Remember when games would read your save data from other games? In this video, we'll take a look at the fun and crazy bonuses that were offered for keeping an old save around!
Cool feature, but to be honest I wasn’t happy about it. I started the game with a full stable, which means there was no reason for me to interact with horses anymore, except side quest related ones of course.
@@WDonaldson2000 are you sure about that? Because I grew up playing that game and definitely had more than 50 races but didn't unlock Rosalina until renting Super Mario Galaxy
@@mousestar369 You had to have a Super Mario Galaxy save file AND do 50 races to unlock her. The normal way to unlock her was to beat all of Mirror mode with at least a 1 star ranking.
On the DS, if you had a copy of Castlevania Aria of Sorrow in the GBA slot, then booted up it's sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, you'd get a special item, and would see a little doll dancing in one of the shops.
I'm sure we're all aware, but on the topic of the GBA slot on the DS, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and HGSS allowed you insert the GBA Pokemon games into your DS's GBA slot to not only transfer them forward, but for Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, once you had the National Pokedex, you could actually start to find Pokemon from the game in your cartridge in certain areas depending on which game was inserted. It's a shame they made people use that feature so late in the game, as being able to catch more Pokemon you couldn't normally find in those spots earlier on in the game would have been cool and a really great reward for fans who collect the games. Game Freak just kind of sucks about doing more for players, though, so it's no surprise they made us wait until practically the post-game to unlock such a neat feature.
The devs for Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons wanted a feature like this, but couldn't because the save data was limited to each cartridge. So they tell you a secret name at the end of each game, and if you give your character this name on the other game, it starts with a different cutscene and changes the story. Stuff like this is so cool! Great video
Nickelodeon had this massive cross-saves feature on PS2 around 2005/06, with the games SpongeBob: Lights Camera Pants, Tak: The Great Juju Challenge, Barnyard, and Nicktoons Unite, allowing extra features in each other’s games to be unlocked like bonus costumes in Nicktoons Unite. Thing is, there is almost no footage of the unlockables anywhere online so a full video dissecting that would be pretty neat.
The armored core franchises would almost require you to transfer files from the previous game because of how hard some of the titles would become, making a fresh start not optimal. Best example being Armored core Nexus to Armored Core Last Raven.
The whole series was like that but 3rd gen was cool because it allowed transfer from 3 to last raven. That was 5 games you could carry your file through
@@kimbertactpro9 armored 3-silent line you could. But silent line to nexus and above you couldn’t. Nexus and nine breaker you could transfer over to last raven. Which was highly recommended cause Jesus Christ last raven is the hardest game of gen 3 armored core.
The ones in the Original Ratchet and Clank Trilogy were always fun The 2nd Game lets you get the Weapons from the 1st Game that are in the 2nd for Free if you bought them The 3rd game has the same for the Weapons of the 2nd Game in the 3rd for Free, but also had one from the 1st Game, in addition of Unlocking the Look Ratchet has in the 1st Game, if you watched the Cutscene where Ratchet is told he'll get the Employee Discount after 2 years, you actually get that Discount
The one that comes to mind is the first three Ratchet & Clank games. There’s a specific vendor in the second game where you can buy weapons from the first, and in the third game for weapons from the second. If you have a save file of the previous game where you bought those weapons, they’re free in the sequel. There’s also a point in the first game where you become an employee of the galactic company that series you weapons, but need to be in the company for a few years before the employee discount kicks in. If you’ve made it to that point, the third game gives you that discount on all weapons and armors
Monster Rancher was one of my FAVORITE games. We NEED a modernized version of the disc-to-monster feature, it was so much fun trying to figure out what CDs and movies had cool creatures.
@@PokemonRules333 They literally don't use discs anymore which is what the person you replied to said they wanted to see more of. Not the same thing and it's just a port of the older games anyway, not something new.
I think one of the coolest examples of save data transferring is with The Suffering and The Suffering: Ties that Bind. The original game had a total of three different endings depending on the protagonist's morality by the end of the game and in The Suffering: Ties that Bind, there are a total of three different openings picking exactly right where your ending left off.
Infamous 2 gave bonuses from the first game save files, it lets you start with the first rank already (depending of your karma) obtained and gave also some energy bonus if you got all the cores in the previous game
Ratchet and clank for the ps2 had a very creative Save Data Bonuses They even was self aware of the joke Discounts, Free Guns and Humor got to love Insomniacs ingenuity.
Most memorable one for me was Jak X unlocking ratchet and all the last 3 versions of Jak as racers if you had save data for those games. Was my first experience with that stuff.
the trails series is an excelent example of modern save transfer. they do both save transfer and bonuses, transfer is for a same story arc and bonuses is for older games remasters
Couple different examples I thought of: Resident Evil 7 Beginning Hour- The game was a sort of preview/gameplay demo with things that weren't featured in the main game, even having a secret that could be unlocked to transfer an extra coin to the main game. Legends Arceus and BDSP both have in game bonuses for having save data from other pokemon games, BDSP letting you get Mew and Jirachi and Legends letting you get Darkrai and Shaymin The Dynasty Warriors series from the 3rd game all the way up to the 7th had standalone expansions called Xtreme Legends that you could put and load the data for the original game by switching the discs, thereby combining both games into one and giving you more content. It's not quite what you talked about but it's cool nonetheless
In Naruto Ultimate Ninja 5, there is an extra scene where u get a letter from the previous girl u saved in Ultimate Ninja 4 if u have the save file. It really suprised me back then as I dont even know I can get that
Quite possibly one of the coolest iterations of this, is with Golden Sun and Golden Sun - The Lost Age on the GBA. If you had a save file on Golden Sun, you could have it either transfer over to The Lost Age via a link cable or a code it generated, which contained the exact specifics of all the progress you made in the first game, including Djinn that are otherwise unobtainable within The Lost Age itself. There's even a secret boss you can't fight unless you have all the Djinn from both games.
To this day my first and favorite example of this were the Golden Sun games on GBA. In the sequel, about 2/3 of the way through the game the original party joins forces with the adventuring group of the sequel, and if you connected another gba loaded with the first game with the multiplayer link cable it would import them exactly as you left off (which was broken af). If you didn't have the cable you could enter a password with different length "tiers" that would import more information. The lowest was 16 characters, and the highest was 260 for a completely accurate copy
Destiny 2 had something similar where if you carried over your guardian from D1, it would first give you a little presentation of your big accomplishments and who you did them with, then it would play special veteran dialogue for certain exposition points.
_Valkyria Chronicles 2_ and _3_ (both for PSP) gave you extra stickers for your vehicles and two extra characters if you had a save file from the previous game (the first game was released on the PS3, so you needed to use an usb cable to transfer the data). The funny thing is that this franchise is supposed to happen in an alternate industrial revolution era, and two of these bonus characters come from the _Phantasy Star_ saga, an action adventure game set in space. So, enjoy two anime-esque space girls in a somewhat realistic real time strategy war games!
Interesting! I’ve only played the first one but liked that they had Skies of Arcadia characters as units, didn’t know there were other Sega characters in the series too!
