There are certainly games that buck the trend, but typical AAA releases now are paranoid about losing you to some other game or form of media. It’s not something we have to contend with much nowadays walkthroughs are often entirely unnecessary with modern games. Looking back, my mental gymnastics are laughable now, but I’m sure some readers will find those thoughts familiar. No, no, that wasn’t cheating, I told myself. Again, it’s strange that I never considered the 'hint book' that came with Sword of Vermilion a ‘walkthough’, simply because it was included in the box, but it’s absolutely a comprehensive guide. I now look back very fondly on Simon's Quest – all thanks to save states.Īnd walkthroughs too! Another self-imposed taboo I’ve learned to overcome, the ability to save snapshots would have been little help if I didn’t know that I had to kneel in front of the cliff with a crystal to proceed. They enabled me to spend enough time in the world for the game (and its incredible music) to work its magic. Simply put, I reached breaking point and would never have stuck with the game without save states. Back in the day these liars helped make sure you got ‘value for money’ by not completing the game in one sitting, but nowadays when time can often be more valuable than money, the game’s convoluted design is a huge barrier to entry. Simon’s Quest is notoriously obtuse, though, with some villagers providing false information and localisation errors compounding the confusion. There’s often a strange allure to certain games significant artefacts that we feel we ‘should’ play, even if we’re not naturally drawn to them. You might be playing through one of those Mega Man games simply to ‘complete the set’, so to speak, even if you’d maybe prefer to be playing another one in the collection. They're especially helpful in titles we’re playing for ‘historical’ value. Rewind features can be found in games as diverse as Forza Horizon 4 and the Mega Man Legacy Collection, and they're a godsend in modern times with so many games and so little time. We're seeing time-saving systems coming to more and more games, both old and new. All the NES games included with Nintendo Switch Online or the Classic Mini consoles have up to four 'suspend points' to use, and so they should. No developer would dream of re-releasing a classic title now without some concession to convenience. The obvious convenience of them still rubs up against my old-school sensibilities now and then, although it’s odd that I didn’t consider the guidebook or the save slots in the game itself to be ‘cheap’. This got me thinking about my instinctual reaction that save states are somehow a form of ‘cheating’. No, I was going to summit this peak without any of those 'cheap' aids! In my head I had to beat this game ‘properly’ or not at all and for a long time I’d seen save states as a easy way to cheat your way to victory. Traditionally I would have bristled at the idea of using a guide, but this one came with the game itself and that somehow legitimised it. So, feeling I had a score to settle, a few years ago I decided to go back and conquer it. The comparative complexity of the game coupled with my apathy meant I never got far, and over the years it grew in my mind as a mountain forever there, taunting me with its stupid save slots, primitive first-person dungeon sections and random encounters. I played it, of course – any video game is better than no video game – but an RPG wasn’t what I was after and I was a bit too young for it. Yes, the game boasted three save slots! That was impressive at the time, but hardly enough to excite a kid eager to hack and slash with a golden axe. He'd apparently been impressed by the label on the box advertising ‘5 MEGA MEMORY with battery backup’ and ‘106 PAGE HINT BOOK INCLUDED’. Unfortunately, my old man had bought Sword of Vermilion and my disappointment was impossible to hide.
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