Are branching saves against the rules?

[NamoPh]

Say a game has multiple endings and there's a trophy for choosing each, but it only gives you one save file and doesn't allow you to get back at the choice. So your only way of not playing the entire game again would be to have backed your save file up in order to find yourself there. Would that be report-worthy? To give a more concrete example, the PowerPyx guide for Darksiders III suggests that physical disc owners can do that to get both difficulty trophies without having to actually play the game on Apocalyptic. That would be very noticeable, as those trophies would be a few minutes apart.

[Banana_Sausage47]

Exploits like that are allowed. I've done it with various games throughout the years to avoid extra grinding.

[alien713]

No, I believe it's fine, here at least.

Edited January 13, 2019 by alien713

[Legchomper]

Yeah it's fine, you can always just upload your save before specific routes or whatever to your account and re download it after you've cleared one route to move on to another. As long as you're not breaking the game to get the trophies it's fine. 

[Evil_Joker88]

It's often suggested in other trophy guides too. Bloodborne for example and many VNs too.

[Lava_Yuki]

I think that's totally fine. I play a lot of VNs and otome games and all them rely purely on branching saves and multiple endings, needing to to make many saves, not just at the end but throughout the game. It's in all the trophy guides as well, otherwise it would be too unreasonable to platinum. 

[Janire1911]

It's totally fine, I've done it in a few games like Bloodborne.

[Deceptrox]

It's fine unless there is a trophy that requires you to get all endings in the same save file. One example is Silent Hill 2, where the trophy "Who Needs a Gun?" can only be earned after getting another trophy that requires you to get a 10 stars rating at the end of your playthrough, and one condition to earn 10 stars is to have unlocked all endings (from start to the end until you are back in new game screen after watching the final cutscene and the credits).

[NamoPh]

So by extension, if there's a branching path early on in the game and it's possible to progress on both paths without earning trophies for a speedy completion, an obvious backed-up save wouldn't raise eyebrows when the game only allows 1 save file.

 

I just realized I derped hard and somehow missed that it's specifically mentioned in the rules that it's not flaggable. Regardless, thanks for your responses everyone!

[KennethMcCormick]

29 minutes ago, NamoPh said:

So by extension, if there's a branching path early on in the game and it's possible to progress on both paths without earning trophies for a speedy completion, an obvious backed-up save wouldn't raise eyebrows when the game only allows 1 save file.

 

Using saves early or mid game is the way to go for a lot of trophies in Quantic Dreams games, for example. Like you want a nice bloke playthrough in Detroit but still make some "stupid" (survival wise) or utter mean or violent decisions, earn the trophy then go back to being a saint. Doesn't bother anyone, really, except perhaps yourself because you're kind of breaking the story momentum.