Ratchet 2 was the one I remember, carrying over weapons from RAC1. Metal Gear Acid 2 blew my mind too, letting you carry over all of your points and cards from MGA1
One of my favorites is with the Tomba games. If you beat the first game, then played the second game with the saved data of the first game on the same memory card. In the second game you'd unlock some of the characters you met in the first game popping up in the second game with exclusive missions.
This is a case of one of my favorite. In Megaman Battle Network Double Team DS; If you have any of the Battle Network games (except 6) in the GBA slot, you get to have the normal music change, and gain additional Power up shops to finds later, some of them also unlocking bonus folders for battles. But the big ones are: 1, if you have a copy of Battle Network 5 with the Forte icon in that games save file, you gain exclusive access to "Forte Cross" giving you a permanent boost as long as you keep the game in. And even more obscure, with a copy of Botkai 2 in the slot, you get Sol cross.
@@KingreX32 Sadly, only one and 2 had this feature. One having a small side quest and 2 giving you dairy entries from Lan Hikari, seeing his life as an adult.
for the kingdom hearts 2 final mix plus bundle, if you had save data from kingdom hearts 2 final mix on your ps2 memory card, you can unlock attack cards of keyblades from kh2fm in re:chain of memories
This was changed in the HD Collections, where you had to watch the entirety of the 358/2 Days cutscenes to unlock the KH2FM Keyblade cards in Re:Chain of Memories
It's funny, since in GZ you can still rescue Hideo Kojima via one of the secondary missions so you can get him in TPP earlier than usual as a Motherbase unit.
Transfering GZ saves just unlocks Hideo earlier without the side ops, you still can do the side ops either way even if you didn't play GZ. The Transfer also gives you GZ suit, and all the side ops people you save in GZ
Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel gave you special skins and heads if it found Borderlands 1 save data and also if it found each other save data. B2 also have speacial heads and skins from Portal, Sam & Max, Army of Darkness and The Venture Bros if you have a save from Poker Night 2 completing certain requirements.
I remember most of the old need for speed games did this, thanking you and giving you extra credit so you could pick an extra car as your first for the career. Always found that interesting
The Ratchet & Clank trilogy on PS2: if you had a R&C 1 save file on your Memory Card (or hard drive, this works on the HD remasters on PS3), you can get Gadgetron weapons on Barlow in R&C 2 for free. And if you had a R&C 2 save file, you can get free Megacorp weapons from Slim Cognito on Aquatos in R&C 3. And an extra skin with a R&C 1 save file.
I vaguely remember hearing about a game's sequel which would import the core decisions you made in the save file of its predecessor, but in the absence of such a file, it'd still allow you to make those choices in a recap of the prior story.
Mass Effect 2 let you go through the main plot points of the first one through a motion comic to make important decisions if you didn’t play the first one
The one bonus that I remember is in Mario Kart Wii: If you had save data for Super Mario Galaxy on your Wii, then you'd be able to unlock Rosalina as a playable character after completing 50 races, instead of getting a Star Rank in all eight of the Mirror cups.
Legend of Mana on PSone had a save data bonus for 3 games, the first was for if you had save data for FF8, it would replace your starting rabite pet with a chocobo as your first pet, the second was for SaGa Frontier 2, which would change one of the bosses to have a special encounter with a couple of the characters from SaGa before the boss fight, make the boss fight much harder than it would be otherwise, and reward the player with a new powerful sword from the SaGa series called Heishishorin, and the third was for Chocobo Racing that would give you a special ring called FastestWheel~ :V The PC release just has all of these save data bonuses enabled at all times. I also recall if you had save data from Fable 2 on your Xbox 360, it would change whether or not your parent in Fable 3 was your mother or your father based on what gender you picked in Fable 2, implying that you're playing as your kid in Fable 3~ :P
The last ones I remember seeing in the current era are the bonuses you'd get for beating the demos for Nioh (Mark of the Strong and Mark of the Conqueror), which would unlock cool unique pieces of equipment when the full game came out.
My favorite one growing up was unlocking a Mona Pizza music video for having Warioware: Twisted connected to the GBA slot of a nintendo DS while you were playing Warioware: Touched. It was my first time experiencing something like this, and it felt like getting a surprise gift.
A save data bonus i remember specifically is from Forza Motorsport 4, where if you had a save file of Forza Motorsport 3 you could import it and receive some free cars, depending on your driver level it'd give you more cars.
I wish more recent games did something like this, I've started playing MGSV Ground Zeros and The Phantom Pain. Which I was wowed seeing that you could transfer data from Ground Zeros to The Phantom Pain. Though it didn't do that much the sneaking suit from Ground Zeros and Prisoners from the game. (I really wished that you would have gotten "Here's To You" a cassette tape) It was still crazy to me seeing it on PC of all things. Just shows that they could do it, they just choose not to which is really lame.
I liked how Witcher 3 let you adapt the world to reflect your prior game choices through an in-game dialogue. Granted, when I started W3, it was my first experience with the entire universe and I had no clue what the ramifications of what my answer would be 😂
Can’t remember entirely but Final Fantasy XV is a more modern example of rewarding u for playing the demo. It featured a child version of the main character (Noctis) and told a more fantastical dream story that confronts some of the character’s subconscious thoughts. While it didn’t carry over any save data, it did reward demo players with a Carbuncle summon in the main game. I hope u decide to do a more extensive video covering the topic which includes information that others have revealed bc this is something that people love and miss!
I’m definitely considering it! There’s so many examples I never heard or thought of. That FFXV demo was one I forgot about completely actually! I even remember buying Type-0 just for the demo!
Cool video! There’s a few more Pokémon ones that come to mind, in BDSP you can get Mew and Jirachi by having save data from Pokémon let’s go Pikachu/eevee, and sword/shield respectively, in legends Arceus you can get Shaymjn and Darkrai by having save data from Sw/Sh and Bd/Sp respectively, and in sword and shield you can get a gigantimax Pikachu and gigantimax eevee by having save date from let’s go Pikachu/let’s go eevee repetitively.
An example that comes to mind is how if you have save data on the memory card for the PS2 versions of Nicktoons Unite, Tak: The Great Juju Challenge, SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants!, and Barnyard you’ll unlock bonuses depending on the game.
Another case is Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Save data transfer is a little more difficult here since the first is a GameCube game and the second is a wii game, so you needed a first edition wii that was compatible with GameCube games. If you had a completed save file of path of radiance all the units you maxed out (reached level 20 in their promoted class) would get minor stat bonuses in radiant dawn.
A more recent one for PC, the new version of Wonderful 101 has something like that going on with its demo. It's possible to grab Bayonetta and transfer her to your regular save game, while in the regular game, you have to collect every bottle cap. Burnout Revenge was another decent one for save game unlocks, with the PS2 version sporting unlocks from saves for Burnout 3 and Madden 2006. I can't really think of any others that would really be a part of the cultural zeitgeist. As much as I may want my beloved Quest for Glory series to be worthy of a mention in a followup, nobody would give a damn.
