoint}}s rather than actual saves). One of the biggest differences between the difficulty levels in the later games is the number of saves allowed -- which, at the highest difficulty, is zero (as in ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin Silent Assassin]]'', ''[[VideoGame/HitmanContracts Contracts]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]''), or one save in a single run (as is with ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' and ''VideoGame/Hitman2'').

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2'', you could only save by walking into a church (there's only one in each level). This would cost $50000 (which could be hard to come by at the beginning of the game), and it wasn't possible to save during a mission. In ''GTA III'' and its sequels, you could save at specific "safe houses" for free instead.
** Although saving was free in terms of money and can be done at any time in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' era games, it would also advance the time by about six hours, both decreasing your {{Bragging Rights|Reward}} for completion time and making it trickier to save right before time-based quests.
*** Mostly fixed in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''; it transparently saves your progress automatically after every mission, without advancing time. Manual saving, however, still advances time, and you still can't save during missions.

** One save per profile per storage device; you can only save in the security room or a washroom. This can be particularly frustrating at certain parts of the game, notably when you're escorting survivors through another god-awful infestation of zombies and cultists, and you "accidentally" crush the head of one of your protectees with a sledgehammer because ''he just wouldn't get out of the way''. Cue the reload...again. Veterans of the game know to save at pretty much every opportunity. This is still a small problem compared to Infinity Mode which has ''no saves at all''.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' let you save by calling the lead character's father. Free phones were usually found in hotels (though the cheapskate city of Summers has a pay phone), although for some reason ''he'' could call ''you'' anywhere to [[AntiPoopSocking remind you to take a break]]. Quite annoying in the pyramid.
** Your cell phone is explicitly designed only to receive calls, which is just fine and dandy (unless you're, say, in the pyramid, when you might start really wishing that asshole fruit kid who invented it gave it buttons to dial with). Incidentally, Summers isn't the only city with a payphone. It's just the only one with''out'' a free one (the game even cautions you that green phones cost money, so be careful about using them so you don't fritter away all your money).
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena'', you can save pretty much anywhere except for temples, equipment stores, and taverns. The latter is perhaps the most absurd example of this rule, as taverns are the only locations in the entire game where the player can rest without ever worrying about enemies spawning and trying to kill them, and they'll need to leave the warmth and safety of a perfectly good tavern just to save their game (so it's best to do it wait until daytime before saving). While it is likely that this was done to stop players from SaveScumming when they failed to steal items from the store or sneak into tavern bedrooms without paying, it clearly didn't stick, since the later games in the series do away with Save-Game Limits altogether and allow the player to save whenever and wherever they want. Strangely, ''Arena'' has no qualms with allowing the player to save inside Mages Guild buildings or inside palaces (though only during daytime, since you'll be forbidden from entering at night, and you'll be kicked out if you're still inside after dusk).

* Although ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' is exceptionally long by prior games' standards (90 levels compared to the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''' 32), ''there is no save feature''. The ''All-Stars'' version allows saving at any time, with the consequence of having to restart at the beginning of the current World. ''Advance 4'' also features a SuspendSave feature, along with a more permanent saving feature upon clearing any fortress or airship.

** The original NES platformers have ''no saving whatsoever.'' ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', without {{Warp Whistle}}s, takes the average player several hours to complete. In theory, ''[=SMB3=]'' tells you the location of one of the warp whistles so you can skip almost half of the game with it next time. In practice, it doesn't, as the whistle is said to be at "the end of the third world". It's actually the end of the third level of the first world, and even knowing that, [[GuideDangIt outside information]] is needed to know how to get to it.
** The ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars'' remake isn't much better. Aside from saving the current world, the only completed levels saved are fortresses, so only some levels can be skipped (via shortcuts opened after completing said fortresses) after restarting after a game over. (As with ''Super Mario World'', this is averted in the GBA version.)

