"Something truly evil" disabling saving

[Whomst'd've]

Wanted to save the game in my current playthrough so I could head off to bed, but noticed that I was not able to save because I had been "noticed by something truly evil"(a result from looking at a picture during a random event with neighbor 000 and the game does NOT tell you it will disable the ability to save) So as a result I have to throw away ~30 minutes or so of progress. Genuine question, how could anybody think this is a good idea? you choose the "wrong" option in a random event so you just cannot save any of your progress? Insanely frustrating and one of the worst design decisions I've ever seen. I have no idea if this is due to some sort of technical limitation with how the game saves work but my god does it make me want to refund and stop playing. Can anyone play devils advocate and explain why this is a feature? Are there more timesink landmines like this in the game or is this just some weird one off?

[Muado 93]

I'll tell you what's truly evil....the big wall o' text!

Seriously add some line spacing.

[CyanCatMan]

Oh that's the original way to find them. There's other events where they just SHOW UP on innocent looking events which make you never want to choose certain options knowing they'll show up.

If your looking for "backward" type things.
Achievements in this game usually reward you with afflictions and curses which start to gunk up your future runs.
Sure there's ones that give you items, but again it kinda kills aspects like stores as they get more and more you have to roll through now.

[dD_ShockTrooper]

LMAO, never knew that disables saving. Wow it really is something truly evil. I love how terrible the save and quit functionality is in this game. They really did decide to make several horrendous design decisions for the sake of being true to the theme that save+quit is just spending some time away from Shiokawa. There's a few other choices that make me go "???" in regards to saving.

[Ein Nineteenth]

So, they finally add save & quit, that works. And a random event that can happen in several locations can disable it? Jesus christ, just say you couldn't get the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ save function to work.

[Whomst'd've]

Originally posted by Muado 93:

I'll tell you what's truly evil....the big wall o' text!

Seriously add some line spacing.

Thank you for the valuable input, I really appreciate you taking the time to discuss this topic! Your insight will not be forgotten :)

[mldb88]

Probably for two reasons. One, thematically, Something Truly Evil stalks you through every aspect of the game, through the transition screens when investigating, through the HUD and in the background of certain events, replacing your inventory item pictures with it's own severed head, there is no escaping it. Thematically, this would also include saving and quitting, it prevents you from doing so because you CAN NOT ESCAPE IT.

Mechanically speaking, it does have a VERY strong possibility to put you in an unwinnable state if you're not prepared for it (after 4 encounter events with it, either through normal events or resting and it knowing where you live, the next encounter is a combat with it, which requires a certain amount of bot stamina and reason to complete, around 9+ iirc), so the locking out of saving could also be more to push the player to either race it to the finish (if the run is almost at the lighthouse anyway) or push the player to the point of encountering it shortly after to see if the run is even viable at that point.

[Tracido]

Originally posted by mldb88:

Probably for two reasons. One, thematically, Something Truly Evil stalks you through every aspect of the game, through the transition screens when investigating, through the HUD and in the background of certain events, replacing your inventory item pictures with it's own severed head, there is no escaping it. Thematically, this would also include saving and quitting, it prevents you from doing so because you CAN NOT ESCAPE IT.

Mechanically speaking, it does have a VERY strong possibility to put you in an unwinnable state if you're not prepared for it (after 4 encounter events with it, either through normal events or resting and it knowing where you live, the next encounter is a combat with it, which requires a certain amount of bot stamina and reason to complete, around 9+ iirc), so the locking out of saving could also be more to push the player to either race it to the finish (if the run is almost at the lighthouse anyway) or push the player to the point of encountering it shortly after to see if the run is even viable at that point.

Hmm, I just know I have to clear everything, literally everything in my schedule when I finally sit down and focus this game. Which I truly want to, but haven't had time for anything but losing save, after save because I've had to exit for something in reality.

[Whomst'd've]

Originally posted by Tracido:

Originally posted by mldb88:

Probably for two reasons. One, thematically, Something Truly Evil stalks you through every aspect of the game, through the transition screens when investigating, through the HUD and in the background of certain events, replacing your inventory item pictures with it's own severed head, there is no escaping it. Thematically, this would also include saving and quitting, it prevents you from doing so because you CAN NOT ESCAPE IT.

Mechanically speaking, it does have a VERY strong possibility to put you in an unwinnable state if you're not prepared for it (after 4 encounter events with it, either through normal events or resting and it knowing where you live, the next encounter is a combat with it, which requires a certain amount of bot stamina and reason to complete, around 9+ iirc), so the locking out of saving could also be more to push the player to either race it to the finish (if the run is almost at the lighthouse anyway) or push the player to the point of encountering it shortly after to see if the run is even viable at that point.

Hmm, I just know I have to clear everything, literally everything in my schedule when I finally sit down and focus this game. Which I truly want to, but haven't had time for anything but losing save, after save because I've had to exit for something in reality.

Yeah, losing the ability to save/losing your progress in general feels really crappy. I can't really think of any other game where this is an issue which is why it feels so out of place here, especially where this is now in its 1.0 release state. Any narrative decision or "force the player to rush" feels like really bad reasons to disable a basic function that every single other game has going for it, even if it was an active decision by the dev. I feel like it does nothing but make the game worse.

[Frullato di ratti]

Now imagine getting that during the first run.
That happened to me.