What you said is 100% correct. But even if there were no bugs, they didn't make the kind of game that works with a limited save system. Limited saves work best with straightforward, combat oriented games. Here's a dungeon: Fight your way through it. In proper RPGs, it only makes sense as an option for people who have already completed the game, probably more than once, and have extensive meta knowledge.
I don't know. I agree that such a system works best with straightforward, combat oriented games, but for me at least it also works well with more traditional cRPGs.
When I was a kid I played through every RPG without reloading (aside of course for when I died), because it simply made sense to do so. For me, they were great adventures, and I didn't even realise I could simply reload after every minute failure. And as it makes for extremely memorable moments, to this day I still play this way, only reloading when I've actually died.
As a boy of ten, being captured by the Illithids south of Ust Natha was horrible; I didn't understand half of Baldur's Gate 2 mechanics and escaping the Illithids was a massive struggle. Fun fact: I've always systematically named my save files 'Save 1', 'Save 2', etc, but when I emerged from the Underdark for the first time, it was such a relief I named that save "Finally out!"
Likewise, when I played Underrail and entered the institute for the first time, I failed the interview and thus ended up locked in with every tchortist hostile to me. I only realised some three hours later there was no way out, and while I could easily have reloaded a save made prior to entering the Institute, I chose to forge on to the very end.
Obviously Baldur's Gate 2 and Underrail were not designed with, in mind, a limited save system, but playing them as if they were is a blast.
As an aside, I would bet the developers only played this game in sections using cheats. I can't imagine they did even one start to finish playthrough considering the state of the game.
That's exactly what I was thinking while playing. So many things make sense when you consider things under that angle. So many bugs and problems become apparent only when you play normally, for rather long period of times.
*quicksave*
*walk into trap*
*quickload*
*disarm trap*
how do you fix this
You don't. You ignore it. Seriously. People who play RPGs by reloading at every failed check, at every pebble on the road, should be wholly ignored when designing a game. If they display less will and self-control than a three-year-old, then treat them like a three-year-old, i.e. not your target demographic.
You don't need that save system you envision. You need the concept and ideas behind that save system. Then, let people decide when to save, because we're grown-ups.
