Straightforward poll. Do you prefer save points to heal your characters' HP/MP/Status effects, or do you prefer to use inns and items? I believe all save points before FFX don't heal the player, but the save points of FFX, FFX-2, and FFXII do.

* Edit: I should make a correction. The save points in FFXIII do not heal your party. They don't heal, but then again, they don't need to because every battle starts the player fully healed from the last encounter. My mistake.

I preferred to use of inns myself, as it meant you had to be mindful of keeping your party in good shape to survive a trek to the next town or whatever (or at least making sure you have an ample supply of tents ;)) - simply being able to heal yourself at the next available save point kind of removed this challenge, especially in games like FFXIII when save points were ridiculously frequent.

Incidentally, FFXI has no save points at all due to player data being saved continuously on the server - instead there is the 'Residential Area' in each main city where upon entering a room in it fully heals your HP, MP and most status effects, making it kind of like a return to the old-style inns in a sense, although unlike inns the Residential Area is free. You can also slowly restore your HP and MP anywhere by using the /heal command.

I love the old school way where the characters rest, it's so much more realistic, and in a way, challenging. :)

Save point heal thank you. Inns never cost too much money, so instead of being challenging, it's just irritating more than anything. Saving is something I'm going to do anyway so might as well get healed while I'm there. FF games have never been too difficult, so adding artificial difficulty through something like this is unnecessary.

Save point heal thank you. Inns never cost too much money, so instead of being challenging, it's just irritating more than anything. Saving is something I'm going to do anyway so might as well get healed while I'm there. FF games have never been too difficult, so adding artificial difficulty through something like this is unnecessary.

Save point Heal for me too... It makes the experinece better IMO.

The other way it's annoying early and it takes away the time of the player and plus in late game it becomes utterly pointless, because you have so much money that you have 99 tents stashed.

Save point heal thank you. Inns never cost too much money, so instead of being challenging, it's just irritating more than anything. Saving is something I'm going to do anyway so might as well get healed while I'm there. FF games have never been too difficult, so adding artificial difficulty through something like this is unnecessary.
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Though I don't mind non-healing save points either. Then I just stock up on a couple of extra tents, and not that many more anyway.

Save point heal thank you. Inns never cost too much money, so instead of being challenging, it's just irritating more than anything. Saving is something I'm going to do anyway so might as well get healed while I'm there. FF games have never been too difficult, so adding artificial difficulty through something like this is unnecessary.

Amen to that bro. I also prefer save point heal because it makes grinding easier >.>. Just run in circles for a battle and insta heal after that XD. Did it in FFXII (don't remember the name of the place though - I think it's somewhere near the farplanes).

mmm I prefer non-healing save points, it makes a game a little (REALLY slightly) more challenging, take for example FF IX, there are tons of places where you can't sleep so you have to rely on items such as tents or potions/ethers, and that makes the game a little more fun to me at least, I hated being able to have one fight, have everyone dead, to just run back to a save point and get insta healed.

Healing save points are pretty clutch. If I'm grinding out some levels, I don't give two fraks about going 'lol need to find an inn!' or using a tent, I want to save, then start slaughtering shit. There's a difference between challenging, and monotonous. Using a tent that costs an inconsequential amount of gil, or hightailing it to an inn do nothing to add challenge, they're unnecessary, and only take away from the game.

Healing save points are pretty clutch. If I'm grinding out some levels, I don't give two fraks about going 'lol need to find an inn!' or using a tent, I want to save, then start slaughtering shit. There's a difference between challenging, and monotonous. Using a tent that costs an inconsequential amount of gil, or hightailing it to an inn do nothing to add challenge, they're unnecessary, and only take away from the game.

Actually in IX they do add a challenge, remember Tents will never heal you to max hp nor mp and we're talking of game where gil can sometimes become a problem if you're not the grinding for hours type, overall healing save points is what make it monotonous, it's just ATTACK LIKE HELL, I DON't GIVE A SHIT, I CAN HEAL IN THE SAVE POINT NEXT TO ME ANYWAYS TO MAX HP and absolutely no cost at all, and even status ailments will be dispelled!

