I've been playing Crystal Project lately, and I've been noticing how many little things the game gets right. For example, when you are about to quit, in the confirmation pop-up that appears, the game tells you how long it's been since your last save, which is very helpful in case you intend to save and quit, but forget to save.

It feels like this feature should be present in every game it is applicable to. In other worlds, it should be found in any game that:
* Has a save feature
* Has a quit feature (so this doesn't work so well on things like console games (but it can work with a Dragon Quest style "quit" where doing so takes you to a screen with a message or one where you can quit to the title screen), or web games (though having the game warn when you're about to close the tab if you haven't saved recently could work)
* Doesn't automatically save on exit (if the game does auto-save on exit, the confirmation pop-up should mention that. Hollow Knight is an example of a game that does this.)
* Isn't on a system so resource-constrained that implementing it would be infeasible. (This would apply to things like old console games or PICO-8.)

Doesn't exactly seem of any use to me. A "do you want to save before quitting?" prompt if you didn't just save would be enough of a reminder, little use in being told it's been 3 min 7 sec or 12 min 35 sec since the save.

I've seen that fairly commonly. Only thing is, in some games you save and then quit, but the game says "It's been 1 second since you last saved! Are you sure you want to quit?" Which...yes, I'm pretty sure I do. Maybe do a "if (timeSinceSave < 5.0f) {Quit();} else {BugUserAboutSaving();}" or something. Anyway it's completely trivial to implement and there's no system so resource-constrained that you can't do it. You could make it work on a literal potato.

It is of use in the absence of better features, for games with single slot autosaves only that work similarly to checkpoints. But it would be much better if the game just let you save whenever you want to, or at least whenever you need to quit.

I like the feature as well. I think it is most useful in games with an autosave feature, because it confirms to the user that an autosave has occurred if the icon was too hard to see or just missed.

There's still the situation where, in a save anywhere game, the player just absent-mindedly forgets to save and quits the game without realizing that. Even if a game does let you save anywhere, a player could just easily forget to do so.

By the way, Crystal Project is interesting when it comes to saves:
* You can save anywhere (outside of combat), but your position will not be saved. (This makes save-warping possible, but unless you're playing a randomized game where you don't have a Home Point Stone, you can just use that item instead.)
* There are, however, save points that open a menu with a save option. This allows save points to function as a reminder for the player to save.
* A save point can be designated as a Home Point. If you do this, when you load a save you will start there.

That's a strange way of requesting a timestamp for your saves. Or an auto-save function. Doesn't really matter much if you can just F5 through the game.

Hardly a killer feature in my opinion. I'd rather there be like...a story...or a party member I cared even the tiniest bit about. The game does somethings well. But it has the narrative level of Tetris and the character interactions of Mega Man.

I also found it a neat little touch, and definitely noticed it and felt appreciated when I first saw it.

I'm not criticizing 1980s puzzle and action games. I'm pointing out the weakness of a 2023 RPG.

If you are that concerned about users being stupid you simply auto save on exit. Problem solved.

I think that the presence of this feature should depend on the genre of the game and on the idea of game designers. Each game can provide a unique experience depending on how it implements the save progress system. Imagine if in Dark Souls or Resident Evil you could save and load your progress at any time. There is no objectively right or wrong decision here, but it can be one of the many important details in the final gaming experience.

I think we already have that in many (most?) games.
A message saying: "Are you sure you want to quit? All unsaved progress will be lost, if you quit now" [Y/N], or something to that effect.

I don't see what showing the "time since last save" would change.

Either you know it's not been a long time since the last time (at the start of a new chapter, where not much is lost, etc) and you click [Y] - or you are relieved that the game reminds you of saving, and you click [N] and save before exit.

It's not as if anyone would see the message: "last time since save = 5,5 hours" and then decides to exit without saving.
(can't wait to read comments of people who explain to me, why THAT's indeed exactly what THEY will do)

I have erased a save several hours in on a choice heavy game with no save slot back-ups. Vampyr, I'm looking at you. I even modified a AHK script to help back-up saves. There's a particular choice at the end of chapter 2 where the options you choose do not obviously lead to the results you get. Like, you get the opposite result you're trying to achieve in this case. It's not a mistake, it's just written that way, and it's annoying (and likely done exactly like that on purpose by the devs to fuck your progress in a game that autosaves often with ONE slot).