One of the things that tends to differentiate WRPGs and JRPGs is how these two mechanics are handled. In a JRPG, typically both actions are done at save points or in town; in a WRPG, on the other hand, these can typically be done almost anywhere, typically excluding when the game thinks the player is in combat (and often excluding towhs while allowing wilderness resting).

So, how do you prefer RPGs to handle these two mechanics?

For purposes of this topic, anything that restores the party's HP and MP (or equivalent resource) counts as a rest (so, for example, free restoration at save points counts as a rest for this purpose). Also, temporary saves, which force quit to the main menu and are deleted on load, don't count as saves (so permadeath roguelikes count as "save nowhere").

(For those wondering, SaGa games allow save anywhere (sometimes with one or two places that disallow it), but only allow resting in towns; Unlimited SaGa is an exception to both IIRC, but that game is unconventional even by SaGa standards.)

Edit: Why the low rating here?

Saving: as widely available as possible. Any time would be great, but I accept not being able to save during combat.

Resting: if it's used to regenerate HP/mana, at selected safe locations. Just provide enough to be able to reach one in a reasonable time in most situations (e.g. not inside a dungeon), but not too many so potions become pointless. If it's only used to advance the time of day, the fewer restrictions the better.

Saving - always (except in combat). Unless is it's some rogue-like with permadeath or similar mechanics, restricting occasions for saving your game is just annoying.
Resting - there should be some set minimum intervall between resting, so you can't just spam it after every fight (which was an issue in the Infinity Engine games; Albion - old German rpg from 1995 - on the other hand didn't let you rest if a minimum amount of time hadn't passed since your last rest; you got a message "Nobody is feeling tired yet").
And resting in dungeons/wilderness areas should be dangerous (maybe with an option to set party members on guard duty to prevent ambushes).

Saving: Anywhere, with no costs, penalties or limitations, though I'll accept only being able to do so while exploring, so not during combat (or dialogues or cutscenes, when you usually can't even reach a menu anyway).

Resting: Don't particularly feel a need for the mechanic and would tend to prefer regeneration over a little time, and in case of games where battles are separate from exploration possibly full restoration after battle (but depends how the game is balanced), with spells and items to speed up recovery if needed. If there's no natural regeneration/restoration, I tend to try to draw out my characters as much as possible, minimizing resting even if there's no penalty for it... But still, if it must happen, have some designated safe areas, like inns and homes of friendly NPCs and possibly some other spots which can guarantee safety, where resting is safe, and areas and situations where it's not allowed, like when enemies are near or the area has a particularly high ambush rate or in toxic areas or particularly uncomfortable conditions if things like storms and noise and so on are implemented, while in most places it might be possible but carry a risk of ambush, possibly with a sentry mechanic, one or more characters excluded from resting to stand guard, to reduce that risk (but likely not eliminate it, so may still have a small risk of ambush while other encounters that'd have been ambushes otherwise, as in characters starting battle at a penalty, would be regular battles instead, not avoided entirely).

Given the nightmares of say, the final dungeon of Final Fantasy III, I prefer when games are generous with the saving and resting aspects.

As for resting, I'm fine with the "Designated Places" system found in most RPGs.

Saving, widely, but not " always". I admit I ruined too many games myself with quicksave quickload scumming. But pretty wide. "quick save exit" that a lot of games (FTL, Slay the Spire, Monster Train) would work for when something comes up, but not be as easily scummable due to load times.

Resting: As appropriate for the game. Depending on the design, usually, rarer is better to make certain aspects (consumable, certain spells/abilities) more valuable. TOO rare and it makes you loop back around and become skinflint with them again "in case there's ever a long no-rest" segment.

Also, no, you don't always need a rest right before a boss fight. This is a big deviation that video games take different from tabletop ones. In tabletop games, almost always, you're fighting bosses at your WEAKEST point of a given rest cycle, which is where a lot of tension and "what do I reserve?" comes from. With the VG standard of always having a rest spot right before a boss, you don't get that. Save spot? sure. Rest spot? No. (The game must train the player to have multiple different save spots. Some games do encourage that already.)

