Will Pokémon Sword and Shield have autosave?

In previous Pokémon RPGs, players had to go into the main menu and select save to record their progress. However, the director for Sword and Shield, Shigeru Ohmori, recently revealed to Game Informer that these games will automatically save as you play.

Since the game will automatically save when you reach specific checkpoints or certain cut scenes, it's going to make playing through the game more convenient for the most part. Players won't feel as much of a panic to save their journey after completing huge hurdles. The game should automatically save your progress for you. This is usually indicated by a save symbol in the bottom corner of the screen. Ohmori went on to say that autosave can be turned off if the player prefers to stick to manual saving. If you're a shiny hunter, something to keep in mind is that there's no point in restarting your game over and over again to get a shiny starter.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Shiny Pokémon are rare versions of regular Pokémon. You can tell a Shiny Pokémon apart from a regular one because it will have different coloration than what's considered standard. For example, Charizard is usually orange, but a Shiny Charizard is black, as seen in the picture below.

Shiny Pokémon don't have any additional perks aside from looking cool, but their unique coloration makes them appealing to catch. In Pokémon games, the appearance of a Shiny Pokémon is randomly determined, however, the chances of coming across a Shiny Pokémon increase if you capture the same Pokémon multiple times in a row without breaking your catching streak. This has lead many players to go hunting for a specific Shiny Pokémon.

Something different about Sword and Shield is that the starters are shiny locked. This means that there's no possible way to get a shiny stater, so don't waste your time turning off autosaving and then restarting your game over and over. Nothing will come of it no matter how many times you try.

If you're interested, here are tips on how to catch shinies.

Why turning off autosave can be a good thing

Many gamers prefer a slightly more challenging or nostalgic take on gaming. Being able to turn off autosave makes it so that the status of the game is really in the player's hands, and thus raises the stakes a little. They will need to remember to save frequently and often. Additionally, manual saving has been a part of Pokémon games since the beginning. Anyone who wants to feel that rush of excitement when they get through a tough battle and then scramble for the save menu to protect their progress will enjoy manual saving over autosaving.