I remember the transfer data from DMC5. It's more of a joke one where if you played the demo before the hame than you would unlock a new arm weapon for Nero wich was just a bunch of bananas
Bardock was automatically unlocked in Budokai 3 if you had save data from Budokai 2 on your memory card. The Ooze and possibly some other games were unlocked in Sonic Mega Collection if you had a Sonic Heroes save.
Megaman Battle Network 5 Double Team DS had a myriad of slot 2 features: Slotting MMBN 1 through 5 unlocks cheaper vendors, hints, previously unavailable power up options and team member power ups during missions. Battle music changes depending on the game inserted. Inserting GBA version of MMBN5 with a complete save file unlocks a new form, lets you use your previous "battle chip folder". While inserting Boktai 2 unlocks a new form & minigame and 2 secret "battle chips" by trading points earned from said minigame.
Suikoden 2 is the first title that came to my mind. If you transfer a save file with all 108 Stars of Destiny recruited in Suikoden 1, you'll get a sidequest to recruit the hero from Suikoden 1.
Gosh, I love Tir sooo much, the Suikoden games (I & II) are very special to me. I've never played any of the others but really want to!! Though I have played Tierkreis on the DS, a standalone but very great game.
Skylanders was something i never played but every character from earlier games worked on the sequels that came out years later. With updated models! If the store discontinued selling the Skylander sets, you can feel as if a relic is in your possession without having the need to get a new one. I find that so cool
I never tried it, but in the PS1 game "Vigilante 8: Second Offense", you can unlock the levels from the first game by inserting the V8 (1) disk while V8:SO was loaded and at the main menu. I once inserted the V8:SO disk in my PC and did find the files for it.
Fun Fact: The Banjo-Kazooie stop and swap would also work with Nuts & Bolts to give you exclusive parts for your vehicles. Though I assume you ignored that one because we like to forget the vehicle based Banjo-Kazooie game.
Suikoden did this a lot, and it even carried between console generations from Suikoden 2 on PS1 to Suikoden 3 on PS2 thanks to the PS2 having backwards compatibility.
they did a dirty on us with Suikoden 3 all we get for bringing over our save was a mention of the named character we used in Suikoden 2 and what happened in the eventa of that game. I'm still pissed off about it haha.
Very slight, but Payday 2 has a few examples of this involving the series' previous title, Payday: The Heist! If you owned a copy of the first game's DLC, then you'd unlock a remastered remake of that DLC's levels and items in Payday 2, and if you owned a digital copy of the first game's soundtrack, then the songs would be added to the in-game jukebox in Payday 2 allowing them to be played during any level.
SMT: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 actually have very interesting save data bonuses when using a new game + save data from the first game when starting the sequel. You unlock hard mode from the beginning (which is normally ng+ exclusive), you gain stat bonuses based upon your game completion, you gain different items and equipment depending on the optional bosses you defeated, and depending on your choices in the first game you can bring a party member back in the story and even unlock one of the strongest moves in the entire duology.
One that comes to mind for me is Just Dance games. If you have save data for games between 2019 and 2022 on an 8th or 9th gen system, your saves are kept, including avatars. And similarly, if you had any Just Dance game's save data and put in any later game (starting with 2014 for the feature and the first for the saves needed), on 7th Gen and pre-2016 8th Gen games, you would get a few avatars. On paper, this doesn't seem notable. But on 2019 7th Gen, you get an exclusive avatar not in any other entry (including 8th Gen versions). Rabbid Peach. And yes, it even does it on Xbox 360, making it the first official appearance of a Mario character on Xbox. And the routine was exclusive to the now shut down Just Dance Unlimited (or at least shut down on anywhere other than 2020-2022 Switch), as a Switch exclusive only on 2018. It wasn't on Wii or Xbox 360 or 2019, but the avatar was only on 2019 and only on Wii and Xbox 360. And also, due to shutdowns, it is now only on the Chinese version of 2020's Unlimited. Also, 2018 was the last PS3 JD game, so Rabbid Peach isn't on PlayStation sadly.
Clicked on this in my recommended on a whim, good video! Your audio is mixed decently (i can understand you clearly but also parse your background music) - good editing, effective narration and decent jokes. Not to mention a topic/trivia element in gaming that hasn't been covered (at least in my feed). Surprised this hasn't got more views, it's good!
The Mario kart double dash bonus disc was cool as it unlocked the final music track for fire emblem 7 to 100% the game as well as four items that couldn't be obtained through normal play. In Japan they were unlocked by connecting the game to fire emblem 6 but that wasn't released in the west. Also Radiant Dawn allowed for character stats to transfer from the save file of Path of Radiance in the GameCube memory card
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition on Switch gives you the option to start the game off with 100000g if you've got Xenoblade Chronicles 2 save data.
I'm going to be honest, I got really excited when I saw this video in my recommendations because I was hoping it'd extensively cover EVERY instance of this. This is easily one of my favourite video game gimmicks, despite how rarely its used, especially nowadays. I always find it really cool to see how devs find interesting ways to utilise it, especially when it involves actually unlocking things. that are unique to the save file of another game and not obtainable any other way (the Smuggler's Run buggy being unlockable in Midnight Club being a prime example of this). But yeah, solid video, thanks for covering this topic!
Another two I can think of are: 1. Owning both Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Sonic 4 Episode 2 would unlock Episode Metal in Sonic 4 Episode 2 2. You could connect GBA cartridges of Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4 to Mega Man ZX in Area N to rematch 4 bosses from both of those games (8 total) in ZX, along with Omega Zero being brought back in that same area by default
Pokemon let's you transfer between games and certain games allow you too get certain pokemon for playing certain games. Also though it hasn't been used yet deltarune keeps track of your undertale save data
Monster rancher 1 works with modern discs too. It uses an algorithm to determine what monster unlocks. So BTS's latest single unlocks monsters even though the oldest member of BTS was an infant when the game came out.
Kinda insulting you didn't mention the Ratchet and Clank trilogy and their discounted legacy weapons in the second and third game, especially with the Bouncer's gracious return in the third game to unceremoniously snap every encounter's difficulty in half >:)
The Suffering games also had a unique feature where if you had a savegame of the first game on your memory card, it would start the second game according with the ending you got in the first game. Was pretty suprising back in the day when the game immediately continued where you left it
I remember if you had an NFS Underground 2 save on your hard drive or memory card, you got a cash bonus when starting up Most Wanted, allowing you to buy the Mk5 Golf as a starter car. FM4 allowed you to import an FM3 save for extra cars depending on your driver level. Gran Turismo (PS1) allowed you to either import licenses or make the B, A, and I-A licenses easier in the sequel Gran Turismo 2 (someone fact check me on this please, my memory is a little vague with this). And finally, you could import a Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec save into Gran Turismo 4, allowing a max bonus of 100k credits and both B and A licenses at the start of the game.
Dynasty Warriors 5 and the "Xtreme Legends" version had a function similar to what Banjo & Kazooie wanted to attempt, where if you were playing Xtreme Legends, there would be an option to switch disks to the regular DW5, then back again, to gain access to all of the modes and progress from the regular game. Unfortunately I think I did this a little too much, as eventually I damaged both disks in some way that kept them from running properly.