*** This SNES cart is the first Mario game with a save system, but one can only save after beating specific levels. Some save points work only once. A switch palace, castle or fortress has a save point when first clearing it, but not when replaying it. A ghost house is better; one can replay a ghost house to save again. Many players walk the long way back to Donut Ghost House, the easiest save point (and the one closest to the Top Secret Area, [[GameBreaker where you can restock on power-ups and extra lives indefinitely]]). One can also save again at Sunken Ghost Ship or in half the [[BrutalBonusLevel Special Zone]]. This save system is a form of FakeDifficulty, because there is no technical limitation for why the other levels are not save points.
*** SMW does not save extra lives. You say you have 99 lives on that file? Say goodbye to 94 of them if you save and quit! Of course, you can always [[InfiniteOneUps just go get more]], but still!

** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' for UsefulNotes/NintendoDS has once of the worst save systems ever to disgrace a portable system. You can save only after beating a boss or mini-boss, or collecting and spending 5 star coins to open a bonus area. The game's supply of star coins and bonus areas is finite. There's no temporary save system like that other DS offender ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII''. (As with any DS game, you can suspend ''New Super Mario Bros.'' by simply closing the DS to put the game in Sleep Mode, and plugging the DS into an AC adapter.) Your "reward" for finishing the game is the ability to save after every level, proving that this save system was not a technical limitation (it was, in fact, done deliberately as a throwback to older Mario games).\\\

** In the original GBA titles, [[ArtifactTitle it was indeed a suspend save]], making the games a fair bit more difficult.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' has a long CheckpointStarvation at the beginning, but allows you to save pretty much any time outside of battle and cutscenes...except for a prolonged duration at the end where you have to go through three boss fights and multiple cutscenes. It's an ObviousRulePatch against an {{Unwinnable}} situation, since you can't leave the area and there are no baddies to LevelGrind against; if you go back after beating the game, you will be able to save there since beating the game unlocks what's essentially a level select.

* ''VideoGame/Persona3'' allows you to save at Tartarus' foyer, which you can access at any time (provided you find the teleporter back to the first floor). Sensible enough. However, outside Tartarus, you can only save at the dorm; exiting the dorm and reentering it immediately (even in daylight) will make it nighttime immediately. This forces you to play a whole day of choices, [[RelationshipValues Social Links]], and shopping, without saving. In extreme cases (such as weekdays) making a bad choice during an afternoon quest will force the player to replay the entire schoolday, plus the previous night - or worse, if it's an exam week (which runs uninterrupted from Monday to Saturday), the ''entire week''. The PSP version mitigates this somewhat by adding a save point in the classroom, providing a more convenient opportunity to save during the day.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4'' learned from this and made things significantly less painful. There are two save points during the day (one in your classroom, which you're literally standing next to once classes are over, and one on the [[HubLevel main shopping drag in town]]), one save point at night (the calendar in the Dojima house, which, again, you literally start the night standing by), and one inside the TV (in the hub area). In the original game, there would also be a save point right before the boss room in each dungeon, but these were removed for some reason in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]''.

* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' and ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'' has a fairly reasonable save limit in that you can as many times as you like in as many slots as you like (so long as you have the system memory to do so), but only outside of battle. The only place where this gets tricky are the Item Worlds where you have to make your way through at least 10 battles in a row (Assuming you don't use your [[StealthPun Mr. Gency's Exit]] item to exit early, which also saved your progress in the item). No continues, so you quickly learn to save often and before every battle.
** Though, the point of the item world levels is that [[MarathonLevel you have to go through them without a chance to heal]]. The place you can heal is usually in the spot you can save, so saving is a required sacrifice.
** And then the Item World concept goes from tricky to plain horrific when you're aspiring after the Hyprdrive item which in the remakes of the game can ''only'' be obtained after clearing 100 floors (without quitting once!) and destroying an overpowered boss on top of that, all with no chance to save. Granted the game's mechanics, if you are actually trying to get said item you're either TooDumbToLive or can complete most of the floors without major problems, unless you get some unfortunate set of "Enemy Boost x 6" or "Ally Damage 80%" [[GeoEffects Geo Panels]], but it's still very time-consuming.
* ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'': While this [[NintendoHard notoriously hard]] PlatformHell game has four difficulty modes, the gameplay doesn't actually change at all between the modes. The only thing that does change is how many save points you'll come across. Harder difficulty modes have fewer points, which just means that you'll have to traverse through more areas without dying in order to be able to save your progress and avoid having to redo the areas that you've just finished. Culminates in the "Impossible" difficulty mode, in which there are no save points at all and you are therefore expected to beat the whole game in one life. In a game where you're a OneHitPointWonder and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Everything's Trying To Kill You.]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Have fun with that.]]
** And the one save point in Hard Mode, right before the final boss, actually attacks you.
* Aversion: All games on the Wii's UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole (with the exception of N64 and Neo Geo games) have a built-in quicksave--just quit the game through the Home menu. On the other hand, the Virtual Consoles on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS and the UsefulNotes/WiiU allow permanent (unless overwritten with a new one, at least) save files (called restore points) to be made at any time in addition to borrowing the Wii's quicksave feature, which makes SaveScumming quite easy even for games that didn't originally ''have'' a save feature.
** Much like other emulation software, which generally allows an infinite number of saved virtual machine states (sometimes called "images" or "freezes") to be created and restored at any time.
** For the 3DS ones, if you got the twenty games from the Ambassador Program, the restore points are absent. Some of the NES games were given a proper release for the Virtual Console, and Ambassadors upgrading to that version (no extra cost) would get the restore points. Sadly, this upgrade will only apply to the NES games; the GBA games were stated to be Ambassador exclusive, and haven't been updated to provide restore points (or indeed, ''any'' of the standard Virtual Console functionality).[[note]][[http://ds.about.com/od/nintendods101/fl/Why-Arent-Game-Boy-Advance-Games-on-the-Nintendo-3DSs-Virtual-Console.htm This is actually due]] [[http://www.vooks.net/why-the-game-boy-advance-isnt-on-the-3ds-virtual-console/ to a technical limitation]] [[http://www.vooks.net/why-the-game-boy-advance-isnt-on-the-3ds-virtual-console/#comment-4998 of the original 3DS]]. While the system is able to properly emulate, say, an NES, Game Boy, or Game Gear, it isn't actually powerful enough to properly emulate a GBA. Instead, it uses a variation of the trick that the DS & DS Lite used, and essentially turns itself into a more expensive GBA by simulating the hardware; more specifically, by using both of its main CPU's cores to emulate the GBA's CPU and running a slightly modified version of the DS' actual GBA firmware to provide the games with access to the 3DS' hardware. Unfortunately, the main CPU's second core is also responsible for running all of the background tasks, such as networking, sleep mode, and the like; since the 3DS' processor (an [=ARM11=]; specifically, a dual-core [=ARM11=] running at 268 [=MHz=]) isn't powerful enough to emulate a GBA processor with just one core, and the secondary processor is seemingly too weak to emulate it ''at all'' (the 3DS' secondary processor, the [=ARM9=], is the same chip as the DS' main processor, with the only difference being that the 3DS' runs at 134 [=MHz=] and the DS' runs at 67 [=MHz=]; since the DS slows down its own secondary processor, an overclocked [=ARM7=] running at ~33.5 [=MHz=], to run GBA games on (as the GBA's processor is an [=ARM7=] running at ~16.8 [=MHz=]), this suggests that the DS' [=ARM9=] isn't able to properly emulate an [=ARM7=] running at normal clock speeds, and Nintendo either wasn't able to get it running on the 3DS' faster [=ARM9=], or willing to sacrifice quality to do so), it needs to use both the "game" core and the "background tasks" core, which leaves it unable to devote any processor time to background tasks; this is also why the 3DS can't automatically go into sleep mode when closed while in GBA mode, but games (such as ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'') are able to manually put it into sleep mode if they had that function on the original GBA. In essence, the 3DS has to switch into "GBA mode" instead of running Virtual Console or something like [=VisualBoy Advance=], and while it's in GBA mode, the only options available to it are 1) be a more expensive GBA, or 2) exit GBA mode. The New 3DS shouldn't have this issue (in theory, it's powerful enough to fully emulate the GBA, instead of having to simulate GBA hardware; specifically, its processor is a quad-core [=ARM11=] at 804 [=MHz=] (artificially limited to 268 [=MHz=] for backwards compatibility, unless the current application sets the appropriate flag), which should give it more than enough resources to emulate a GBA while keeping a dedicated "background tasks" core), but time will tell if Nintendo will take advantage of this.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/GranTurismo 4'' has Endurance races, including one that runs for 24 hours. If you screw up on the last lap and get passed, tough luck, it'll take another day to beat the race and win the awesome F1 car.
** Only maniacs race those races themselves. Most people ran them in B-Spec Mode (a sort of race director strategy mode) with "B-Spec Bob" in the most powerful car available and [[LevelGrinding Level Ground]] enough to beat even the strongest AI, turned off the TV, and came back the next day to pick up their new car.
*** The Japanese version was released without B-Spec mode. 24 hour races, you damn well raced them.

* Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' has reusable "pattern buffer" save terminals scattered about, usually one or two (but occasionally none) per level.
** One or two particularly evil levels require you to reroute power from one system to another, inadvertently disabling the level's only save terminal in the process.
** But [[FridgeLogic why can't the AIs just use the pattern buffer to make lots of copies of you and your munitions]]?
*** Because [[AIIsACrapshoot Durandal is an asshole.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R. 2]]: Project Origin'' - With respect to the PC versions, the original ''F.E.A.R.'' game and its two non-canon expansions allowed the player to save (and quicksave) at any time. However, the sequel irritatingly only allows for automatic saves at set checkpoints. The game is broken up into several missions which can be selected at will, but if the player wants to see a specific game event or explore an certain area, they have to play through the entire mission to get to that point.
** The console version of the first game only allows autosaves, and you don't get to keep multiple saves, so if you wind up in an {{Unwinnable}} situation, you have to restart the game, which is easier to do than its sounds because of the fact that the game can be NintendoHard and be very averse to [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity giving you nice big caches of health kits and supplies before difficult segments.]] In later missions, you might think that things are going a bit rough, and then suddenly, you're in a fight with a [[HeavilyArmoredMook Heavy Armor Trooper]], an [[PoweredArmor REV walker]], or a [[MiniMecha Powered Armor]].

* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' has a quicksave function that let's you save mid-dungeon. However, if you try SaveScumming, the game treats it as a defeat - even if the gamecard was removed, or the game crashed - In other words, if it was an accident that you shut the game off after a quicksave restart, ''The game still treats it as a loss.'' Worse still, the game ''Took all your items away,''(Except for your Bow - Which, considering the thing can never be obtained more then once is a small merit on their part) Making the quick save feature a risk if you were taking the DS anywhere where the card might be knocked out - Which, for some people, is ANYWHERE. Thanks a lot for that.
** Thankfully, unlike Shiren, all your unlocked moves, your level and stats, as well as your IQ are saved still.

* All racing games with a betting system automatically saves your game the moment you put something on the line. You got one chance, mate, don't blow it.
** Although, this can be twisted slightly in the Need for Speed games; players can simply disable the autosave and save the game before racing, so that if they don't win their rivals car which they need, they can simply reset the system and do it again until they get the reward.

** In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe the GBA]] games, the game autosaves EVERYWHERE in a chapter, at every significant action. If say, a character is killed or any otherwise unpleasant scenario occurs, turning the game off does nothing, because resuming that file will instantly put you in the same battle, with the same result (even if the attack had low accuracy), though you can make a permanent save before every chapter and choose to restart the chapter from there.
*** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Sacred Stones]]'' includes two optional multi-level dungeons with NO chance to save between levels.

