Ask Lemmy

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/

Don't read into it too too much. It's better experienced knowing as little as possible, but things are absolutely not as they seem

OneShot's plot focuses on the gamer's relation to the protagonist, Niko, so try that!

I now want to make a game that does exactly that.

If you quick save in an area with killable NPCs they would know and some would look at you and back away slowly, others would turn an run like in GTA, maybe one or two go wide eyed and freeze and just stare at you waiting. If you had previously killed any and reloaded then one goes "Oh no, not again."

I would make puzzles or locked areas that are impossible to open UNTIL you figure out that knowledge, but if you reload after learning that and try to shortcut the process the puzzle would either change so you fail again or even better, you could solve it and like a door opens, but then when you go into the next room there is a scroll or book tome thing that would lecture you about cheating or something funny and then make you do a second different puzzle to proceed, that would be an infinite series of rooms if you reloaded, but if you solved then organically then you could finally escape the loop and the door exits the loop.

If you don't play for a while and load up an old save, make some characters aware of the passage of time and comment things like "oh I thought you forgot about us." Or even specifically call out the exact amount "Really? 49 days waiting on you. Did you even think about me?"

I LOVE the idea someone else mentioned of an in-game antagonist being able to corrupt your save file or even transfer themselves to one of your other save files. How freaky would it be if they corrupt your save, so you have to load an old save before you met that antagonist and then they fucking show up and KNOW WHAT YOU DID.

Or if it reads your other saves and the NPCs could make rude or insulting comments about them. "Been playing Mario instead of spending time with us again? Is a plumber really better than us? Ouch." Or if you played any spicy games one of the characters would look at you and wink and go "I was watching you Friday night, you animal." And really freak you out.

I really love the 4th wall break idea of an antagonist that becomes self aware and breaks out of the game. There was a Star Trek TNG episode where Data and Geordi do a Sherlock Holmes holodeck thing and create a Moriarty character that could "outsmart data" and he becomes sentient and breaks out of the holodeck and it's a whole thing and I love that concept for a game.

There are so many amazing possibilities.

This gimmick instantly reminds me of The Stanley Parable. It isn't really related to saving and loading but it does "reset" you all the time. I find it an absolute gem of a game.

Undertale.

Katana Zero does this. You have precognition and work out how to win an encounter before you actually do it. Later, it explores more interesting concepts like, "what if your opponent also has the same ability". The story is really good, so i won't go into it too much, but I highly recommend.

There's a game where the best way to experience it is to go blind and discover everything, I think you might enjoy it, it's called Outer Wilds, and it's one of the best games I've ever played.

idk if this is on topic but I remember playing jak3 as a kid and after i constantly died, that stupid fkin rat pops up and said something like "You suck". I think i cried for a bit lmao

Maybe check out deathloop?

Animal Crossing O o O

This reminds me of the book "Only you can save mankind" by Terry Pratchett. The aliens surrender once they realise the player is apparently immortal!

Not an RPG, but the ancient civ-like Output would have a "news" article pop up whenever you loaded a save game. "Entire colony plunged back in time - scientists baffled" or something like that.

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter isn't quite the what you are describing, but it is built around saving and reloading regularly.

Isn't that just Undertale and Deltarune?

Shadow of Mordor and it's sequel, Shadow of War. The nemesis system makes death a part of the game, so a random orc that kills you gets a promotion.

Most rougelites kind of do this.

For "big" FPS games Deathloop kind of does it. You and the main villain are aware of a reset that happens when you die or the two day timer runs out.

Every loop you gain more knowledge, and every miniboss gives more power.

But to actually beat the game, you need to do a bunch of tasks in the right order in the right timeslots.

I don't think I ever finished it, but it was a fun concept

In Fable 2 when you purchase shops that earn you money it accrues in real time. If I plugged in my 360 I'd probably have 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 gold or something now haha