One save data bonus I remember were the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games. If you had a save data from the previous game it would unlock a few characters and thank you for playing their game. They continued this trend up until Storm Revolution (Mainly because 4 was a PlayStation 4 title and the series didn't get ported until after the fact.)
In Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2, for the ps2, you can transfer your save from the first game and get bonus equippable rings according to the optional bosses you defeated. You can also get exclusive skills and a exclusive party member for the final dungeon, depending on the choices you made.
One of my favorites is if you have save data for Spider-Man shattered dimensions, you’d get 8 alternate costumes unlocked in Spider-Man edge of time, I miss those games
Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition Remix had a nice feature where if you had regular 3 DUB Edition, in Remix you could convert your save files from Regular to Remix.
Ace Combat Zero has an interesting reward with the save file bonus. If you have the save file of Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, you will unlock X-02 Wyvern AFTER completing the first mission in Campaign.
The Monster Hunter series have a history of save data bonuses,from transferring your hunter from a game to the newer version of that game,or in a recent example of owning another game, having save data of Monster Hunter Rise while playing Monster Hunter Stories 2, you unlock a special layer armor in MHS 2 based off MHR and vice versa
In the Armored core games if you played the previous games in said generation you could have all your previous parts and other custom data from the previous game. So your AC parts would carry over into project Phantasma then master of arena.
Exclusively in Ace Combat Zero, if you have an Ace Combat 4 save file, you can unlock the Wyvern jet for purchase after completing the first mission instead of having to go through the story campaign twice on two different pathways. And if you have an Ace Combat 5 save file, the Falken jet can be unlocked by going through the story campaign three times (Mercenary, Soldier, and Knight morale pathways) to obtain the regular medals instead of going for the SUPREME medals which are more difficult to earn.
I think one of my personal favourite examples of this is in the original ratchet and clank trilogy, where if you had a save for the previous games you’d get bonuses depending on which one Ratchet and clank 1->2 gave you the chance to buy back some weapons from the first game for free if you had them in the first game, but if you didn’t then you’d have to pay the price it was in the original Ratchet and clank 3 had this feature for some other weapons from 2 but they did something different for having a save from ratchet and clank 1 In the first game, if you got to a certain point, a moment in the story happens where you’d get a weapons discount after 2 years, insomniac released 3 and they kept that in because it was made 2 years after the first, so you would get that discount However, intentionally or not, if you didn’t have a save file that was after this moment in the story (and doing new game plus resets this as well fyi) the discount isn’t applied until you get to that point of the story again Kinda weird but the games were made in a time crunch so I won’t complain Overall thing I still think it’s a cool way to reward players for sticking to the franchise, especially by the time you get to 3
There were two SOCOM games that unlocked things for each other. One was on the PSP and one on the PS2. Certain “Crosstalk Objectives” could be completed and synced between the games to change things in some missions. For example, on the PS2, there was a mission where you had to move past a helicopter crash site in a valley that was overrun with enemies. On the PSP, there’s a mission where you’re at the top of the same valley. If you snipe and kill the enemies at the crash site then sync the saves, the enemies will all be dead when you get to the crash site on the PS2.
The Wii U version of Super Mario 3D World allowed you to unlock Luigi Bros. early if you had save data for New Super Luigi U. Otherwise, you’d have to complete the game.
I remember playing the Madden NFL games during the PS2 era and they had a career mode and you had the option to either make a new player, play as an actual rookie from that year, or if you had the NCAA football game from the same year, import a character from the career mode in that game into Madden's career, stats and everything included.
Dunno if this counts but the link cable bonuses for metroid prime and fusion were pretty awesome, great job on this video, i'm surprised no one else has touched this subject.
The Forza games had some cross-save bonuses, for example: - If you played the first Horizon by a specific date, you unlocked an exclusive Viper for the main game. Same for Horizon 4, but with a T-shirt and no time limit. - Horizon 5 gave you the hero cars from the previous entries if you played them. - You unlock stuff in Motorsport 4 depending on your progress in Motorsport 3; there is even an achievement for it. - If you played the Fast & Furious spinoff, you unlocked something in the main Horizon 2 game.
I think two fairly big ones from the PS2 are from the Nickelodeon games, for a decent number of their games had a "crossover" festure that would unlock things like different skins and that in other games like in Barnyard if you had save data from a different crossover game it would give you different cows to pick at the start The bigger of these two imo is from Sega at the time with sonic, while most had something on the go if you had Sonic Mega Collection Plus and save data from something like Sonic Heroes it would unlock extra hidden retro games to play in the collection like Comic Zone
Latest version of this I can remember is TOTK automatically carrying your horses over from BOTW
Lol played botw on wii u so no horses for me I guess
Ff7 rebirth
Agreed fun fact if you have epona in BOTW if you scan in the amiibo you can get a second epona when you start TOTK
Cool feature, but to be honest I wasn’t happy about it. I started the game with a full stable, which means there was no reason for me to interact with horses anymore, except side quest related ones of course.
@@SAMU039 good point! It's kinda nice to be able to build a new stable from scratch instead
The first one that came to my mind was getting Rosalina in Mario Kart Wii immediately if you had Mario Galaxy save data!
or at least after 50 races
@@WDonaldson2000that’s not the point of this video
@@WDonaldson2000 are you sure about that? Because I grew up playing that game and definitely had more than 50 races but didn't unlock Rosalina until renting Super Mario Galaxy
@@mousestar369 You had to have a Super Mario Galaxy save file AND do 50 races to unlock her.
The normal way to unlock her was to beat all of Mirror mode with at least a 1 star ranking.
On the DS, if you had a copy of Castlevania Aria of Sorrow in the GBA slot, then booted up it's sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, you'd get a special item, and would see a little doll dancing in one of the shops.
I mean, you can still get the rare ring normally in dawn
This is what Stop-n-Swop aspired to be
I'm sure we're all aware, but on the topic of the GBA slot on the DS, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and HGSS allowed you insert the GBA Pokemon games into your DS's GBA slot to not only transfer them forward, but for Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, once you had the National Pokedex, you could actually start to find Pokemon from the game in your cartridge in certain areas depending on which game was inserted.
It's a shame they made people use that feature so late in the game, as being able to catch more Pokemon you couldn't normally find in those spots earlier on in the game would have been cool and a really great reward for fans who collect the games. Game Freak just kind of sucks about doing more for players, though, so it's no surprise they made us wait until practically the post-game to unlock such a neat feature.
DS x gba stuff was awesome!
I loved that g3 pokemon could be transfered directly to g4 games if they were in their respective slots.
The devs for Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons wanted a feature like this, but couldn't because the save data was limited to each cartridge. So they tell you a secret name at the end of each game, and if you give your character this name on the other game, it starts with a different cutscene and changes the story. Stuff like this is so cool! Great video
This is require to reach the true ending of those games.
You could use the game link cable, too
Nickelodeon had this massive cross-saves feature on PS2 around 2005/06, with the games SpongeBob: Lights Camera Pants, Tak: The Great Juju Challenge, Barnyard, and Nicktoons Unite, allowing extra features in each other’s games to be unlocked like bonus costumes in Nicktoons Unite.
