The Save Point (セーブポイント, Sēbu Pointo?)

is used in the Final Fantasy series in addition to inns as a place to save and heal a party’s MP and HP by setting up a tent, cabin, Cottage, or house. The World Map tends to be one huge save point, as it is possible to save at any time while on the map; however, towns and dungeons have specific save points which are clearly marked, which the player must activate either by touching it or standing on it.

A save point tends to be placed right before a particularly hard point in a dungeon, as a breather in a long run of battles, or before a boss battle. As of Final Fantasy X, save points automatically heal the entire party’s HP and MP and fully cure the player of any status ailments, without the use of a tent. This effectively rendered the use of inns obsolete. In some games the player can also save at the end of each disc and during specific storyline points.

A Quicksave feature was an added to the portable remakes of the early Final Fantasy games as well as for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It allows the player to cease play at any point and resume when they wish, but the downside is that the save is only temporary (i.e. it is wiped when it is reloaded). As such, if the party falls in battle, the game will not return to a previous Quicksave (as it has been permanently wiped), instead the player will either be forced to revert to his last actual saved game, or to restart from the beginning, if no prior saves exist.

Also, for the PlayStation versions of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, as well as the fourth through the sixth installments, there existed a feature known as Memo Save. The Memo Save would save data to the PlayStation’s RAM, and would stay intact as long as the PlayStation’s power was not disrupted, through resetting the system, unplugging, and other methods. This was useful, as save points were sparse in the original games, and didn’t even exist in the first three.

Appearances
Final Fantasy IV
Save points (Special Fields in the SNES version) appear mostly as gray disks surrounded by three to eight pillars. In technological areas such as the Tower of Zot, they appear as black orbs set into the ground. The save points in the Feymarch and Sylvan Cave appear as a hexagram on a beige tile.

In the Easy Type, and North American Final Fantasy II releases, they appear as a large “S” in a circle on a beige tile, similar to the Feymarch’s save point. Technological areas have blue glowing save points instead of beige.