For anyone who hasn't played the game before:

When you start a new game you give it a name (like "My Game"), and it autosaves your current game (using that same name) at every map transition (which is generally pretty frequently); so you never actually save a game manually.

Losing a life also takes you back to the most recent transition and saves the game.

If you quit, and subsequently load that game, you will restart at the most recent map transition.

Here's where it can get confusing... at any time you may make a copy of any saved game (let's say we copy "My Game" and call the copy "New Game"). Now the important thing is that this is not the same thing as saving your game under a new name as you would do in most other PC games, because copying your current game does not transfer your game to that new name -- you keep playing under the original name ("My Game") until you quit and load a different one. If you later load and play "New Game", it will (naturally) then autosave "New Game" at every map transition you subsequently encounter!

This means that if you want to be able to play from the beginning of an especially great sequence over and over you must first make a copy of your game at the appropriate point (let's call the copy "FUN"), but you should never actually load that copy. Instead, every time you want to play that sequence you need to make a new copy of the original copy (e.g. copy "FUN" as "FUN1"), and then load and play "FUN1" instead, so that when the game autosaves over the game "FUN1" at every subsequent transition, you still have the original copy of "FUN" safely positioned at the right place in the game. You can of course delete "FUN1" once you're finished with it so that it doesn't clog up the list of saved games.

And yes, at first it really is almost as confusing as I've made out! :)

To put it more simple:
It works just like the automatic savegame system used by most games that are released these days (specially console games).

I haven't got very far in the game yet (still getting the hang of the way the game works), but whenever I get a Game Over, it always sends me back to the exit of the Asylum. Is it supposed to this as a penalty for getting a Game Over, or should I start at the last screen I was on?

It did that to me too, Game over does sometimes penalise you more severely than just using a clover leaf. The most obvious time (as I just found to my cost) is right near then end when you're going to the well, where it will send you right back to the start of the construction site. However any changes you make (i.e. doors you open, puzzles you've solved) will remain, it just moves you to the new location, it doesn't undo what you did.

Incidentally, I think it's worth pointing out for this thread, that there is very little reason to ever copy a save game. It is only useful as a backup, or if you intend on revisting a particular section. I played it all the way through, and apart from perhaps getting stranded because you're out of gas (I never tried this), I couldn't find a way in which my save game wasn't in a state where I could go back and get an item I'd missed (damn Red Syrup).

This should help the system to make more sense, in that you're not saving in a new slot, you're backing up, so you of course carry on with the 'live' savegame.

There are checkpoints at the beginnings of some scenes (not all of them). When you lose a clover leaf you'll respawn at the current scene, but if you lose all your clovers and get a 'game over' you'll respawn at the nearest checkpoint.

*posted in wrong thread, nothing to see here*

At the beginning in my house where my wife is, I first got captured by the guards and was send back to the prison. That was annoying. I didn't ever had a chance to use a leaf. How or when can I use it?

until very late, you will be one-shot by the white grobo-clones that shoot the homing balls that knock you out. leaves won't be of help, because you will go straight to prison when they hit you.

that said, you can use a leaf manually by opening the inventory (Shift), selecting it (bottom right corner i believe) and then pressing Enter.

i think they fully restore both health and magic when manually used, but you will remain in the same spot. thus, it's not always going to help, because in some cases you will be unable to get away from continuous attacks.


consider quitting your game after a white grobo-clone has fired off a shot, this will save you a trip to prison. then, you can simply load your game and continue where you left off. this might mean re-doing a little bit, but in almost all cases it will save you a lot of time.
you can also use this when you feel like you're in a spot you can't get out, like multiple enemies keeping you pinned with fire.

what can also help in a lot of situations is simply tapping Ctrl. this will interrupt your stun/knockback animation, and you will be able to run away immediately.


lastly, the save-system is far from optimal, but regardless i would suggest getting used to it and making the occasional backup.
tiny mistakes can be fatal ones in some areas, so a backup can save you a huge amount of time.

I just installed LBA2 on my Windows 10 PC and the game saved 1 time manually. Now it wont save anymore and autosaves do not work. Even after I reach a video checkpoint if I manually save the game it does not actually save and loading it always takes me back to the first save near his house.

This thread is about the original LBA, not LBA2.

Please post a new thread instead (or perhaps just raise a support request?)

Old post, but just in case anyone ever clicks on this thread:

Clover leaves do not protect from the white Super Grobo's instant knockout attack. However, you can always avoid them in some other fashion. (Usually stealth, or running away.)

In the scene in your house, you can avoid the guards by hiding out of sight. Find a good spot, enter stealth mode and hit the action key (space) to crouch down.

You have to hurry, but otherwise it is not too hard.

how does it work though elephants catch me like an hour after i escape at my wife's house and I'm back at the start of the game

Are you really sure about that?

(It's been a long time, but...)

You may be back in the same jail, but it's not reset to the start of the game