Thing is, there is almost no footage of the unlockables anywhere online so a full video dissecting that would be pretty neat.
I wholly second that so much
For years I've wondered what they were but never got any info
Nicktoons Unite holy shit. I fucking loved that game, AND Tak: the Power of JuJu.
The armored core franchises would almost require you to transfer files from the previous game because of how hard some of the titles would become, making a fresh start not optimal. Best example being Armored core Nexus to Armored Core Last Raven.
I think the same for 3 to silent line!
The whole series was like that but 3rd gen was cool because it allowed transfer from 3 to last raven. That was 5 games you could carry your file through
@@kimbertactpro9 armored 3-silent line you could. But silent line to nexus and above you couldn’t. Nexus and nine breaker you could transfer over to last raven. Which was highly recommended cause Jesus Christ last raven is the hardest game of gen 3 armored core.
@@rockstar93795 psp version could actually
The ones in the Original Ratchet and Clank Trilogy were always fun
The 2nd Game lets you get the Weapons from the 1st Game that are in the 2nd for Free if you bought them
The 3rd game has the same for the Weapons of the 2nd Game in the 3rd for Free, but also had one from the 1st Game, in addition of Unlocking the Look Ratchet has in the 1st Game, if you watched the Cutscene where Ratchet is told he'll get the Employee Discount after 2 years, you actually get that Discount
A Crack in Time gives merchant discounts if you have a Tools of Destruction save, and a skin if you have a Quest for Booty skin.
I was gonna mention these too, I loved them
In Tekken 3's theater mode you can insert discs of Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 to watch the character endings from those games.
The one that comes to mind is the first three Ratchet & Clank games. There’s a specific vendor in the second game where you can buy weapons from the first, and in the third game for weapons from the second. If you have a save file of the previous game where you bought those weapons, they’re free in the sequel.
There’s also a point in the first game where you become an employee of the galactic company that series you weapons, but need to be in the company for a few years before the employee discount kicks in. If you’ve made it to that point, the third game gives you that discount on all weapons and armors
Monster Rancher was one of my FAVORITE games. We NEED a modernized version of the disc-to-monster feature, it was so much fun trying to figure out what CDs and movies had cool creatures.
Bonus points if they include HD-DVD as a format for the randomizer.
Uh we already have the games released as monster rancher 1 and 2 dx
@@PokemonRules333 They literally don't use discs anymore which is what the person you replied to said they wanted to see more of.
Not the same thing and it's just a port of the older games anyway, not something new.
I think one of the coolest examples of save data transferring is with The Suffering and The Suffering: Ties that Bind.
The original game had a total of three different endings depending on the protagonist's morality by the end of the game and in The Suffering: Ties that Bind, there are a total of three different openings picking exactly right where your ending left off.
Infamous 2 gave bonuses from the first game save files, it lets you start with the first rank already (depending of your karma) obtained and gave also some energy bonus if you got all the cores in the previous game
Randomly unlocking rosalina in mario kart Wii for having mario galaxy save data as a kid was always a nice surprise
Ratchet and clank for the ps2 had a very creative Save Data Bonuses They even was self aware of the joke Discounts, Free Guns and Humor got to love Insomniacs ingenuity.
Came here to mention this.
Employee Loyalty Discount Program! 🤑
Ratchet and Clank mentioned. U r my hero.
Love those games.
In UYA you could get a skin and gun discounts if you had a RaC 1 save and free megacorp guns if you had a GC save
alright kids what is the first letter of the alphabet? 0:02
Dead Space 2 would give you the original DS1 plasma cutter if you had saved data from the original.
Playing Mass Effect 3 gets you Armor for Dead Space 3
@@commandermckoolkid818Playing Dragon Age Origins gives you the Black Dragon Armor in Mass Effect 2
Most memorable one for me was Jak X unlocking ratchet and all the last 3 versions of Jak as racers if you had save data for those games. Was my first experience with that stuff.
You also unlocked Daxter if you had his spin off game on PSP
Could name one which blew my mind as a kid. So in Midnight Club (the first one), if have save data for Smuggler's Run, you'll unlock the dune buggy.
the trails series is an excelent example of modern save transfer. they do both save transfer and bonuses, transfer is for a same story arc and bonuses is for older games remasters
I dont think these youtubers have played trails lol
@@RoanoraZoro123 yeah, they should at least acknowledge their existence xD
Couple different examples I thought of:
Resident Evil 7 Beginning Hour- The game was a sort of preview/gameplay demo with things that weren't featured in the main game, even having a secret that could be unlocked to transfer an extra coin to the main game.
Legends Arceus and BDSP both have in game bonuses for having save data from other pokemon games, BDSP letting you get Mew and Jirachi and Legends letting you get Darkrai and Shaymin
The Dynasty Warriors series from the 3rd game all the way up to the 7th had standalone expansions called Xtreme Legends that you could put and load the data for the original game by switching the discs, thereby combining both games into one and giving you more content. It's not quite what you talked about but it's cool nonetheless
In Naruto Ultimate Ninja 5, there is an extra scene where u get a letter from the previous girl u saved in Ultimate Ninja 4 if u have the save file. It really suprised me back then as I dont even know I can get that
Quite possibly one of the coolest iterations of this, is with Golden Sun and Golden Sun - The Lost Age on the GBA.
If you had a save file on Golden Sun, you could have it either transfer over to The Lost Age via a link cable or a code it generated, which contained the exact specifics of all the progress you made in the first game, including Djinn that are otherwise unobtainable within The Lost Age itself.
There's even a secret boss you can't fight unless you have all the Djinn from both games.
To this day my first and favorite example of this were the Golden Sun games on GBA. In the sequel, about 2/3 of the way through the game the original party joins forces with the adventuring group of the sequel, and if you connected another gba loaded with the first game with the multiplayer link cable it would import them exactly as you left off (which was broken af). If you didn't have the cable you could enter a password with different length "tiers" that would import more information. The lowest was 16 characters, and the highest was 260 for a completely accurate copy
Destiny 2 had something similar where if you carried over your guardian from D1, it would first give you a little presentation of your big accomplishments and who you did them with, then it would play special veteran dialogue for certain exposition points.
I liked how it also showed the people you done the raids with
Using all the prequel characters in Lego Star Wars II was so satisfying as a kid.
_Valkyria Chronicles 2_ and _3_ (both for PSP) gave you extra stickers for your vehicles and two extra characters if you had a save file from the previous game (the first game was released on the PS3, so you needed to use an usb cable to transfer the data).
The funny thing is that this franchise is supposed to happen in an alternate industrial revolution era, and two of these bonus characters come from the _Phantasy Star_ saga, an action adventure game set in space.
So, enjoy two anime-esque space girls in a somewhat realistic real time strategy war games!
Interesting! I’ve only played the first one but liked that they had Skies of Arcadia characters as units, didn’t know there were other Sega characters in the series too!
