Curious about this. I know it's sort of a contentious topic in the JRPG community (some prefer no auto-saves for whatever reason, seems to be technical reasons not actual gameplay reasons), but in general, JP devs are known to be a bit behind the times w/ QOL features, accessibility features, etc. And I wanted to know which JP devs/publishers implement auto-saves in their games. So I took the ones I've played in recent years, having not played consoles since 2017. So this list is mostly PC.
Has auto-saves
Legend of Heroes series added on PC ports only? Xseed ports only?
Bayonetta 2 (2014, PlatinumGames, Nintendo)
Lost Dimension (2014, 2017, Lancarse, FuRyu, Ghostlight)
Metal Gear Solid V (2015, Kojima Productions, Konami) no manual saves, checkpoint system only
Final Fantasy XV (2016, Square Enix)
Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age (2017, Square Enix)
Dragon Quest XI (2017, Square Enix)
Monster Hunter: World (2017, Capcom Division 2) only after quest completion
Resident Evil 7 (2017, Capcom Division 1)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017, Monolith Soft, Nintendo)
Nioh (2017, Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo) *shrines only, but shrines are proxy meta and death does not reset relevant worldstate
Ys XIII (2016, 2018, Nihon Falcom)
Octopath Traveler (2018, Square Enix, Acquire)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019, FromSoftware) *
Death Stranding (2019, Kojima Productions)
Caligula Effect: Overdose (2016, 2019, Aquira, Historia, FuRyu)
Crystar (2019, Gemdrops, FuRyu, Spike Chunsoft)
Resident Evil 2 remake (2019, Capcom Division 1)
Resident Evil 3 remake (2020, Capcom Division 1)
Nioh 2 (2020, Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo) *
Trials of Mana (2020, Square Enix)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020, RGG Studio, Sega)
Atelier Ryza 2 (2021, Gust, Koei Tecmo)
Bravely Default 2 (2021, Claytechworks)
Ys IX (2019, 2021, Nihon Falcom)
No auto-saves
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1 (2013, Compile Heart, Idea Factory)
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 2 (2014, Compile Heart, Idea Factory)
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 3 (2014, Compile Heart, Idea Factory)
Tokyo Xanadu eX+ (2015, 2017, Nihon Falcom)
I Am Setsuna (2016, Tokyo RPG Factory, Square Enix)
Nights of Azure (2016, Gust, Koei Tecmo)
Nights of Azure 2 (2017, Gust, Koei Tecmo)
Nier: Automata (2017, PlatinumGames, Square Enix)
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019, ArtPlay)
Dragon Star Varnir (2019, Compile Heart, Idea Factory)
Atelier Ryza (2019, Gust, Koei Tecmo)
Persona 4 Golden (2012, 2020 Steam improved release, P-Studio, Atlus/Sega)
Persona 5 Strikers (2021, P-Studio, Atlus/Sega)
Sadly, as a PC player, this means no Nintendo first-party games or console exclusives like FF7R, 13 Sentinels, Astral Chain, etc, for me. I have played some recent Nintendo games, but am sort of glossing over those. But please add those console games! I am curious to see what others add. I will update the list w/ enough games replied. I am eager to see games like the Atelier series, various Namco Bandai JRPGs, other Capcom games, recent Grasshopper Manufacture games, console exclusives, etc.
I'm including the years (Western release bias) and dev teams/publishers to see if there's any evolution. Of course, even a single dev studio can have different directors on games w/ their own vision of QOL/gameplay features (see PlatinumGames).
Also, might as well make it a point of discussion too - what are your thoughts on auto-saves? Why do you think it's still not a mandatory feature in some Japanese games? Looking at you, P-Studio! Bloodstained I can KIND OF understand, since MV's traditionally don't have autosave. But, more and more MV's are getting a hybrid type of save system. And, well, it just compounds the fact that JP games are sometimes poorly ported on PC and crashes happen, causing players to lose progress through no fault of their own for a game lacking basic QOL features.
Thanks for any and all input!