My one major gripe with Demon's Souls is my major gripe with a lot of PS3 games...

[pedrovay2003]

...And that's the fact that your save file can't be backed up or transferred.

Don't get me wrong -- Unlike other PS3 games, I actually understand why the save file is locked with Demon's Souls. Since the game is constantly saving and you have to take all of your mistakes and just roll with them, it would be cheating to just reload your save to undo something you screwed up. However, I can't seem to justify putting so much time into a game that requires that much patience and dedication, only to possibly lose that save for a number of reasons (broken console, needing to reformat for one reason or another, upgrading to a Slim, etc.). The PS3 backup utility doesn't help, either, seeing as how the data MUST BE restored to the same exact console.

A friend of mine is coming in from New Jersey next month (I'm in Utah, by the way), and he's really into this game. I'm the one that got him into it, in fact. He really wants to show me his characters, but that can't happen unless he brings his entire PS3 out here, fighting the horrendous security in more than one airport to do so, despite the fact that I have my own PS3 in my house just waiting for us to play it. It's really inconvenient.

I'm not trying to sound mean, cruel, ass-ish, etc. etc., but this really is a problem to me. People over on the Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5, and other PS3 game forums have complained about those locked saves as well, but the difference is that Resident Evil 5 was actually patched to remove the locks on the save files. Is there any chance that Demon's Souls could see that same treatment? As ridiculous as this may sound, that would actually make the game more enjoyable to me.

[Alex]

I agree.

We also discussed this already. :) How to save your save? (http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4237)

[RedRocket]

Why don't developers just keep locked save games on their servers?

[ChiTownBoi]

they have their files locked so ppl wont go hacking the files. it happened to call of duty 4 for the online multiplayer there were hackers for quiet a while many ppl stopped playing for a while, and if all else get a external hdd and back up all ur files and there ya go u saved ur DS file

[reson8er]

I had to send my PS3 in for repair, and lost all my Street Fighter 4 save data. Killed the game for me, I'm really considering selling it now, as I don't have the patience to go through all the unlocking crap again.

[Mounce]

a Lot of PS3 games? What?...

Demon's Souls is the only game I know of....when I played a years worth of games on my 60GB and had to sell it, I transferred all my saves successfully to my Flashstick, and put it on my 120GB, so I don't know what you're talking about? .....

[RedRocket]

Game save data for both the asian and NA versions of Demon's Souls are copy protected when trying to make a single copy to something like a flash drive.

Verified today. So, if you did it before, then DS has changed.

[Zion0153]

So, if you just do a backup of your entire PS3 hard drive so you can transfer it to a bigger hard drive on the same PS3, will the save transfer with it?

[pedrovay2003]

I agree.

We also discussed this already. :) How to save your save? (http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4237)

Gah, I'm sorry about that... I'm kinda new here, despite my long-time love of anything Atlus. :D



a Lot of PS3 games? What?...

Demon's Souls is the only game I know of....when I played a years worth of games on my 60GB and had to sell it, I transferred all my saves successfully to my Flashstick, and put it on my 120GB, so I don't know what you're talking about? .....

You can't transfer Demon's Souls data to a flash drive, SD card, memory stick, etc. They are permanently locked to the hard drive. System Backup won't do it, either, if you try to restore the data to a different console.

As for the games that have locked saves, here you go:

Bomberman Ultra
Brain Challenge
Crash Commando
Dark Mist
The Eye Of Judgment
Fat Princess
Killzone 2
LocoRoco Cocoreccho!
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Mega Man 9
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames
Need For Speed: Carbon
Rock Band
Rock Band 2
Singstar
Skate 2
Street Fighter IV
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
UFC: Undisputed
Wolfenstein

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Resident Evil 5 were patched to remove the copy protection. I think Demon's Souls needs to get the same treatment. I understand that there's a chance that people will hack their saves, but honestly, it's not worth the trade-off. I can't make myself invest the time in the game without knowing nothing will go wrong in the future. Call me paranoid.

(By the way, I know From Software made the game, but Atlus actually listens to people, unlike 90% of game companies. Just saying. :P)

Also, Zion0153, yes, that should work. I've never done it myself, but it should work as long as the physical console is the same.

[ICE PICK]

good thing the ps3 has usb ports :P

a external harddrive is epic with a PS3...especially when you constanly want to swap files off your computer + when you start having a lot of games taking up your PS3 HD just put them on the external till u want them....gg

[Zion0153]

I agree.

We also discussed this already. :) How to save your save? (http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4237)

Gah, I'm sorry about that... I'm kinda new here, despite my long-time love of anything Atlus. :D



a Lot of PS3 games? What?...

Demon's Souls is the only game I know of....when I played a years worth of games on my 60GB and had to sell it, I transferred all my saves successfully to my Flashstick, and put it on my 120GB, so I don't know what you're talking about? .....

You can't transfer Demon's Souls data to a flash drive, SD card, memory stick, etc. They are permanently locked to the hard drive. System Backup won't do it, either, if you try to restore the data to a different console.

