Tuesday, July 5, 2011

A save file that cannot be deleted?


This would be the first of its kind Ive ever heard of. Resident Evil: THe Mercenaries for 3DS has an invincible save file which cannot be deleted on the part of the player. There's no delete option on the game. It's not a glitch, nor was it a mistake that the delete button was omitted, but it's something crazier than that- the mechanic was intended by Capcom. The controversy has been going on for since the game was released, and many have expressed their disenchantment.

Yep, unless your internal cartridge battery runs dry, you won't be able to start a brand new game. Thanks, Capcom. This is just what we wanted, a save file that doesn't selfdestruct so we won't have to undergo the frustration of beginning an erased game. That's going to be soooo useful when you trade the game in and someone else buys the game and finds out he can't play it because it's already been completed for him.


Capcom's reason? A statement from them on June 30 says:


In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, all mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset. The nature of the game invites high levels of replayability, encouraging fans to improve mission scores. The save mechanic ensures that both original and unlocked game content will be available to all users. Secondhand game sales were not a factor in this development decision…”


“There was no intention of lessening the experience of the game. Essentially, RE Mercs was treated like an arcade fighting game. You unlock characters, levels, etc and they just stay unlocked as they would in an arcade machine. There was no hidden motive to prevent buying used copies. It’s not some secret form of DRM. It’s simply the way we designed the save system to work with the arcade type of gameplay.

Capcom has owned up to it and promised there won't be anymore weird and stupid save systems like this one again.
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