My buddy's save file rant changed how I see checkpoints

Last night my friend Mike went off about losing 3 hours of progress in a game because the last checkpoint was before a stupidly long cutscene. I usually defend checkpoint systems as fair, but he pointed out how modern games use them to pad playtime, not respect your time. He showed me a spot where a death sent him back 40 minutes of walking, not fighting, just walking through empty hallways. That conversation made me realize I've been blaming my own skill when the real problem is lazy design hiding behind "challenge." Has anyone else had a friend reframe a common game annoyance for them this way?

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amy_murphy151mo ago

My cousin Dave once spent 45 minutes in a game climbing a lighthouse, missed one jump near the top, and respawned at the very bottom with no fast travel unlocked. He just turned off the console and went to bed. That stuck with me more than any review ever did. Now I check if games have manual saves before I even buy them. If they don't, I just skip the whole thing. It's not about being good or bad at games, it's about whether the game respects your time in the first place.