Basic Trope: The player is given a chance to save their game just before or just after a critical part of the story.
- Straight: Dirk is about to infiltrate one of The Empire's strongholds. While his game is normally saved at checkpoints, the player is automatically prompted to save before departing.
- Exaggerated: The only place save points appear is before or after boss fights or dramatic moments.
- Downplayed: One of your allies suggests you save before infiltrating the stronghold.
- Justified: This was done to minimize frustration at the difficult boss fights.
- Inverted: The strongholds are one of the few places in the game where the player can't save.
- Subverted: The save point is a trap. A swarm of elite troops attack then.
- Double Subverted: It is a Hopeless Boss Fight. However, Chance stabs them in the back, rescues you, and joins your party. The real challenge awaits inside and you can save beforehand.
- Parodied: A game with no save function points out that it'd be really nice if you could save here.
- Zig Zagged: There's a save point before the boss. It says it saves, but it doesn't actually save. When you die, you're really zapped back to an autosave made halfway back through the dungeon. But there's a shortcut you can use to get back to the false save point.
- Averted: The player is never given an automatic prompt to save before important plot events.
- Enforced: The game saves at the end of each disc.
- Lampshaded: "You know that this is the final battle because you can save here."
- Invoked: Dirk's mentor, Obsidian, has a suspicion that something's about to go down. So he strongly suggests that Dirk should make a journal entry.
- Exploited: Unbeknownst to Dirk, there was Permanently Missable Content in the former of a golden trinket in the last town the party was in before they went to infiltrate the stronghold. In a game where there are Save-Game Limits in the form of "only one save allowed per playthrough", using this Ominous Save Point meant the trinket could no longer be retrieved and thus the player cannot gain the Golden Ending in this playthrough.
- Defied: Save points are littered around frequently enough that it becomes hard to spot when something serious is going to happen.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Uh oh. Obsidian gave us the "save" sign. And we don't have a portable Trauma Inn. Better use our basic potions."
- Deconstructed: The save point doesn't work when you try to use it; the dungeon's boss had it disabled for obvious reasons, and you have to fight the boss as you are.
- Reconstructed: There is no save point before the dungeon's boss. But a swift, quiet autosave runs in the background as you step into his inner sanctum, so you'll be able to try again without having it broadcasted that you're coming up on the end.
- Played For Laughs: While talking about a vital upcoming mission, Dirk's Fairy Companion Fizzy pipes, "This'll be easy! What Could Possibly Go Wrong??" Cue the Ominous Save Prompt — and Fizzy adding, "Aw, damnit..."
- Played For Drama:
- All of Dirk's companions have been captured by Emperor Evulz' General Scarlett, who plans to execute them very shortly. He's fully aware that this could be a trap — for all he knows, the others could already be dead — but he has to try anyway. If he fails, all is lost. Cue the save.
- Dirk's rescue attempt has just failed — badly. Obsidian was just killed trying to ensure the others escaped — a Senseless Sacrifice, as they ran right into Lady Scarlett. On top of this, they learned that Raven has been working for The Empire all along, and that Fizzy is a key component in one of the Emperor's plans. Now Dirk has delivered her right into evil's hands, and the emperor is coming to collect... Would you like to save?
We really should save before returning to Ominous Save Prompt.