Ratchet 2 was the one I remember, carrying over weapons from RAC1. Metal Gear Acid 2 blew my mind too, letting you carry over all of your points and cards from MGA1
One of my favorites is with the Tomba games. If you beat the first game, then played the second game with the saved data of the first game on the same memory card. In the second game you'd unlock some of the characters you met in the first game popping up in the second game with exclusive missions.
This is a case of one of my favorite.
In Megaman Battle Network Double Team DS; If you have any of the Battle Network games (except 6) in the GBA slot, you get to have the normal music change, and gain additional Power up shops to finds later, some of them also unlocking bonus folders for battles.
But the big ones are: 1, if you have a copy of Battle Network 5 with the Forte icon in that games save file, you gain exclusive access to "Forte Cross" giving you a permanent boost as long as you keep the game in.
And even more obscure, with a copy of Botkai 2 in the slot, you get Sol cross.
In starforce 3 I believe if you had any of the battlenetwork games in the DS GBA slit you'd get an exclusive mission.
@@KingreX32 Sadly, only one and 2 had this feature.
One having a small side quest and 2 giving you dairy entries from Lan Hikari, seeing his life as an adult.
for the kingdom hearts 2 final mix plus bundle, if you had save data from kingdom hearts 2 final mix on your ps2 memory card, you can unlock attack cards of keyblades from kh2fm in re:chain of memories
This was changed in the HD Collections, where you had to watch the entirety of the 358/2 Days cutscenes to unlock the KH2FM Keyblade cards in Re:Chain of Memories
In MGSV GZ if you transferred your save data to MGSV TPP you would unlock a side OP where you unironically saved Hideo
Kojima
It's funny, since in GZ you can still rescue Hideo Kojima via one of the secondary missions so you can get him in TPP earlier than usual as a Motherbase unit.
Transfering GZ saves just unlocks Hideo earlier without the side ops, you still can do the side ops either way even if you didn't play GZ.
The Transfer also gives you GZ suit, and all the side ops people you save in GZ
Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel gave you special skins and heads if it found Borderlands 1 save data and also if it found each other save data. B2 also have speacial heads and skins from Portal, Sam & Max, Army of Darkness and The Venture Bros if you have a save from Poker Night 2 completing certain requirements.
I remember most of the old need for speed games did this, thanking you and giving you extra credit so you could pick an extra car as your first for the career. Always found that interesting
The Ratchet & Clank trilogy on PS2: if you had a R&C 1 save file on your Memory Card (or hard drive, this works on the HD remasters on PS3), you can get Gadgetron weapons on Barlow in R&C 2 for free. And if you had a R&C 2 save file, you can get free Megacorp weapons from Slim Cognito on Aquatos in R&C 3. And an extra skin with a R&C 1 save file.
I vaguely remember hearing about a game's sequel which would import the core decisions you made in the save file of its predecessor, but in the absence of such a file, it'd still allow you to make those choices in a recap of the prior story.
quite a few choice based games that have sequels where the choices carry over do that, I actually can't think of any that don't tbh.
mass effect 2 on ps3?
Mass Effect 2 let you go through the main plot points of the first one through a motion comic to make important decisions if you didn’t play the first one
My mind immediately comes to the .Hack series.
@@Tippo0497 not if you didn’t play the first one, it was for ps3 because mass effect 1 wasn’t on it at the time of release
The one bonus that I remember is in Mario Kart Wii: If you had save data for Super Mario Galaxy on your Wii, then you'd be able to unlock Rosalina as a playable character after completing 50 races, instead of getting a Star Rank in all eight of the Mirror cups.
Legend of Mana on PSone had a save data bonus for 3 games, the first was for if you had save data for FF8, it would replace your starting rabite pet with a chocobo as your first pet, the second was for SaGa Frontier 2, which would change one of the bosses to have a special encounter with a couple of the characters from SaGa before the boss fight, make the boss fight much harder than it would be otherwise, and reward the player with a new powerful sword from the SaGa series called Heishishorin, and the third was for Chocobo Racing that would give you a special ring called FastestWheel~ :V
The PC release just has all of these save data bonuses enabled at all times.
I also recall if you had save data from Fable 2 on your Xbox 360, it would change whether or not your parent in Fable 3 was your mother or your father based on what gender you picked in Fable 2, implying that you're playing as your kid in Fable 3~ :P
The last ones I remember seeing in the current era are the bonuses you'd get for beating the demos for Nioh (Mark of the Strong and Mark of the Conqueror), which would unlock cool unique pieces of equipment when the full game came out.
Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance has a little save bonus for Switch. First time I've had the experience in a long time
Cool. Still not buying the game a second time for the same platform I already own it on. Should have and could have been DLC. Fuck Atlas.
@@Lucifronz Vengeance includes an entire alternate story and a ton of other new stuff, it very much couldn’t have been a DLC
@@Lucifronz You don't have to buy it , to play it
My favorite one growing up was unlocking a Mona Pizza music video for having Warioware: Twisted connected to the GBA slot of a nintendo DS while you were playing Warioware: Touched.
It was my first time experiencing something like this, and it felt like getting a surprise gift.
A save data bonus i remember specifically is from Forza Motorsport 4, where if you had a save file of Forza Motorsport 3 you could import it and receive some free cars, depending on your driver level it'd give you more cars.
I wish more recent games did something like this, I've started playing MGSV Ground Zeros and The Phantom Pain. Which I was wowed seeing that you could transfer data from Ground Zeros to The Phantom Pain. Though it didn't do that much the sneaking suit from Ground Zeros and Prisoners from the game. (I really wished that you would have gotten "Here's To You" a cassette tape) It was still crazy to me seeing it on PC of all things. Just shows that they could do it, they just choose not to which is really lame.
I wish the assassins creed games did this
I liked how Witcher 3 let you adapt the world to reflect your prior game choices through an in-game dialogue. Granted, when I started W3, it was my first experience with the entire universe and I had no clue what the ramifications of what my answer would be 😂
Can’t remember entirely but Final Fantasy XV is a more modern example of rewarding u for playing the demo. It featured a child version of the main character (Noctis) and told a more fantastical dream story that confronts some of the character’s subconscious thoughts. While it didn’t carry over any save data, it did reward demo players with a Carbuncle summon in the main game.
I hope u decide to do a more extensive video covering the topic which includes information that others have revealed bc this is something that people love and miss!
I’m definitely considering it! There’s so many examples I never heard or thought of. That FFXV demo was one I forgot about completely actually! I even remember buying Type-0 just for the demo!
Cool video!
There’s a few more Pokémon ones that come to mind, in BDSP you can get Mew and Jirachi by having save data from Pokémon let’s go Pikachu/eevee, and sword/shield respectively, in legends Arceus you can get Shaymjn and Darkrai by having save data from Sw/Sh and Bd/Sp respectively, and in sword and shield you can get a gigantimax Pikachu and gigantimax eevee by having save date from let’s go Pikachu/let’s go eevee repetitively.
An example that comes to mind is how if you have save data on the memory card for the PS2 versions of Nicktoons Unite, Tak: The Great Juju Challenge, SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants!, and Barnyard you’ll unlock bonuses depending on the game.
