New update lets you pause mid-run

[Abby_TheLastofUs]

 

Quote

One of the main features of this update is the Suspend Cycle functionality, which will allow you to pause your cycle to be continued later, letting you exit the game and turn off your console without losing your progress in that session. The structure of the game remains unchanged, so this functionality is not a traditional mid-game "Save Game" option: by suspending the cycle, Returnal will simply create a single use suspend point, and once you resume playing the suspend point is deleted and cannot be used again. Your game will continue directly from the moment you left it, and if you want to suspend the cycle again, your progress will be captured from that new point onwards. There are some limitations in place – for example, players won't be able to create a suspend point during Boss battles, cinematics, first-person sequences or during intense combat scenarios – as we felt there are certain moments in Returnal that are best experienced unfragmented to preserve the intended challenge and flow.

With this approach, we can keep the roguelike spirit and "high stakes" commitment to your run intact, while still providing some quality-of-life convenience for players who like to experience Returnal in shorter bursts. So next time you're deep into a lengthy session on Atropos and life comes knocking at your door, you'll be able to simply Suspend Cycle and jump back in at a more convenient time.

 

You can now upload your save through PS+ to make the plat easier, if you've been struggling with it.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Abby_TheLastofUs

[DrBloodmoney]

Okay 

 

I wonder why?

 

You could always do this with the console's rest mode, couldn't you?

 

I'm pretty sure I did 

[breakXedge]

Came here to post this. I don't think the game needs this suspend cycle option, but almost everyone want it so... 

[AlphaExGAT]

It's nice to have I guess. I'll check the photo mode for sure but still I wish they would have at least put the difficulty back pre 1.4 update or had the option like "original" mode. I liked it even more then but oh well.

Edited October 26, 2021 by AlphaExGAT

[LordEddardStark7]

30 minutes ago, Abby_TheLastofUs said:

You can now upload your save through PS+ to make the plat easier, if you've been struggling with it.

 

Someone needs to test this out

[Akrioz]

36 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

You could always do this with the console's rest mode, couldn't you?

Good for you. When the game was released I was still bound to do daily quests in Genshin Impact, for example. Not to mention the reports of rest mode being one of the reasons for the console brick. 

 

I almost finished the Nex Machina platinum yesterday. I guess it's finally time to play Returnal. 

[that_dude_cam_ps]

57 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Okay 

 

I wonder why?

 

You could always do this with the console's rest mode, couldn't you?

 

I'm pretty sure I did 

It's not the same as rest mode. This way you can actually close the game, play something else and pick it back up later without losing the progress you made in that cycle. Otherwise you couldn't exit the game or turn off the PS5 completely.

 

58 minutes ago, breakXedge said:

Came here to post this. I don't think the game needs this suspend cycle option, but almost everyone want it so... 

I think many people would disagree with you, some of my runs were between 4-5 hours long. If you don't want to play anymore, yet don't want to restart the cycle the, the only option is rest mode. But then you can't play anything else until you complete that cycle (or just quit it). That's really restrictive either way. Also, starting the game from rest mode had a lot of problems in the beginning, which was especially frustrating, since your progress was wiped...

 

[DrBloodmoney]

4 minutes ago, that_dude_cam_ps said:

It's not the same as rest mode. This way you can actually close the game, play something else and pick it back up later without losing the progress you made in that cycle. Otherwise you couldn't exit the game or turn off the PS5 completely.

 

Oh - yeah, good point!

D'oh.  

 

You're absolutely right, of course - I played that game in a total fever, as I really loved it, so it never really occurred to me to be fully shutting it down to play other stuff, but yeah, that makes sense...

 

...though I'd imagine it is a game that would be pretty difficult to come back into in the middle of a run, given that you'd likely have forgotten which weapons and stuff you had going!

[that_dude_cam_ps]

11 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Oh - yeah, good point!

D'oh.  

 

You're absolutely right, of course - I played that game in a total fever, as I really loved it, so it never really occurred to me to be fully shutting it down to play other stuff, but yeah, that makes sense...

 

...though I'd imagine it is a game that would be pretty difficult to come back into in the middle of a run, given that you'd likely have forgotten which weapons and stuff you had going!

I admit, if you're coming back to a run days (or weeks) later, then yeah for sure. But, if you bounce out to play some co-op game with a friend for an hour and then return(al) ? I think it'd be totally fine

 

Same here tho, I blazed through that plat within weeks of release. The rest mode problem did screw me 1-2 tho.

