Not too long ago, Pokemon Sword and Shield fans realized that the games may come with an auto-save feature, which had many audibly upset. This is understandable given how saves are often manipulated when players fail to catch a legendary or to farm for specific stats in Pokemon. Now, the Pokemon Sword and Shield auto-save feature has been confirmed by director director Shigeru Ohmori, but it's not something that fans should be concerned about.
Ohmori recently spoke about how players would need to manually stop and save after interacting with others, such as a trade, in Pokemon games in the past. To avoid this, Ohmori confirmed auto-saves in the Wild Area and how it is something constantly affecting Pokemon Sword and Shield players there. However, he goes on to say the feature isn't just limited to the Wild Area and will instead have full functionality throughout the game.
Ohmori then discusses how auto-saving eliminates the remember to do so in the Galar Region. There's clearly a lot of reasons that this could be beneficial, but before players begin announcing presumed cons to the feature, it's worth mentioning that auto-saves in Pokemon Sword and Shield can be turned off. There's no need to worry about auto-saving and failing to catch a legendary, as long as the player makes sure to turn off the auto-save beforehand.
It could even be off for the majority of the game, but Ohmori wasn't sure how to feel about that: "I think the Nintendo Switch, compared to previous consoles, it’s actually a bit harder to restart your game..Like, on the NES, you’d have a dedicated button to reset the whole thing, but with the Switch, it’s a little bit more complicated of a process." Either way, the very fact that it can be disabled to allow for repeated tries at legendaries like Mewtwo (if he were in the game) is a huge relief to everyone.
Now, instead of worry about the auto-save function, players can look forward to the forthcoming 24-hour Pokemon Sword and Shield livestream this weekend. It's expected to reveal some new Pokemon coming the Galar region, so it'll be interesting to see what comes of it.
Pokemon Sword and Shield will launch on November 15, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
Source: Game Informer