Another case is Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Save data transfer is a little more difficult here since the first is a GameCube game and the second is a wii game, so you needed a first edition wii that was compatible with GameCube games. If you had a completed save file of path of radiance all the units you maxed out (reached level 20 in their promoted class) would get minor stat bonuses in radiant dawn.
A more recent one for PC, the new version of Wonderful 101 has something like that going on with its demo. It's possible to grab Bayonetta and transfer her to your regular save game, while in the regular game, you have to collect every bottle cap.
Burnout Revenge was another decent one for save game unlocks, with the PS2 version sporting unlocks from saves for Burnout 3 and Madden 2006.
I can't really think of any others that would really be a part of the cultural zeitgeist. As much as I may want my beloved Quest for Glory series to be worthy of a mention in a followup, nobody would give a damn.
I remember the transfer data from DMC5.
It's more of a joke one where if you played the demo before the hame than you would unlock a new arm weapon for Nero wich was just a bunch of bananas
Bardock was automatically unlocked in Budokai 3 if you had save data from Budokai 2 on your memory card. The Ooze and possibly some other games were unlocked in Sonic Mega Collection if you had a Sonic Heroes save.
Megaman Battle Network 5 Double Team DS had a myriad of slot 2 features: Slotting MMBN 1 through 5 unlocks cheaper vendors, hints, previously unavailable power up options and team member power ups during missions. Battle music changes depending on the game inserted. Inserting GBA version of MMBN5 with a complete save file unlocks a new form, lets you use your previous "battle chip folder". While inserting Boktai 2 unlocks a new form & minigame and 2 secret "battle chips" by trading points earned from said minigame.
Suikoden 2 is the first title that came to my mind. If you transfer a save file with all 108 Stars of Destiny recruited in Suikoden 1, you'll get a sidequest to recruit the hero from Suikoden 1.
Gosh, I love Tir sooo much, the Suikoden games (I & II) are very special to me. I've never played any of the others but really want to!! Though I have played Tierkreis on the DS, a standalone but very great game.
one of my favorites is having Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart Wii to unlock Rosalina and Luma as a racer
Skylanders was something i never played but every character from earlier games worked on the sequels that came out years later. With updated models! If the store discontinued selling the Skylander sets, you can feel as if a relic is in your possession without having the need to get a new one. I find that so cool
and later figures could work in earlier games, if they were a series 2,3 or 4
For Persons 5 Scramble, owning P5/P5R would give you music to use during combat.
The BW2 memory link feature blew my mind as a kid, I wish such attention to detail was used more
I never tried it, but in the PS1 game "Vigilante 8: Second Offense", you can unlock the levels from the first game by inserting the V8 (1) disk while V8:SO was loaded and at the main menu. I once inserted the V8:SO disk in my PC and did find the files for it.
Fun Fact: The Banjo-Kazooie stop and swap would also work with Nuts & Bolts to give you exclusive parts for your vehicles.
Though I assume you ignored that one because we like to forget the vehicle based Banjo-Kazooie game.
Suikoden did this a lot, and it even carried between console generations from Suikoden 2 on PS1 to Suikoden 3 on PS2 thanks to the PS2 having backwards compatibility.
they did a dirty on us with Suikoden 3 all we get for bringing over our save was a mention of the named character we used in Suikoden 2 and what happened in the eventa of that game. I'm still pissed off about it haha.
Very slight, but Payday 2 has a few examples of this involving the series' previous title, Payday: The Heist! If you owned a copy of the first game's DLC, then you'd unlock a remastered remake of that DLC's levels and items in Payday 2, and if you owned a digital copy of the first game's soundtrack, then the songs would be added to the in-game jukebox in Payday 2 allowing them to be played during any level.
SMT: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 actually have very interesting save data bonuses when using a new game + save data from the first game when starting the sequel.
You unlock hard mode from the beginning (which is normally ng+ exclusive), you gain stat bonuses based upon your game completion, you gain different items and equipment depending on the optional bosses you defeated, and depending on your choices in the first game you can bring a party member back in the story and even unlock one of the strongest moves in the entire duology.
Finally, another channel that talks about DR Case Zero, I regularly play this on my channel. Love that series!
One that comes to mind for me is Just Dance games. If you have save data for games between 2019 and 2022 on an 8th or 9th gen system, your saves are kept, including avatars. And similarly, if you had any Just Dance game's save data and put in any later game (starting with 2014 for the feature and the first for the saves needed), on 7th Gen and pre-2016 8th Gen games, you would get a few avatars.
On paper, this doesn't seem notable. But on 2019 7th Gen, you get an exclusive avatar not in any other entry (including 8th Gen versions). Rabbid Peach. And yes, it even does it on Xbox 360, making it the first official appearance of a Mario character on Xbox. And the routine was exclusive to the now shut down Just Dance Unlimited (or at least shut down on anywhere other than 2020-2022 Switch), as a Switch exclusive only on 2018. It wasn't on Wii or Xbox 360 or 2019, but the avatar was only on 2019 and only on Wii and Xbox 360. And also, due to shutdowns, it is now only on the Chinese version of 2020's Unlimited.
Also, 2018 was the last PS3 JD game, so Rabbid Peach isn't on PlayStation sadly.
Clicked on this in my recommended on a whim, good video! Your audio is mixed decently (i can understand you clearly but also parse your background music) - good editing, effective narration and decent jokes. Not to mention a topic/trivia element in gaming that hasn't been covered (at least in my feed). Surprised this hasn't got more views, it's good!
Appreciate the feedback! Ngl audio is what I struggle with the most haha
CZcams must have tweaked their algorithm cause I've been getting served straight gas from people under 5k subs. It's so awesome
The Mario kart double dash bonus disc was cool as it unlocked the final music track for fire emblem 7 to 100% the game as well as four items that couldn't be obtained through normal play. In Japan they were unlocked by connecting the game to fire emblem 6 but that wasn't released in the west. Also Radiant Dawn allowed for character stats to transfer from the save file of Path of Radiance in the GameCube memory card
well that's a weird combination
@@gplastic well it was a demo disc that had trailers for games on it
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition on Switch gives you the option to start the game off with 100000g if you've got Xenoblade Chronicles 2 save data.
I'm going to be honest, I got really excited when I saw this video in my recommendations because I was hoping it'd extensively cover EVERY instance of this. This is easily one of my favourite video game gimmicks, despite how rarely its used, especially nowadays. I always find it really cool to see how devs find interesting ways to utilise it, especially when it involves actually unlocking things. that are unique to the save file of another game and not obtainable any other way (the Smuggler's Run buggy being unlockable in Midnight Club being a prime example of this).
But yeah, solid video, thanks for covering this topic!
Another two I can think of are:
1. Owning both Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Sonic 4 Episode 2 would unlock Episode Metal in Sonic 4 Episode 2
2. You could connect GBA cartridges of Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4 to Mega Man ZX in Area N to rematch 4 bosses from both of those games (8 total) in ZX, along with Omega Zero being brought back in that same area by default
Pokemon let's you transfer between games and certain games allow you too get certain pokemon for playing certain games. Also though it hasn't been used yet deltarune keeps track of your undertale save data
Monster rancher 1 works with modern discs too. It uses an algorithm to determine what monster unlocks. So BTS's latest single unlocks monsters even though the oldest member of BTS was an infant when the game came out.