Saving: Always. At the very least before combat or events. Not all of us have infinite time. Tales of Maj'Eyal, while a roguelike, pretty much allows saving whenever, which is great because I get frequently pulled AFK.

Rest: Should probably be restricted to promote resource management.

Savings

Always and anytime you want including cutscenes.

Although don't recall ever having that option.

Simple reason is that sometimes you are in the middle of cutscene and your kid just comes to you to tell you proudly that they pooped.
And they are too young to reach the toilet and their pants look empty.

Game stops being important in that movement so alt f4 it is.
But you could spend extra few seconds to save in the middle of conservation with npc.

Absolutely save anywhere. I play games to relax not to have them end up "more work than work" via 'checkpoint replay grind'.

Serment: Contract With a Devil allows you to save during dialog.

It doesn't, however, allow you to save in the dungeon, unless you happen to trigger some dialog in the dungeon, at which point you can save during that dialog. Strange, isn't it?

(I get the impression that the "save during dialog" mechanic comes from the Visual Novel genre.)

I'm gonna go against the grain here. I generally prefer checkpoint based saving. I find that the ability to save at any time - while convenient if you have sudden outside interruptions - makes me a lazy player that just throws quicksaves at a problem until I get past the challenging bits and I don't really learn to play better, if that makes sense. I'm also wary of developers balancing their game with the ability to save at any time in mind, since that can make for really hard games in an unfun way. 90's shooters suffered from this, I think. That said, the "checkpoints" need to be reasonably spaced or you have other issues.

Resting? Depends on what you're going for, I'm not too picky about that.

Problem is that you might run into a situation where you have to let the game run idle for the game to let you rest, or wander aimlessly in a safe space, and that just gets annoying.

(Brings back memories of Bard's Tale 3; if you don't want to use Harmonic Gems, you need to idle for way too long to get your Spell Points back. This was especially a problem in the 16-bit versions where Harmonic Gems are rare (but those versions have other issues that make me unable to recommend them, and the fan patch for the DOS version that fixes many of the bugs also fixes Harmonic Gems being too rare), but not in the remaster (where Harmonic Gems are decently common and natural SP regen is much faster), or in the 8 bit versions (where Harmonic Gems eventually get so common that you can spam your strongest spells all the time and still get gems faster than you consume them, making it necessary to start wasting them).)

Saving: everywhere, even in combat (although it makes more sense in strategic/turn-based RPGs)

Rest: up to the devs! less full heals = more challenging, so it's a matter of design and difficulty really

I use save states at this point.

(Exception being when playing the DS version on an actual Nintendo DS, where my strategy is to raise everyone to level 56, at which point you can reliably run away from most random encounters.)

Arc the Lad 2 also has one section that doesn't have any save for way too long. (It's not the final dungeon, and it comes before you are free to choose your party.)

One thing that's common about both instances is that there is a mid-dungeon rest spot, but no save. I'm of the opinion that, if there's a mid-dungeon rest spot, there really should be a save point there. (Interestingly enough, Final Fantasy 4 violates that by having a few points where you're fully restored right before a boss fight; the final boss is one of them, and it's annoying to get back if you lose the fight.) i note that Dragon Quest games *don't* let you rest before bosses, as a rule. SaGa games don't, either. (Well, SaGa 1 has a healing spot right before the final boss, but it doesn't restore skill uses, and the game doesn't do this before other (non-isolated) bosses.)

I swear to you, no matter how far she is my mother has an instinct... nah, a 6th sense. That kicks in whenever I enter a cutscene and compels her to either barge in in my room and start talking to me or shout from afar summoning me. In both cases she always demands that I need to give her my full attention immediately. It is never that urgent.

I would settle for pausable cutscenes, tho.