Okay. If you don't want to grind, don't grind. No one's forcing you to grind. For me, the only redeeming thing about JRPGs is the combat systems (and the scores, sometimes), I grind a lot. If you think the stories are good, awesome. Tell me all about how bad guy X did Y to Z's village and now he has amnesia and his friends A B C and love interest D are here to help Z defeat bad guy X while uncovering the secret of Z's past while simultaneously revealing how establishment E was in with bad guy X all along. I won't know what you're talkin' about, 'cause to me, it's all about the combat. What's more monotonous? Okay, save point...tent, cool! HP full. Or, okay, save point, cool! Or, okay, walk to inn, random battle, continue walking to inn, random battle, continue walking to inn, random battle, continue walking to inn, random battle, continue walking to in, random battle, get town, walk to inn, talk to NPC, watch stupid scene indicating your guys are sleep, NPC says 'Hope you slept well lulllllllllllz!', leave inn, go into town, leave town, start walking to where you were, random battle, continue walking to where you were, random battle, continue walking to where you were, random battle, continue walking to where you were, random battle. Shit, need to rest up again. Turn around, to go back to the town, random battle, continue going back to town, random battle, continue going back to town, random battle, continue going back into town.

You get the idea.

I love the old school way where the characters rest, it's so much more realistic, and in a way, challenging. :)

Seconded

Okay. If you don't want to grind, don't grind. No one's forcing you to grind. For me, the only redeeming thing about JRPGs is the combat systems (and the scores, sometimes), I grind a lot. If you think the stories are good, awesome. Tell me all about how bad guy X did Y to Z's village and now he has amnesia and his friends A B C and love interest D are here to help Z defeat bad guy X while uncovering the secret of Z's past while simultaneously revealing how establishment E was in with bad guy X all along. I won't know what you're talkin' about, 'cause to me, it's all about the combat. What's more monotonous? Okay, save point...tent, cool! HP full. Or, okay, save point, cool! Or, okay, walk to inn, random battle, continue walking to inn, random battle, continue walking to inn, random battle, continue walking to inn, random battle, continue walking to in, random battle, get town, walk to inn, talk to NPC, watch stupid scene indicating your guys are sleep, NPC says 'Hope you slept well lulllllllllllz!', leave inn, go into town, leave town, start walking to where you were, random battle, continue walking to where you were, random battle, continue walking to where you were, random battle, continue walking to where you were, random battle. Shit, need to rest up again. Turn around, to go back to the town, random battle, continue going back to town, random battle, continue going back to town, random battle, continue going back into town.

You get the idea.

If you don't like stories, why are you even playing Final Fantasy? seriously...

what you call "stupid scene of your characters sleeping" or w/e, that's the ESSENCE of a RPG, that's what an RPG IS, A Role Playing Game, those things are important for RPGs, and so are the story and all the dialogues, even if it's an NPC telling you something you probly wont't remember 20 seconds from now

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Very good question and was hard for me to answer.

With healing save points random encounters become just a time passer until the next boss fight whereas otherwise they are a challenging obstacle.

However, it is frustrating being deep in a dungeon, saving it at low health then being unable to progress or go back if you haven't got any potions/ethers with you.

I voted for healing save points but reading about inns made me change my mind.....

I think I would go with inns because they are not convenient and makes an inventory something you have to consider. An inn allows you to measure your ability to sustain yourself and how well you are prepared with your inventory. It's much more fun to use a potion to save yourself because you are in a dungeon then it is to get that potion to just sell it because you already got a hi-potion.

No heal points please,its overpowered and makes fighting boring and pretty much no meaning at all.

Remember in dragon warrior when you were exploring a dungeon and you heard this frightening music and see really strong red knights smack you around and you begin to get low on hp and had to keep healing? remember when you had to treck back and get more levels and gear and potions? These were the days.

Its called a challenge and i support no heal after fights immediately with full hp/mp.If you want to beat a game,learn to play and get good at it.
In dragon age origins you don't get a free heal and you know what? it makes fights tougher and have you think instead of mindlessly killing things like in FFXIII.
Also:no poison after fights? really? OH CMON!! this is getting ridiculous,at least leave poisons on after fight and have people use antidotes so they think more than just mindless killing.

Also:i agree there are far too many savepoints in modern final fantasy.FF4 didn't have that many savepoints and i miss that old style.

I prefer healing items you can carry around with you and either inns in towns and tents where you can rest and heal.I don't like the heal save points.

I prefer healing items you can carry around with you and either inns in towns and tents where you can rest and heal.I don't like the heal save points.

Thats cause free heals after a fight make every fight in the game trivial.

FFXIII has it and it hurts the game.

Meh......If a fight is hard enough and you survive it only to get raped and murdered by some trivial enemy if you run out of supplies it kinda discourages the average gamer if they are stuck in a huge predicament. Im usually against checkpoints and for manuel saving but in FF case I would prefer healing save points.