Games That Can Read Your Save Files

Summary

• Save imports in games are less common now due to lengthy development times.
• Games like Metal Gear Solid & Zelda read save files from predecessor games for subtle in-game changes.
• Undertale alters gameplay based on save file modifications, turning it into a meta experience.

The concept of a save import is an older idea, though one is that quite uncommon nowadays. The basic idea has typically been used to let you carry over data, typically characters and items, to the next game in the series. With games taking so long to make now, these forms of save importing have become much rarer.

Some games, both new and old, used saves in a different way. It could read its own file and manipulate it, or it could read the date from various other games and bring it into different ones in unusual ways. This doesn’t always benefit you exactly, though it’s a fun usage of the system without having to strictly import exact details.

The Metal Gear games have always been known with playing with the hardware they’re made on in fun and unconventional ways. Metal Gear Solid 1’s Psycho Mantis is a great example of this, forcing you to change the controller port to even be able to beat him. But he doesn’t stop there.

Psycho Mantis can also read your save file, reading off certain games you’ve played (mainly Konami titles) and even discerning what genres you like from that. This goes a step further in the Twin Snakes remake, where Psycho Mantis can read your save files to acknowledge your a big fan of Super Mario Sunshine.

8

The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

For Nintendo, direct sequels to a Zelda game are quite rare. Before Tears of the Kingdom, the last time it happened was with Majora’s Mask on the N64. Tears of the Kingdom was a Switch exclusive, and while it didn’t advertise it and you could even miss it entirely, it did read your save file from Breath of the Wild in subtle ways.

It wasn’t a strict one-and-done process either. It knew exactly what you did, from carrying over your horses to adding a small picture to Link’s house showing him, Zelda, and all the other Champion’s together if you completed the DLC.

7

Silent Hill 3

The Silent Hill series has changed a lot over the years, from the eerie mist of the very first entry to moving away from the town of Silent Hill entirely and putting a lot of emphasis on recurring creatures. The original four games in the series are the most focused, though Silent Hill 3 is the final entry that felt really tied to what came before. In more ways than one.

While it was thematically linked with the original Silent Hill, the third game could read your file from Silent Hill 2 and introduce some oddities into the game. Heather would comment on putting her hand down toilets, missing letters from her dead wife, and an advertisement for Maria in the strip club. With how much of the same was self-aware, it made it all the more surreal.

6

Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

Another game that hides its save-reading capabilities in many ways, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth can read your file in more specific ways than it lets on. Before release, it was said that having a save file on your PS5 would get you extra Summon materia, with another from having the Intermission DLC. But it goes deeper than that.

After reaching Costa del Sol, you help Johnny repair his new lodge. Except once its fully repaired, all of your weapons appear on the walls. Or rather, specifically all the ones you collected, DLC weapons included. It’s almost a mark of shame, because there’s no way to make any missing weapons appear later, nor can you actually choose which save file the game reads, either.

5

Suikoden

The Suikoden games are known for a great many things, though the massive selection of characters it lets you build your party with is its real calling card. All of the games up to Suikoden Tactics include a form of save importing as well, though not just to carry over old characters and items. Each game could only transfer from the previous, though this would still hold details from earlier games if you had transferred save data earlier.

The effects of save importing changes between games, with SUikoden 2 having the most impact. Certain characters transfer, equipment included. Suikoden 3 recognises save data from both Suikoden 2 and Suikogaiden Vol.2, giving you extra items and other smaller details. Really, there’s too much to even detail it all here.

4

Pokemon Diamond And Pearl

In older Nintendo titles, save files were stored on the cartridges themselves, making the concept of reading save files next to impossible. The Pokemon games found some unique ways to circumvent this, though Diamond and Pearl had one of the most interesting.

The original DS had a port that allowed Game Boy Advance games to be played. If you put a Gen 3 title into this slot while playing Diamond and Pearl, then you could travel to an area called Pal Park to bring forward any six Pokemon. Heartgold and Soulsilver use the same process.

Pokemon Black and White 2 also allowed you to import a save more directly, changing aspects of the game based on how far through the original you were and what choices you made.

3

Ratchet And Clank

Despite what seems like a massive hiatus between the Ratchet and Clank games on PS2 and PS5, the series never really stopped producing new entries. There are a massive amount of these games, and a surprising amount of them can read the save files of previous entries for various little bonuses.

For example, Ratchet and Clank 2 gives you free weapons with a save file from the orginal, and the third game in the series gives free weapons again for a save file of the second game. However, the third game also recognises a save file from the original, giving a discount on every weapon purchase. It literally pays to have played all the games.

2

Monster Rancher

The Monster Rancher series is all about raising monsters, plain and simple. There’s some deeper lore about the creation and extinction of monsters, and how they still exist, but the core idea is that people love raising monsters and have them engage in battle for fun. The monsters love it though, really.

What makes the games so unique is in how monsters come to be. Rather than raised from birth, they are generated from discs. As in, real-life discs. For the disc-based games, inserting any CD into the console would have the game read it and create a unique monster from it. It is such a fascinating system. It’s not strictly save files, but it’s a closely-related system that feels too intriguing not to mention.

1

Undertale

Undertale was a smash hit upon its release, forming a fandom around it that is really quite hard to discern anymore. It was a cultural phenomenon, not just for its thought-provoking story and gameplay, but for the ways in which the game exists as a meta experience. That sounds like a cliche phrasing, but Undertale quite literally does not let you play it as just a game.

Undertale knows it is a game, and it knows how people play games. Which is why it knows if you do anything to its save file. You delete it? The game knows that. You modify it to give you extra money? The game knows that. There’s not starting over. Undertale will read its own save file and modify as it wants, regardless of your own choices.