The fact that you can't have multiple concurrent characters is garbage.

[Tuco]

Well, I guess the title is mostly self-explanatory.

I can't believe Capcom repeated the SAME exact design mistakes of the original game more than ten years later.
The list would go on for quite a while and would include considerations on the way fast travel currently works etc, but just to not meddle the point I'll stick with the one in the headline.

After all the effort that went in giving people a fairly flexible character creator, I find almost comically absurd that the developers though players would be happy without having a "Profile system" that allowed multiple concurrent playthroughs.

It's almost as if someone in the dev team was actively trying to antagonize most fans of this genre.

[Razorblade]

That's Itsuno for you. His life goal is to make Kojima's design decisions look sane by comparison.

[Hawke]

Agreed. There's a mod on Nexus for save file management (it is also possible to do the same with Windows Explorer), but it is somehow unfunny that Capcom was not able to implement such a basic functionality. The Infinity Engine games had it 25 years ago, even the Frostbite ones did in 2014, and Frostbite was an online FPS engine. It is essential to have an adequate saving system in an RPG.

[Tuco]

Originally posted by Razorblade:

That's Itsuno for you. His life goal is to make Kojima's design decisions look sane by comparison.

You may be into something there.

I mean, seriously, who the ♥♥♥♥ buys an (action) RPG with an extensive character creation and multiple class options (yeah, yeah, "vocations") with the mindset "You know, no matter what, I want to create a single character and never play anything else for as long as I'll stick with the game".

[Tuco]

Originally posted by Hawke:

Agreed. There's a mod on Nexus for save file management (it is also possible to do the same with Windows Explorer), but it is somehow unfunny that Capcom was not able to implement such a basic functionality. The Infinity Engine games had it 25 years ago, even the Frostbite ones did in 2014, and Frostbite was an online FPS engine. It is essential to have an adequate saving system in an RPG.

I bet that from their perspective this isn't even supposed to be an oversight but a deliberate design choice.
Probably with some stupid reason behind like "We want to prevent a player from creating multiple Pawns" (as if that would be some big freaking deal, anyway).

My personal angle is the same: that the decision remains idiotic no matter how they attempt to justify it, because its downsides (being limited to a single character) massively outweight any of the alleged problems it's supposed to solve.

[Shield]

There was no limitations on save files, then or now; one save is purposeful in DD1 and DD2. This is one of the games that you play on its terms, not the other way around. The sharp edges of the game are going to be all the sharper until you approach it how its asking you to approach it.

I won't spoil anything, but you do revisit CC, and the game wants you to NG on your current character and try failed quests or encounters again that way, rather than savescumming. You're meant to feel like decisions have weight and consequence and learn to relish in that "oh... did I ♥♥♥♥ up?" feeling that is pretty rare in modern gaming, as you've observed in your comments.

Call it a masochistic outlook, but its how the game wants you to play it, and short of mods (which are valid to use if the sharp edges really are a dealbreaker). you don't have a choice to approach it any other way.

At some point you get so used to (or stockholm syndrome'd, if you're feeling cycnical) the game that making a major mistake that, say, leads to the death of a town, only leads to the start of another adventure for the Eternal Wakestone, as opposed to BG3 where you just press quickload.

Just takes a different perspective to approach the game.

[admiraln8]

Originally posted by Hawke:

Agreed. There's a mod on Nexus for save file management (it is also possible to do the same with Windows Explorer), but it is somehow unfunny that Capcom was not able to implement such a basic functionality. The Infinity Engine games had it 25 years ago, even the Frostbite ones did in 2014, and Frostbite was an online FPS engine. It is essential to have an adequate saving system in an RPG.

CAN you simply just move your save files in and out of the save file location so you can play with different characters? (assuming you turn off cloud saves of course)

Because I want to sometimes play as my male warrior, and sometimes a female mystic spearhand.

[Racoona]

A lot of people keep defending this 1 save file bs because muh dd1. I hate it so much on dd1. And for this bugged dd2, it makes the game even worse.

[Plagued]

Originally posted by Racoona:

A lot of people keep defending this 1 save file bs because muh dd1. I hate it so much on dd1. And for this bugged dd2, it makes the game even worse.

