Realism and immersion are two terms often associated with the modern era of gaming. With the monumental leaps in technology between the early console generations, immersion and realism quickly became the main goal for many games during the 7thconsole generation. Many games tried to make their experience more realistic through grounded lighting effects, weighty combat mechanics, and realistic audio, and while this led to some pretty similar-looking titles for a while, this element of realism has stuck around still today, and the ‘Justified save point’ gaming trope has stayed with it.
The ‘Justified save point’ trope doesn’t belong to just one particulargaming genre, instead, it’s used across the industry in a variety of different ways. But while its implementation across the industry can be quite diverse, its purpose is always the same, to keep the player immersed in the game’s world, even while saving the game and logging out.
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The Justified Save Point Gaming Trope Explained
Every piece of media, whether it’s a book, movie, TV show, piece of theater, or video game, requires the audience to suspend their disbelief, and accept that what they’re seeing can’t quite be a 100% realistic portrayal. However, thevideo game industryemploys a variety of different techniques in order to keep its games as realistic as possible. One of these techniques is the ‘Justified save point’ trope.
While the act of saving is inherently a pretty big break from reality, many modern games attempt to justify it by providing some key pieces of context. Rather than old methods of saving, where the player would simply click on a menu icon or run into a save point in the overworld, these games use a real-world activity to explain away the act of saving. Whether it’s reflecting on their adventure while staring into a mirror, or taking time out to meditate, it’s not just a simple save button.
The Best Examples of the Justified Save Point Trope in Gaming
One of the simplest, and oldest examples of the ‘Justified save point’ trope in gaming can be found throughouttheResident Evilfranchise. Starting with the very first game in the franchise,Resident Evilwill often make players save their progress by using one of the typewriters dotted around the game’s world. These typewriters can usually be found in fairly realistic places, like an office or study, and in earlier entries in the franchise players even had to use Ink Ribbons to save their progress.
TheGrand Theft Autofranchisealso has a fairly simple example of the ‘Justified save point’ trope. Beginning withGrand Theft Auto 3, players would save their progress by visiting their apartment. After saving, the player-character would head inside, and when the player returned, the character would leave their apartment six in-game hours later, presumably after having a little sleep.
TheAnimal Crossingseries has a very similar version of this trope, with some iterations, such asAnimal Crossing: Wild World, requiring the player to save their progress by returning to their house and getting into bed. If the player hasn’t logged in for over a week, then the player-character’s hair will look bedraggled, as if they’d spent the whole time in bed.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Timehas one of the more unique takes on the ‘Justified save point’ trope. The whole game is framed as if the Prince is telling the player a story, and when the player saves at specific locations, the Prince remarks “I’ll start the story from here next time,” further feeding into that unique narrative framing device.