Edited October 26, 2021 by that_dude_cam_ps

[breakXedge]

10 minutes ago, that_dude_cam_ps said:

I think many people would disagree with you, some of my runs were between 4-5 hours long. If you don't want to play anymore, yet don't want to restart the cycle the, the only option is rest mode. But then you can't play anything else until you complete that cycle (or just quit it). That's really restrictive either way. Also, starting the game from rest mode had a lot of problems in the beginning, which was especially frustrating, since your progress was wiped...

 

Yeah, fair enough. I don't think I've done a ingle run without dying for 4 hours straight. I think you can complete the main game in those 4 hours if you don't die, but most of the runs are waaaay shorter. Never used rest mode either and, as @DrBloodmoney, I tend to play one game at a time, haha.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't care if the game now is "easier" than before. At this point, I'm waiting for some DLC or extra modes to the game, but can't hide a laugh everytime people were asking for these kind of stuff, like easy mode on Dark Souls and such. My post was more like, the way the game is designed, short and "hard", is the way they wanted to create this game or experience or whatever. 

 

Of course, the game will sell more now...

[that_dude_cam_ps]

3 minutes ago, breakXedge said:

Yeah, fair enough. I don't think I've done a ingle run without dying for 4 hours straight. I think you can complete the main game in those 4 hours if you don't die, but most of the runs are waaaay shorter. Never used rest mode either and, as @DrBloodmoney, I tend to play one game at a time, haha.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't care if the game now is "easier" than before. At this point, I'm waiting for some DLC or extra modes to the game, but can't hide a laugh everytime people were asking for these kind of stuff, like easy mode on Dark Souls and such. My post was more like, the way the game is designed, short and "hard", is the way they wanted to create this game or experience or whatever. 

 

Of course, the game will sell more now...

 

Yeah, if you don't die and are really good/fast and don't explore excessively, you could probably beat the game in 6-8 hours I'd say, because you do 

Spoiler

die once/restart the cycle after beating the third boss.

 

I heard patch 1.4 made it "easier", don't know if that's true, but I genuinely hope that devs only "balanced" vs. "nerfed" the difficulty because it did feel like beating a souls game at launch, which was appealing and satisfying. Apparently you can't save-scum the suspend point, but I'm not sure how that works on a technical level so we'll see. I would also really love to see some DLC, a new area or boss would be awesome.

[Akrioz]

17 minutes ago, breakXedge said:

My post was more like, the way the game is designed, short and "hard"

It is just a poor design choice. Devs literally recommended people to use console rest mode instead of  having "save and quit" option like almost every other rogue-like these days. I guess they are just too used to making an arcade-like games(Nex Machina, Resogun etc.) that the thought of closing the game never even crossed their minds.

[breakXedge]

5 minutes ago, Akrioz said:

It is just a poor design choice. Devs literally recommended people to use console rest mode instead of  having "save and quit" option like almost every other rogue-like these days. I guess they are just too used to making an arcade-like games(Nex Machina, Resogun etc.) that the thought of closing the game never even crossed their minds.

Well, can't agree on that.I think they recommended people to use rest mode just to get rid of those questions regardings save&quit feature. I can't see Returnal on your profile but, If you ever play it, you'll see you can complete a biome in less than an hour. And once completed you don't need to do it again, you can skip everything and go to the next level. So... no, not a poor design choice in my opinion. 

 

Edit: ok, just read you're going for it. Enjoy it mate!

Edited October 26, 2021 by breakXedge

[Optinooby]

This is great news, though think I'm more interested in the QoL changes that haven't really touched upon: Are Cipher icons now a different color, is each Cipher now unique similar to Logs etc etc......

 

Btw, I'm working on a Full Trophy Walkthrough on this for the site, so if anybody is wanting to jump in, if you hold on a few weeks, we'll hopefully have a extensive guide here making Platinum much quicker and much less stressful!!

[Akrioz]

10 minutes ago, breakXedge said:

I can't see Returnal on your profile

Like I said a couple of posts above, I was waiting for a save&quit to be added. I sometimes get tired even in the middle of the Hades run, lol. Not because I can't handle a 20-30 minute run, but because it can be my fourth in a row and I don't want to lose any progress. It is a QoL feature first and foremost. 

 

10 minutes ago, breakXedge said:

but, If you ever play it, you'll see you can complete a biome in less than an hour. And once completed you don't need to do it again, you can skip everything and go to the next level. So... no, not a poor design choice in my opinion. 