* ''VideoGame/{{Hydorah}}'' puts a limit of saving only up to three times during a playthrough, unless you start from scratch. [[NintendoHard This game is not supposed to be merciful anyway.]]
** You can get extra saves by beating certain levels.

* The early ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' games would only allow you to save on the world map. One of the upgrades of ''VideoGame/UltimaV'' was the ability to save in towns, dungeons, etc.
** ''VideoGame/UltimaIII'' would save automatically when you returned to the overworld from a towne, castle or dungeon - or, more devastatingly, when any character's status changes (when anyone gets poisonned, dead, or turned to ash). Fortunately, you could always disband the current party and form a new one from your ranks of backups - or even just reselect your current party - and start again outside Lord British's castle.

* ''O.D.T. : Or Die Trying'', an obscure NintendoHard [=PS1=] game, had a particularly brutal save system: you could only save your progress at specific saving spots, which are not only rare and often located in secret areas, but also only allowed you ''one single save'' per saving spot.

[[folder:Consumable Save Item]]
* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series, wherein you must find [[SaveToken Ink Ribbons]] in order to save your game. Though most typewriters have those next to them, they are a finite-use item, and you will frequently want to save more often than merely once or twice per typewriter. This is made even worse when ''not saving at all'' is one of the requirements for receiving an A or S rank when you finish the game. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' added autosaves between each chapter and did away with Ink Ribbons to use typewriters to save in the middle of one. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' finally ditched the typewriters entirely in favor of the between-chapter autosaves. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7'' brought back save points, in the shape of tape recorders, but they only require the corresponding tapes on its HarderThanHard difficulty. Same with the VideoGameRemake of ''Resident Evil 2''; easier difficulties ditch the Ink Ribbons, but Hardcore difficulty brings them back.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireDragonQuarter''. You have to use save tokens, and the game is far from easy. It has a quicksave option that is deleted after loading. Unless you're playing the [[DifficultyByRegion butchered PAL version]].
* ''VideoGame/KingdomComeDeliverance'' autosaves when you sleep or start or finish a quest, but manually saving requires "Savior Schnapps", an alcoholic drink.
* ''VideoGame/OmikronTheNomadSoul'' had special rings you had to find. You could use them either to save or to get a suggestion.
* Saving in ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'' can be done at any time provided that you have a Save Gem in your inventory which, upon saving, is used up. You can only carry three at any given time however, which, when you consider that they are often in secret areas and becomes increasingly difficult to find the further you progress (they are practically nonexistent in the last few stages), makes things even harder than they have any right to be. Mercifully, a patch was soon released that made this rule optional.
* In the NES game ''Magician'' you have exactly 15 saves for the whole game. As in, you can only save 15 times without starting the whole thing over. Thankfully, you have four slots to choose from (allowing at least some degree of SaveScumming) and the game only has nine levels, so it is not as restrictive as it could have been.
* In the later ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' games, you are limited to saving in space stations until you buy Salvage Insurance. Salvage Insurance lets you save anywhere at any time, but each unit of insurance can only be used once - so you need to periodically buy some more. The player is also limited to ten save slots (with 3 autosave slots, made when you dock at stations).
* In the first ''VideoGame/ObsCure'' game, you find [=CDs=] that allow you to save in any room provided it's been cleared of enemies, but which are limited in number. The second game tightens the restrictions and combines {{Save Token}}s with {{Save Point}}s by way of the mortifilia flowers, which are save points that can only be used once.
* In ''VideoGame/WhiteDayALabyrinthNamedSchool'', the player can only save at any noticeboard if they have at least one Felt-Tip Pen in their inventory.
* There are no natural save points in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s FinalDungeon. Instead the player receives a one-time-use item called a Save Crystal that can create one anywhere. This included past the PointOfNoReturn.
* ''VideoGame/FerazelsWand'' uses statue plinths as save points, which can each only be used once. And this is a game with a lot of hidden goodies in side areas, which would encourage replaying old levels if there weren't so few opportunities to save your progress from those replays.
* One of the ways ''VideoGame/CryOfFear''[='=]s [[HarderThanHard Nightmare difficulty]] ups the challenge is by adding cassette tapes the player has to acquire -- and carry around in their normal inventory like other, more immediately-usable items -- to be able to use the tape recorders that act as save points.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other Resource Cost to Save]]
* In the American Sega CD version of ''VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue'', Creator/WorkingDesigns added a constraint to the save system. Whenever you save, it costs a certain amount of Skill Points, with the amount scaling every time you save. These are the same points that you use to, well, learn new skills so you can defeat many of the [[ThatOneBoss very difficult bosses]] and such. This became especially troublesome if you didn't have the sort of time or skill to go without saving for large stretches of time. It also wasn't uncommon to end up short on Skill Points, especially since the cost becomes prohibitively high over the course of the game.
* ''{{VideoGame/Cadaver}}'' requires you to spend money for saving, with the amount going up each time. There's not a lot of other things you can do with your money, but the game's GuideDangIt nature means you probably want to save more often than you feasibly can.
* Some versions of ''VideoGame/ColossalCave'' deducted points for saving.