You can learn every vocation on one character without limitations. Why the need for multiple characters? You can swap vocations easily. There is no point to multiple characters. Do you have some image in your mind that a certain vocation HAS to be a certain look? I would say that view is backwards as your character becomes second to the vocation, instead of your character being first with vocations being play styles you enjoy.

[Zeel Ara]

Originally posted by admiraln8:

Originally posted by Hawke:

Agreed. There's a mod on Nexus for save file management (it is also possible to do the same with Windows Explorer), but it is somehow unfunny that Capcom was not able to implement such a basic functionality. The Infinity Engine games had it 25 years ago, even the Frostbite ones did in 2014, and Frostbite was an online FPS engine. It is essential to have an adequate saving system in an RPG.

CAN you simply just move your save files in and out of the save file location so you can play with different characters? (assuming you turn off cloud saves of course)

Because I want to sometimes play as my male warrior, and sometimes a female mystic spearhand.

Yes. Go grab the save manager on Nexus mods if you want an even easier way to do it.

If you go nuts and swap out save files a ton of times in a very short timespan, you run the risk of Denuvo's anti-tamper slapping you with a 24 hour lockout. It doesn't do anything other than that, but it's still annoying. Keep it to 5 swaps a day and you're 100% solid.

[Smug Kot]

Originally posted by Klayyed:

Originally posted by Racoona:

A lot of people keep defending this 1 save file bs because muh dd1. I hate it so much on dd1. And for this bugged dd2, it makes the game even worse.

You can learn every vocation on one character without limitations. Why the need for multiple characters? You can swap vocations easily. There is no point to multiple characters. Do you have some image in your mind that a certain vocation HAS to be a certain look? I would say that view is backwards as your character becomes second to the vocation, instead of your character being first with vocations being play styles you enjoy.

Different names! since you can't edit that.

[Tuco]

Originally posted by owlBear:

There was no limitations on save files, then or now; one save is purposeful in DD1 and DD2. This is one of the games that you play on its terms, not the other way around. The sharp edges of the game are going to be all the sharper until you approach it how its asking you to approach it.

I won't spoil anything, but you do revisit CC, and the game wants you to NG on your current character and try failed quests or encounters again that way, rather than savescumming. You're meant to feel like decisions have weight and consequence and learn to relish in that "oh... did I ♥♥♥♥ up?" feeling that is pretty rare in modern gaming, as you've observed in your comments.

Call it a masochistic outlook, but its how the game wants you to play it, and short of mods (which are valid to use if the sharp edges really are a dealbreaker). you don't have a choice to approach it any other way.

At some point you get so used to (or stockholm syndrome'd, if you're feeling cycnical) the game that making a major mistake that, say, leads to the death of a town, only leads to the start of another adventure for the Eternal Wakestone, as opposed to BG3 where you just press quickload.

Just takes a different perspective to approach the game.

I'm not sure what argument you were even ATTEMPTING to make.

I know how it worked in DD1, because I played that extensively as well.
And guess what? I hated the idea there, too.

You aren't revealing any new information with "one save being purposeful". It doesn't change that the idea remains intrinsically moronic.
"But the devs want you to unlock NG", "But the devs want you to see the multiple consecutive endings",
Guess what again? None of this is (or should be) mutually exclusive with the possibility to carry on concurrent different playthroughs.

Originally posted by Klayyed:

You can learn every vocation on one character without limitations.

I don't care?

I don't want to learn (and swap constantly) "multiple vocations" on a single character.
I want the freedom to create and play multiple concurrent characters that look and play different from each other, to replay some parts of the game (if I feel like it) and to re-experience the entire progression curve "from zero to hero" WITHOUT the mandatory need to wipe out my current and most advanced save file.

Not even MMOs (where the time investment on a single character can be almost limitless) come with this type of demented restriction. For a good reason.

[Amon]

Originally posted by Tuco:

Originally posted by owlBear:

There was no limitations on save files, then or now; one save is purposeful in DD1 and DD2. This is one of the games that you play on its terms, not the other way around. The sharp edges of the game are going to be all the sharper until you approach it how its asking you to approach it.

