Save Data

[Moonface]

How much do you value your save data for games? Would you care if one day a particular save file on your system or memory card just...disappeared?

For most games I probably don't care much for backing up the save data. It's really only for games where I put a lot of time/effort in or it has things I wouldn't be able to retrieve, such as LittleBigPlanet, Minecraft, or old WWE games. Other stuff I could just replay and get a new save with the same progress pretty easily, which is what I had to do for some of my PS3 games when my first PS3 broke down.

I did lose a Jak X save on my PS2 memory card due to corruption after over a decade of having and using the file. That was pretty sad for me because that was a save file I didn't want to lose and didn't expect to get corrupted by a bug in the game after using it for so long.

[Nightingale]

It depends on the game, man.

If it's an RPG and I have already dumped hundreds of hours into it, you bet I will be taking measures just to keep my save files around...

Like, for example, I don't plan to touch Chrono Trigger ever again, but I assure you any single save I made went directly towards an external storage unit, as well as the HDD itself, just to keep it there.

Otherwise, I don't mind starting over in most other games, provided they are not linear enough for it to become a chore.

[Karo]

Like Tsu said for me it depends on the game. I'd care if I'd lost my Pokemon data because I get attached to all my Pokemon!

I'd be upset if I lost data to my AC town that I worked hard on or any big collectathon game or huge RPG that takes hours to just get thourhg the first dungeon.

I never actually back them up honestly, but huge RPG type games tend to be the data I value the most. I actually really hated losing my Splatoon 2 data cause I had to start buying all those clothes over again! D: It not fun starting over when you already put your inkling in a nice look and have to start from scratch.

[Maniakkid25]

I once had a save file for FFX at the very end of the game. It even had all the celestial weapons and everything. Then that memory card got corrupted, and the save was lost forever T.=.T. Surprisingly enough, it was thanks to Jak X that it got corrupted to begin with, so that was fun.

[Dragon Lord]

Once I finish the platinum for a game (or finish the game in the case of no trophies/achievements being present), I no longer care about the save data. If it all gets deleted, oh well, I was done with the game anyways.

The only time I back-up my save data is when I'm "save scumming" a game to beat out RNG. Like if I have to make something in a game, and have limited materials to make it, but I need it to be a certain rarity/quality/whatever when I make it, or if the chances of making it are stupidly low (2% for example), then I will back-up my save before attempting the action. If I'm successful and get what I need, I continue. If it fails, I download my save from the online storage and try again until I'm successful.

A good example of what I'm talking about is in Monster Hunter World when crown farming. Instead of just fighting a monster 100-200+ times hoping for a crown, instead I can just get a good investigation for whatever monster I'm hunting. Then I upload my save to online storage, then go back into the game and do that investigation however many times I can. If I get the crown I need, great, I continue on. If I don't? Just download the save from before I did the investigation and try again.

[queenzelda]

I actually lost my save file for LBP for a while & NiNoKuni & I was so upset cause I had close to almost everything collected in the main LBP file I had & was working towards getting platinum for NNK. I was able to move over all of my old PS3 save data, but it took a few month's to do.

Some games I restart on purpose, like with Mario or Zelda. Sometimes for me it depends on what game I want to replay is all.

[Kyng]

If it's something like FTL or Crypt of the NecroDancer, I won't care at all. Games of FTL are completed in a couple of hours anyway, and games of Crypt only take about half an hour. It won't take too much effort to unlock everything again .

Losing all of my Civ 5 or Crusader Kings II saves would be annoying - but then, I hardly ever use my old saves anyway.

Losing my Cities: Skylines saves, on the other hand, would be dreadful. There's one game that I've had for over a year now >_< .

[Hotspot]

For RPG's, I tend to have a million save files, especially for my favorite series, Suikoden.

Although ironically, games like Final Fantasy IX.. where it's so long that I get tired of it.. then pick it up a few years later, just to restart it.. I will just save over the old file to start anew, and then stop playing it again, rinse and repeat.

But lately, I've learned to be a little less conservative with saving things, so I'll be a b it more brutal in the future.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah I think it's safe to say, any file where you've dedicated hours and hours to either customizing aspects or building attachments to characters in unique ways in games, you're not gonna wanna lose that file.

It's mostly why I have a hard time thinking of doing a Nuzlocke style run in Pokemon because I enjoy raising my Pokemon as my precious growing children that become badasses as they level up, and the idea of just outright dumping/abandoning them as tools makes me sad

When I lost my save of my Pokemon Gold (that I didn't realize I lost until I booted up the game 10 years after I last played it), and just saw that screen of "NEW GAME", my heart just sank. It might've been the first game I was aware of that I spent nearly 200 hours in as a kid. Where my level 92 Typhlosion baby was raised in. Where I proudly defeated Red at the top of Mt. Silver. Where I stupidly used a Master Ball on a Ursaring I couldn't catch. All of it just... poofed.

My first save loss came when I thought the reset button on my SNES actually meant it reset all your saves. My dad accidentally hit it once (he lightly kicked the system with his foot when he was walking by or something), and when the game rebooted, all the save files for my Yoshi's Island game were all wiped. I was so annoyed at him for doing that and hesitated to ever hit that button again for fear it did that. I honestly don't know what actually reset my cart to factory that day, but it was a strange coincidence

[Dragon Lord]

It's mostly why I have a hard time thinking of doing a Nuzlocke style run in Pokemon because I enjoy raising my Pokemon as my precious growing children that become badasses as they level up, and the idea of just outright dumping/abandoning them as tools makes me sad

Meanwhile I'm the complete opposite. If I'm doing a Nuzlocke and one of my Mons 'dies', I'm just like, "Meh, next." I never cared for that "nickname your Pokemon so you care about them more" rule in Nuzlocke's, because even if I nickname them, I still don't give a shit about them.

As for your Yoshi's Island data wiping, that was pretty common on older systems like that if the game was shut off in a way it was intended. Such as pulling the cart out without shutting the system off or, as in your case, the system resetting due to being hit hard enough.