* ''VideoGame/IzunaLegendOfTheUnemployedNinja'' only lets you save at the inn, and once a player saves, the game quits automatically, returning to the title screen, possibly as an AntiPoopSocking measure. If the player turns the game off mid-play, the next time is game is continued, it treats the player as if having wiping out in a dungeon and all inventory and money that hasn't been stored away is lost (Ouch!).
** Which is still ''much'', much more benevolent than most {{Roguelike}} games.

[[folder:One Save File Per Campaign/Character]]
* In ''VideoGame/DeadIsland'', not only is there only 1 save file and the game saves automatically every time you do something, but the game makes it impossible to back up your save game, and destroys your save file if you're sneaky and try to do so.

* All of the ''VideoGame/StyleSavvy'' games have only one save file.
* The three Creator/{{INiS}} [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]] [[RhythmGame Rhythm Games]], the ''VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan'' duology and ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'', only allow you to keep one save file per copy of the game. ''Agents'' only allows you to save one replay per mission, while ''Ouendan 2'' lets you save up to 20 replays of any mission without such restriction.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okamiden}}'' has only one save file. Unfortunately, there's a good deal of collectibles that are {{Permanently Missable|Content}} -- some of which are tied into NewGamePlus functionality. These limits do not apply to [[VideoGame/{{Okami}} its predecessor]], which has ''30'' save files (understandable, as its supporting systems are the Playstation 2, the Wii, and all systems where the HD version is available; ''Okamiden'' is a Nintendo DS game).
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** This is the case for the series as a whole, even more so for the first few generations has this system where you can have only one file, and at least in the first few games, you didn't need to delete it to overwrite it with a new save file. Cue the arguments if anyone's sharing one copy of the game with anyone else, the lost data when you accidentally save on a new file over a completed one, and not at all helped by the first few games and the technical limits of their save system in the first place (the original games often lost data if you turned them off at the wrong time, or just after saving, and the save data could certainly get corrupted by various events). At least you can save whenever, wherever, and as often as you want, though, even if you are limited to one save file.
** As of ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' and onward, the game now flat-out tells you that you can't save when starting a new game. In order to actually ''start'' a new game (as opposed for playing however much you could manage in a single sitting and being unable to do anything that ''requires'' you to save first, like online play), you have to enter a secret combination of buttons to first erase the saved game. This was intended as an AntiFrustrationFeature -- ''Pokémon'' is largely a child-oriented franchise, which means that if your little cousin wants to borrow your 3DS, it's probably a ''Pokémon'' game they want to play, and this prevents them from overwriting your save file accidentally. Unfortunately, the message that notifies the player of this also ''tells them the button combination'', making this measure largely pointless. This was rectified in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', where the combination is [[AllThereInTheManual only told in the manual.]]
* {{Roguelike}} games save your progress when you quit, and erase the savefile when you return. However, in most cases (including mainstream games like ''Diablo'' and ''Borderlands'') this can be beaten by simply making a copy of the save file when outside the game (though this is generally frowned upon amongst the fan community).
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', in both Fortress Mode and Adventure Mode, uses a save system that is under normal condition effectively the same as most {{roguelike}}s: saves are not deleted when you load them, but you can't stop the game without saving it (or finishing it, if you lose) and selecting "quit" from the main menu. SaveScumming is still possible by forcing the computer to close the program or manually copying the same file, but is considered cheating.
* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} II'' does not allow you to save in any way except by quitting the game. Doing so respawns all monsters and teleports you to the town of the act you're in.

* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'' has only one save. You can't really let a friend try it fresh without losing your own progress. As this is a PC game, you can of course manually keep multiple copies of the save file; in fact, this is what the creator recommends doing, shrugging it off as a DoItYourselfPlumbingProject.[[note]]''[=(your Steam installation directory)''\steamapps\common\Antichamber\Binaries\Win32\SavedGame.bin=]''[[/note]]

* ''Videogame/MarioParty'' and ''Mario Party 2'' allow only one save file. ''Mario Party 3'' adds two more, which then becomes the standard for all subsequent Mario Party games except ''9'', ''10'', ''Star Rush'' and ''Super''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' only limits you to one save file and anything you do is permanent. This is not because of the limitations of the software, but rather [[spoiler: a plot point and one of the main themes of the game.]] It is possible to reset the save and return to the start of the game, but [[spoiler:the characters will have varying amounts of RippleEffectProofMemory regarding previous runs.]] After getting the best possible ending, however, a "True Reset" option opens, [[spoiler:which erases all these memories and returns the game to (mostly) its initial state.]] A reset option is also offered during the worst possible ending, [[spoiler:but it permanently taints your SAVE, so that Chara ultimately takes control of your body if you try to go for the True Pacifist ending. You cannot undo this in any possible way, barring the use of third party software to force the game to "forget" that you're a soulless monster.]]
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2'' only has one save file, and it's AutoSave only -- you cannot save manually.
* Done intentionally as part of the theme in ''VideoGame/UntilDawn''. You have one save file, and the game autosaves after every decision or QTE. Once you make a choice, the only way to ''un''make it is to start the entire story from the beginning. You must live with every choice you make. [[ArcWords The past is beyond your control.]]
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' has only one save file per Wii U account.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMario'':
** Unlike the games in the series before it, ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'' only has one save file for each Wii U account.
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'' also only allows one save file per Nintendo Switch account.
* ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'' has only one save file as well.

* ''VideoGame/HeavensVault'': Single save only. Mainly saving by AutoSave.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowComplex'' only has one save file, and it is tied to the Xbox 360 profile, meaning you'll either have to start a game from the beginning from the main menu or make a new Xbox 360 profile to avoid erasing an existing file. The game's ''Remastered'' version, after an update, later averts this by adding ten save slots that can be used, however, player levels bonuses are still carried over.
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', in its original freeware version, only has one save slot. But the various upgraded ports of the game (starting with the Wiiware version) increased the save slots to three.

* Only allowing a limited number of save files (especially if that limit is one). Or, alternatively, requiring that subsequent saves always overwrite the ''same'' file, thus preventing the player from keeping multiple active saves. In games where a player's decision early in the game can have later repercussions (including unwinnability), this can become a challenge for the player. In most games, however, the effective result of this is just that only a finite number of players can track their progress on a single installation at one time.

[[caption-width-right:255:"Want to save your game? Then learn to save your money first."

* The three Creator/{{INiS}} [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]] [[RhythmGame Rhythm Games]], the ''VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan'' duology and ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'' only allow you to keep one save file per copy of the game. And you can only save one replay per mission, at least in the case of ''Agents''.