I won't spoil anything, but you do revisit CC, and the game wants you to NG on your current character and try failed quests or encounters again that way, rather than savescumming. You're meant to feel like decisions have weight and consequence and learn to relish in that "oh... did I ♥♥♥♥ up?" feeling that is pretty rare in modern gaming, as you've observed in your comments.

Call it a masochistic outlook, but its how the game wants you to play it, and short of mods (which are valid to use if the sharp edges really are a dealbreaker). you don't have a choice to approach it any other way.

At some point you get so used to (or stockholm syndrome'd, if you're feeling cycnical) the game that making a major mistake that, say, leads to the death of a town, only leads to the start of another adventure for the Eternal Wakestone, as opposed to BG3 where you just press quickload.

Just takes a different perspective to approach the game.

I'm not sure what argument you were even ATTEMPTING to make.

I know how it worked in DD1, because I played that extensively as well.
And guess what? I hated the idea there, too.

You aren't revealing any new information with "one save being purposeful". It doesn't change that the idea remains intrinsically moronic.
"But the devs want you to unlock NG", "But the devs want you to see the multiple consecutive endings",
Guess what again? None of this is (or should be) mutually exclusive with the possibility to carry on concurrent different playthroughs.

Originally posted by Klayyed:

You can learn every vocation on one character without limitations.

I don't care?

I don't want to learn (and swap constantly) "multiple vocations" on a single character.
I want the freedom to create and play multiple concurrent characters that look and play different from each other, to replay some parts of the game (if I feel like it) and to re-experience the entire progression curve "from zero to hero" WITHOUT the mandatory need to wipe out my current and most advanced save file.

Not even MMOs (where the time investment on a single character can be almost limitless) come with this type of demented restriction. For a good reason.

Well you dont get that freedom in this game

[Lunar Shower]

Originally posted by Hawke:

Agreed. There's a mod on Nexus for save file management (it is also possible to do the same with Windows Explorer), but it is somehow unfunny that Capcom was not able to implement such a basic functionality. The Infinity Engine games had it 25 years ago, even the Frostbite ones did in 2014, and Frostbite was an online FPS engine. It is essential to have an adequate saving system in an RPG.

Its not that they weren't able to, its that they deliberately chose not to. Significant difference there as far as intent goes, as its not incompetency to blame, but rather a creative decision to criticize if you so choose.

I definitely agree, it sucks, and I don't really understand it. I mean, if he really wants decisions to feel weighted, and to try and reduce save scumming, which IS still possible here by and large thanks to inn saves, why not just do what fromsoft does and leave it at one save per character, with the current constant auto saving the game will do? It just seems like a very odd, if very deliberate design decision, and one that, as an issue, has been solved for years. Having to delete your save or manually back up yourself just to make a new character is still insane to me, all the more that a new game forces you to do so in 2024.

[Tuco]

Originally posted by Amon:

Well you dont get that freedom in this game

Yep.
That's KINDA what this entire thread is about.

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by Tuco:

Well, I guess the title is mostly self-explanatory.

I can't believe Capcom repeated the SAME exact design mistakes of the original game more than ten years later.

Yes. It explains quite succinctly that you have no understanding of how the game works behind the scenes, but still choose to vent your uninformed rants in public.

Listen... what enables you to hire other pawns, and for other players to hire your pawn, is Capcom's servers. They are willing and able to host ONE pawn per account. The pawn is most likely referenced by your unique player ID. If they allowed infinite pawns per account, not only would they require a more complicated way of differentiating between them, they wouldn't have any means of knowing which pawns were still in active use and which ones had been created on the fly and instantly abandoned. Their servers would be bloated to the extreme with abandoned pawns.
As for why they don't allow multiple save files, it is most likely related to a similar issue: It would let you effectively ret-con changes made to your pawn in other players' game worlds. You could just continuously re-write the server data with older data on your end, and remove the progression of the system entirely.

SO... with all that explained, I will note that there are ways to get around BOTH limitations quite easily.
You can get additional playthroughs / pawns by having alternate Steam accounts (to the extent that Denuvo allows it).
And you can get around the one-save issue by backing up your save files or using a save manager.