As for the games that have locked saves, here you go:

Bomberman Ultra
Brain Challenge
Crash Commando
Dark Mist
The Eye Of Judgment
Fat Princess
Killzone 2
LocoRoco Cocoreccho!
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Mega Man 9
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames
Need For Speed: Carbon
Rock Band
Rock Band 2
Singstar
Skate 2
Street Fighter IV
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
UFC: Undisputed
Wolfenstein

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Resident Evil 5 were patched to remove the copy protection. I think Demon's Souls needs to get the same treatment. I understand that there's a chance that people will hack their saves, but honestly, it's not worth the trade-off. I can't make myself invest the time in the game without knowing nothing will go wrong in the future. Call me paranoid.

(By the way, I know From Software made the game, but Atlus actually listens to people, unlike 90% of game companies. Just saying. :P)

Also, Zion0153, yes, that should work. I've never done it myself, but it should work as long as the physical console is the same.


Thanks for answering that. I'm gonna upgrade my 60GB (Backwards compatible ftw) PS3 to about a 500GB hard drive, so I wanted to make sure my save would go with it...

[Mounce]

I agree.

We also discussed this already. :) How to save your save? (http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4237)

Gah, I'm sorry about that... I'm kinda new here, despite my long-time love of anything Atlus. :D



a Lot of PS3 games? What?...

Demon's Souls is the only game I know of....when I played a years worth of games on my 60GB and had to sell it, I transferred all my saves successfully to my Flashstick, and put it on my 120GB, so I don't know what you're talking about? .....

You can't transfer Demon's Souls data to a flash drive, SD card, memory stick, etc. They are permanently locked to the hard drive. System Backup won't do it, either, if you try to restore the data to a different console.

As for the games that have locked saves, here you go:

Bomberman Ultra
Brain Challenge
Crash Commando
Dark Mist
The Eye Of Judgment
Fat Princess
Killzone 2
LocoRoco Cocoreccho!
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Mega Man 9
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames
Need For Speed: Carbon
Rock Band
Rock Band 2
Singstar
Skate 2
Street Fighter IV
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
UFC: Undisputed
Wolfenstein

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Resident Evil 5 were patched to remove the copy protection. I think Demon's Souls needs to get the same treatment. I understand that there's a chance that people will hack their saves, but honestly, it's not worth the trade-off. I can't make myself invest the time in the game without knowing nothing will go wrong in the future. Call me paranoid.

(By the way, I know From Software made the game, but Atlus actually listens to people, unlike 90% of game companies. Just saying. :P)

Also, Zion0153, yes, that should work. I've never done it myself, but it should work as long as the physical console is the same.

Well, makes sense since I don't own or have played any of THOSE games, but yes, I already knew Demon's Souls was locked, but that helps prevents annoying BS of people like, giving out their saves of Maxed-level chars and stuff more-than-likely.

Reduce abusers.

[pedrovay2003]

See, the thing is that saves can be locked to PSN IDs, making it possible to back them up and transfer them to different consoles, but requiring you to have the original PSN ID linked to the save file when you use it. Dead Space and Mirror's Edge did that, and it worked out beautifully.

[Ckarasu]

See, the thing is that saves can be locked to PSN IDs, making it possible to back them up and transfer them to different consoles, but requiring you to have the original PSN ID linked to the save file when you use it. Dead Space and Mirror's Edge did that, and it worked out beautifully.

Hmm. Interesting. I didn't know that.

Also, what are you so paranoid about? PS 3's seem to have a pretty low failure rate, and the chances of you losing your file seem pretty slim. You shouldn't dwell on it too much. Just enjoy the game.

[pedrovay2003]

It's not something I'm really paranoid about per say, but something I like to think about for the future's sake. I like how consoles can last decades if needed, but hard drives are a lot more delicate than other forms of storage. The PS3 does indeed have an extremely low failure rate, but it IS a piece of electronic equipment, and it may have problems later on. It's a long-term thing that bugs me.

Also, I don't like to "stack" consoles, so if the inevitable PS4 plays PS3 games, it would suck to start it all over just because it couldn't be moved from one console to the other (like what happened with ALL original Xbox games when playing them on the 360).

And for the record, trust me, I'm enjoying the game a ton. :D I don't let this fact detract from the experience -- It's just something that's a concern with me when playing a lot of games.

[White Rob]

I understand that there's a chance that people will hack their saves, but honestly, it's not worth the trade-off.

So it's OK if a game that is heavily defined by its online component becomes plagued by hackers that can invade your game at any point? I'm getting flashbacks of the original Diablo now...

[Achdar]

So, if you just do a backup of your entire PS3 hard drive so you can transfer it to a bigger hard drive on the same PS3, will the save transfer with it?

Yes, as long as you are going to use it in the same console, it must work.

[conzan09]

yeah it sucks that you have to start a new game if you upgrade your ps3 to a slim

[PatriotPigeon]

agreed

[Kerensky18]

I agree, I'm really enjoying the game so I invited my brother over who started a character under his PSN id on my PS3. I went to take his character over to him so he could continue at his house but was dismayed that I couldn't transfer the save.

