Overwriting a Strife save game can cause invalid game state

Strife's save game system requires the engine to save the state of several levels of the game, so players can exit and return to levels, potentially through every level in the game.

Beginning with Strife v1.3 where it is first possible to copy a save between slots, if a player selects a save slot that already has another save game stored, and that existing save includes levels not yet visited in the current progression, files from the old save are not deleted during the overwrite. This can severely hamper the play-through, potentially making the game unwinnable as a result: the levels that remain from the previous save will be in the state they were last left on the older save, and as a result doors could be closed, bosses might already be dead, non-player characters' dialogue states will be incorrect, and myriad other problems can occur.

Workarounds include always saving to the same slot initially selected on a new game, saving only to empty slots, or clearing out the directories containing unwanted saves first.

This is one of very few bugs intentionally not replicated in Chocolate Strife, and likewise Strife: Veteran Edition does not replicate it either.