Points Of No Return

[Dagger Dias]

We've all seen them. A point of no return is a part of a game where you must make a crucial decision or complete a quest that once you're finished, certain locations/items/events of the game will never be available again.

I personally think points of no return are one of the worst things a gamer can ever encounter. They make it nearly impossible to complete a full run (as in all of the optional content as well) of a game without the use of a walkthrough or other type of help. I like to be able to go back to every single location at any time I wish when playing a game. I also like being able to locate every single item whenever needed. If I miss something, it's still there waiting for me if I decide to look later.

That's no longer the case if certain points of no return have been passed already. Some games have smaller points of no return where only a couple of places become unavailable. Others have items or other secrets you can miss, but aren't very relevant to the main storyline. Then there are large points of no return. Entire sections of the world get cut off due to storyline spoilers that happen after a point of no return. The entire world map might see a significant change. Old towns replaced by ruins that can't be explored anymore, optional temples destroyed leaving you with less optional quests to do.

Those in favor of points of no return might argue that they add to replay value. That depends. The larger the amount of content that becomes unavailable, the bigger a deal it is if someone has to start over after missing out on it. That adds more to frustration than replay value. Wouldn't there be more replay value if you had the option of returning to any location you've been to at any given moment, to see how things change as time goes on? You might stumble upon new optional events to look into, but if these are missable due to a point of no return you might never find them.

So what do you think about points of no return in video games? Necessary evil to boost replay value, something that should be done away with, or perhaps you stand somewhere in the middle on this issue. Why do you feel this way?

Discuss!

 

[Notorious718]

Usually, I'm not aware of points of no return until I read about them in a strategy guide or I actually figure them out when it's already too late. Probably the best examples of games I've had experiences with points of no returns involved Pokemon games and Tales of Symphonia. Obviously, with Pokemon you had legendaries that you would usually only have one chance to catch and if you knocked them out they'd be gone from the game forever unless you restarted. In some other Pokemon games, you also couldn't rematch Trainers you had already beaten. Although Generation 3 and 4 somewhat fixed this problem (I was happy that I could rematch Gym Leaders in Generation 4), I was disappointed that Black and White (to my knowledge) did not provide this and it's probably my biggest complaint of the Generation 5 games.

As for Tales of Symphonia, the game had dialogue branches that depending on your responses affected Lloyd's relationships with his party members as well as if you would ultimately have Kratos or Zelos in your party towards the game's finale. Also, you would have to get all your shopping done at a certain town (I think Luin?) before it was destroyed (although I don't think it would be necessarily be considered a point of no return since you could rebuild the said destroyed town though it was a hassle). There were also side quests that you had to complete before you hit a certain part of the game before they were unplayable for the rest of the game which I would find frustrating. Thankfully, the game allowed multiple save files so you could take different routes in the game without starting over.

So speaking from personal experience, I'm kinda sitting on the fence in regards to points of no return. While I think they add to replay value as well as overall gameplay by keeping players on their toes and carefully considering their next moves, they also have tendency of just being annoying.