He only lost ~12hrs but still.

[MadBoJangles]

My console just YLOD'd on me, Soul level 99 and 3 bosses into New Game + :(

Gutted.
Getting the console repaired (hopefully), if they replace it I'll have to start again.
That would suck donkey sacks.

[SpiritThief]

I hate that about Demon's Souls too. If they ever cut the servers off they I hope they unlock saves. I already lost my save when I had to get a new system. That was after only one game cycle but still it hurt. Happens again I don't think I'd come back for a quite a while.

Dragon Age does this too. Very STUPID. Should not lock saves on any RPGs.

Other games lock their saves too but they do it in a way so they can only be used with the same PSN ID. you can still back them up to USB.

[Hawuvajo]

I understand that there's a chance that people will hack their saves, but honestly, it's not worth the trade-off.

So it's OK if a game that is heavily defined by its online component becomes plagued by hackers that can invade your game at any point? I'm getting flashbacks of the original Diablo now...
my guess is that they don't PvP, just quest etc... they don't feel how annoying it is when a guy enter your world using the "running firestorm glitch" -.-

and releasing the protection from saves would for sure make the game a playground for hackers, making even more annoying to pvp, and IF they do unprotect the save, don't come create topics like:
HACKERS ARE ALL OVER, THEY INVADE ME IN SOUL FORM DAM.. blablabla etc.. it's your fault, for asking this, even knowing that "trade-off"

[Captain_Tom]

I bring my ps3 places all the time...It will be quite safe through security...

[cirkustanz]

I really have to agree on the locked save issue. There really has got to be a way to let people make a backup of the game.

I really do understand how important the constant saving is, and how it works to both make the game extremely challenging, as well as prevent situations where a person spends 2 hours in a level and they have to leave all of a sudden, how frustrating it is to have to spend that 2 hours playing it again.

I'm sure all of us on this message board are pros now, myself for example, I've done probably 12 play throughs of the game and that's not even that much when you think about it.

But that first play through can take a LOT of time.

There has got to be a way to let people BACKUP their game to cover them in the event of their PS3 breaking. Demon's Souls really is a classic worthy game, that a person would want to play even years after they first played. For example, I've played Super Metroid probably 30 or 40 times in my life.....I have a few game saves from right before boss fights. It's the best!

With Demon's Souls, it's nice to keep a character at a certain level range if you want to jump in later........

Surely 10 years from now the game will only be single player.....but there will be many of us who will want to play the game on occasion, but we might not want to spend the extreme amount of time to unlock the maps we want to.

It's that good!

Please keep this kind of gamer in mind.

[Kahalachan]

This used to bother me when I was a trophy collector, but now that I don't care, if the game is that good you wouldn't mind doing everything all over again. That's called replay value.


All my Demon's Souls data could be wiped in the blink of an eye and I'd just start a new save file and probably try a new build.

Sure it'd suck my 4 builds cannot be played for PvP and that's the only thing that'd bug me. But I'd have just as much fun re-making a character.

[cirkustanz]

It's not about trophies. Check my profile out, (Cirkustanz is my PSN ID) you'll see that I obviously bought the game when it first came out and played it as often as I had the free time to then.

I've played through the game multiple times since then as well as I have mentioned before as well.

I've stated this game really does have long term replay value, like many of the other video game classics. I used Super Metroid as an example.

The thing is, gamers are people, and people are diverse. What may be fun for you in a game, might not be fun for someone else.

Frankly, I find the first couple dozen levels pretty limiting. Since I'm an experienced demon's souls player, the difficulty of the game whether it be on playthrough 1, 2, 3, or 7 doesn't really effect me. Having to choose how to build your character because of the inherent limitations in being able to tackle a certain level or boss is not necessarily something that everyone will like.

Yes, I would agree that there is a certain appeal to that "budgeting" and those decisions for many. Do you turn in that demon's soul for a weapon because you need that weapon to more readily take down a boss, or do you make a spell out of it to help you with another level? It's a decision.......

Some people just like flexibility, or want to be able to do builds that you simply can't do effectively on your first playthrough.

Another example would be the very common "limitation" run-throughs. Some examples of this with gamers would be a playthrough of metroid with only getting limited powerups throughout the game.

In a game like Demon's Souls, where many of the upgrade opportunities really does come down to luck, such as whether or not a Crystal Lizard will drop a pure stone or not, make these sorts of limited runs impossible to duplicate if a person can not save their game.

Whenever the time comes when the online servers shut down, there will be no PVP, there will be no resource trading, there will be no assistance with a difficult boss, there will be no ability to offer assistance in exchange for returning your body to you upon the defeat of a Demon.

It will be offline only experience. Which is good, don't get me wrong. But it ABSOLUTELY changes things for certain gamers who like to make the game more difficult by imposing restrictions.

This game is extremely difficult, don't get me wrong. But make no mistake, once a person gets to a certain point, the game is easy to master.

Not being able to backup their games limits their options for this.