I know how Returnal plays out. I am the type of a guy who will start from the 1st or 4th biome everytime just to get stronger. Also to lessen out the post-game grind. 
 

11 minutes ago, breakXedge said:

Edit: ok, just read you're going for it. Enjoy it mate!

Thanks!

Edited October 26, 2021 by Akrioz

[Quink666]

This is great news! Hopefully the game no longer crashes every 5 minutes. 
 

Might give the game another shot now when I can quit whenever I want to without fear of loosing progress. 
 

13 minutes ago, Optinooby said:

Btw, I'm working on a Full Trophy Walkthrough  

Can’t wait! Used a lot of your speedrun guides in the past. You written DS3 speedrun guide on PST, Demons Souls and will soon use your Ender Lillies guide aswell. Great guides that are easy to follow. 

[NathanielJohn]

Quote

To clarify this: It's not an actual save file that can be manipulated by the user. More of a suspended save point the game is handling. Should have been more specific, so no - you cannot Cloud upload the save to abuse it.

 

I'm super confused by this statement. How is this technically possible? Literally no game on PS4 or PS5 functions like this. It makes a save file on your hard drive, and it erases that save file when you load it. Why on earth would you not be able to upload it to the cloud in between? Does the PS5 block certain save files from being backed up or something?

[Link-Xia]

I’ve tested myself and got an opposite conclusion. You CAN S/L when a suspend point is created.

So, if you already got some powerful gears and items, just:

Create a suspend point.

Close the game and upload your save file.

Enter the game and continue your progress.

When you die, download your cloud save data and you can continued your progress at where your suspended before.

I believe it will make the game much easier and not so stressful.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Link-Xia
Wrong quote object

[Optinooby]

49 minutes ago, Quink666 said:

Can’t wait! Used a lot of your speedrun guides in the past. You written DS3 speedrun guide on PST, Demons Souls and will soon use your Ender Lillies guide aswell. Great guides that are easy to follow. 

 

This game really needs it!

 

Unfortunately, our Platinum time is extended on this game currently due to all the info being all over the place for this game and it hasn't all being conveniently presented all in one place, hopefully we can change that here

 

I'm was quite surprised when I started playing because even the usual Trophy Guide Creators have not really done substantial anything for it

Edited October 26, 2021 by Optinooby

[waltdisneypixar]

30 minutes ago, Link-Xia said:

I’ve tested myself and got an opposite conclusion. You CAN S/L when a suspend point is created.

So, if you already got some powerful gears and items, just:

Create a suspend point.

Close the game and upload your save file.

Enter the game and continue your progress.

When you die, download your cloud save data and you can continued your progress at where your suspended before.

I believe it will make the game much easier and not so stressful.

 

Nice. I was going to ask if someone could try that

[cubiCampla]

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Okay 

I wonder why?

You could always do this with the console's rest mode, couldn't you?

I'm pretty sure I did 

 

There used to be bricking issues with PS5 rest mode. Also the chances of a power outage or simply using more electricity than needed to keep your PS5 in rest mode versus just turning it off was an issue for some people.

 

I'm mainly excited for this feature after I stopped playing around the 3rd boss because now when I play, I won't be locked to playing Returnal more when I come back in case I want to take a break and play something else. Especially when the runs can be multiple hours long. Sometimes I just don't have that much time. I would ideally like infinite save points and while that may take some of the challenge out with save scumming, there's no online or leader boards so I say just let people enjoy a single player game the way they want to.

[communistwookiee]

Can't wait for all of the people who got the platinum before this update to hurl insults at anyone who does it now.

[cubiCampla]

50 minutes ago, NathanielJohn said:

 

I'm super confused by this statement. How is this technically possible? Literally no game on PS4 or PS5 functions like this. It makes a save file on your hard drive, and it erases that save file when you load it. Why on earth would you not be able to upload it to the cloud in between? Does the PS5 block certain save files from being backed up or something?

 

I don't think Hades on PS5 lets you save scum, right?

[waltdisneypixar]

1 minute ago, communistwookiee said:

Can't wait for all of the people who got the platinum before this update to hurl insults at anyone who does it now.

 

Exactly!

And developers can't wait to earn more money from now on and maybe in black Friday too hopefully

[DrBloodmoney]

5 minutes ago, communistwookiee said:

Can't wait for all of the people who got the platinum before this update to hurl insults at anyone who does it now.

 

Well, I have the plat, and if this makes it easier, then all I can say is... cool!

Maybe now I'll have more people to debate that awesome, crazy, David Lynchian narrative with, because it deserves to be discussed! ?