Kinda insulting you didn't mention the Ratchet and Clank trilogy and their discounted legacy weapons in the second and third game, especially with the Bouncer's gracious return in the third game to unceremoniously snap every encounter's difficulty in half >:)
just started playing trails in the sky, and i like the little save bonus you get from those plus the little nods to things you did
The Suffering games also had a unique feature where if you had a savegame of the first game on your memory card, it would start the second game according with the ending you got in the first game. Was pretty suprising back in the day when the game immediately continued where you left it
I remember if you had an NFS Underground 2 save on your hard drive or memory card, you got a cash bonus when starting up Most Wanted, allowing you to buy the Mk5 Golf as a starter car. FM4 allowed you to import an FM3 save for extra cars depending on your driver level. Gran Turismo (PS1) allowed you to either import licenses or make the B, A, and I-A licenses easier in the sequel Gran Turismo 2 (someone fact check me on this please, my memory is a little vague with this). And finally, you could import a Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec save into Gran Turismo 4, allowing a max bonus of 100k credits and both B and A licenses at the start of the game.
Dynasty Warriors 5 and the "Xtreme Legends" version had a function similar to what Banjo & Kazooie wanted to attempt, where if you were playing Xtreme Legends, there would be an option to switch disks to the regular DW5, then back again, to gain access to all of the modes and progress from the regular game. Unfortunately I think I did this a little too much, as eventually I damaged both disks in some way that kept them from running properly.
One save data bonus I remember were the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games. If you had a save data from the previous game it would unlock a few characters and thank you for playing their game. They continued this trend up until Storm Revolution (Mainly because 4 was a PlayStation 4 title and the series didn't get ported until after the fact.)
In Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2, for the ps2, you can transfer your save from the first game and get bonus equippable rings according to the optional bosses you defeated. You can also get exclusive skills and a exclusive party member for the final dungeon, depending on the choices you made.
Bro, this vid felt like watching those rare old videos about tops and rankings that you watched alone in the afternoon
One of my favorites is if you have save data for Spider-Man shattered dimensions, you’d get 8 alternate costumes unlocked in Spider-Man edge of time, I miss those games
Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition Remix had a nice feature where if you had regular 3 DUB Edition, in Remix you could convert your save files from Regular to Remix.
Ace Combat Zero has an interesting reward with the save file bonus.
If you have the save file of Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, you will unlock X-02 Wyvern AFTER completing the first mission in Campaign.
They are still around Final Fantasy 7 rebirth has save date bonuses
The Monster Hunter series have a history of save data bonuses,from transferring your hunter from a game to the newer version of that game,or in a recent example of owning another game, having save data of Monster Hunter Rise while playing Monster Hunter Stories 2, you unlock a special layer armor in MHS 2 based off MHR and vice versa
In the Armored core games if you played the previous games in said generation you could have all your previous parts and other custom data from the previous game. So your AC parts would carry over into project Phantasma then master of arena.
Exclusively in Ace Combat Zero, if you have an Ace Combat 4 save file, you can unlock the Wyvern jet for purchase after completing the first mission instead of having to go through the story campaign twice on two different pathways.
And if you have an Ace Combat 5 save file, the Falken jet can be unlocked by going through the story campaign three times (Mercenary, Soldier, and Knight morale pathways) to obtain the regular medals instead of going for the SUPREME medals which are more difficult to earn.
Having a save file of War of the Monsters you can unlock Keneticlops in Downhill Domination as a character.
Jak x combat racing on ps2 had multiple games from the franchise and even ratchet deadlocked saves integrated as unlockables.
I think one of my personal favourite examples of this is in the original ratchet and clank trilogy, where if you had a save for the previous games you’d get bonuses depending on which one
Ratchet and clank 1->2 gave you the chance to buy back some weapons from the first game for free if you had them in the first game, but if you didn’t then you’d have to pay the price it was in the original
Ratchet and clank 3 had this feature for some other weapons from 2 but they did something different for having a save from ratchet and clank 1
In the first game, if you got to a certain point, a moment in the story happens where you’d get a weapons discount after 2 years, insomniac released 3 and they kept that in because it was made 2 years after the first, so you would get that discount
However, intentionally or not, if you didn’t have a save file that was after this moment in the story (and doing new game plus resets this as well fyi) the discount isn’t applied until you get to that point of the story again
Kinda weird but the games were made in a time crunch so I won’t complain
Overall thing I still think it’s a cool way to reward players for sticking to the franchise, especially by the time you get to 3
Always remember the Yakuza series bonuses. Those Dragon King amulets bro. 😂
There were two SOCOM games that unlocked things for each other. One was on the PSP and one on the PS2. Certain “Crosstalk Objectives” could be completed and synced between the games to change things in some missions.
For example, on the PS2, there was a mission where you had to move past a helicopter crash site in a valley that was overrun with enemies. On the PSP, there’s a mission where you’re at the top of the same valley. If you snipe and kill the enemies at the crash site then sync the saves, the enemies will all be dead when you get to the crash site on the PS2.
The Wii U version of Super Mario 3D World allowed you to unlock Luigi Bros. early if you had save data for New Super Luigi U. Otherwise, you’d have to complete the game.
If you had a Quake save on your Saturn, then Duke Nukem 3D would let you play Death Tank Zwei. :D
I remember playing the Madden NFL games during the PS2 era and they had a career mode and you had the option to either make a new player, play as an actual rookie from that year, or if you had the NCAA football game from the same year, import a character from the career mode in that game into Madden's career, stats and everything included.
I feel like the Suikoden series is a major oversight here in terms of carrying a save over. Especially from I to II.
Dunno if this counts but the link cable bonuses for metroid prime and fusion were pretty awesome, great job on this video, i'm surprised no one else has touched this subject.
The Forza games had some cross-save bonuses, for example:
- If you played the first Horizon by a specific date, you unlocked an exclusive Viper for the main game. Same for Horizon 4, but with a T-shirt and no time limit.
- Horizon 5 gave you the hero cars from the previous entries if you played them.
- You unlock stuff in Motorsport 4 depending on your progress in Motorsport 3; there is even an achievement for it.
- If you played the Fast & Furious spinoff, you unlocked something in the main Horizon 2 game.
I think two fairly big ones from the PS2 are from the Nickelodeon games, for a decent number of their games had a "crossover" festure that would unlock things like different skins and that in other games like in Barnyard if you had save data from a different crossover game it would give you different cows to pick at the start
The bigger of these two imo is from Sega at the time with sonic, while most had something on the go if you had Sonic Mega Collection Plus and save data from something like Sonic Heroes it would unlock extra hidden retro games to play in the collection like Comic Zone
the conrad verner quest was one time i felt all my time and desicions actually mattered
Golden Sun's and Zelda Oracles' sequel linking codes
Splatoon-3 carys over player data form splatoon-2 to use in the side order dlc and main campaign for story continuity related reasons.