"Star Ocean" Known Bugs & Issues

[xamenus]

Before Playing the Game:

Make sure that you are using the latest version of your SNES emulator (Snes9x recommended) for the best performance. Also make sure that you are using a valid ROM dump by verifying it with NSRT.

Issues

- The sound cuts out after a battle:
This happened on the real Super Nintendo. There's nothing you can do.

- The game randomly freezes:
This is either an issue with ZSNES or a bug in the game. The best advice I can give is to use native, in-game saves frequently. Use savestates with caution, as they can bring you back to a crash. Also, try using the "rewind" feature in ZSNES when the game crashes, as it can sometimes prevent a crash.

- The battles go way too fast:
This is an issue with ZSNES. Try using Snes9x instead.

Links

RPG Classics: Star Ocean Bugs - More detailed info about bugs in Star Ocean.

Snes9x Homepage - Probably the best SNES emulator to use for this game.

ZSNES Homepage - Currently has a few small issues with Star Ocean. It's still mostly playable, though.

NSRT Homepage - Validate your Star Ocean ROM with this utility.




Feel free to add or correct info, as I haven't played this game to a great extent.

[snkcube]

Add this link because it's very helpful.

[Arsenic Toast]

The speed-up in battle?

[Agozer]

The speed-up in battle?

This should be added as well.

[Dmog]

RPG Classics: Star Ocean Bugs - More detailed info about bugs in Star Ocean.

I wish more people really did undestood the notion of confirmed to happen on actual hardware (and with a real cart not a copier).

Heck, even that link says: "Some of them may not be present in the cart version"

So apparently, the "test" was performed on a emulator. Well at the very least, no mention was made concerning tests on real hardware...

Yet the kiddies will argue with you "Hit's bean confirm too append on reel hardwhare!"

I'm sorry but it's gonna take more than a half-assed webpage that based it's claims on nothing but thin air for all we know to confirm that all these crashes and freezing did actually occured on the Snes.

Reminds me of the "dead" of Nobuo Uematsu lol...One moron made up the story/was on crack, few hours later, all the webpages "report" his untimely death

[Cidolfas]

You're absolutely right, I haven't tested it out on a cart. I was basing my statements on ones I've heard from people (e.g. Ian Kelley) who wrote FAQs based on the cart, and extended talks with people like Tomato, who do own the cart. I've yet to hear someone tell me that a bug I said was present in the cart is not, or vice versa. If you have that information, I would be more than happy to edit my page.

In any case, I think the suggestions on how to avoid or recover from these bugs are more helpful than nitpicking about exactly which platforms they occur on. I think it's reasonable to say that the vast majority of English-speaking Star Ocean players will be emulating in any case.

[Dmog]

You're absolutely right, I haven't tested it out on a cart. I was basing my statements on ones I've heard from people (e.g. Ian Kelley) who wrote FAQs based on the cart, and extended talks with people like Tomato, who do own the cart. I've yet to hear someone tell me that a bug I said was present in the cart is not, or vice versa. If you have that information, I would be more than happy to edit my page.

In any case, I think the suggestions on how to avoid or recover from these bugs are more helpful than nitpicking about exactly which platforms they occur on. I think it's reasonable to say that the vast majority of English-speaking Star Ocean players will be emulating in any case.

Sorry for the tone. It's just that people seem so quick to affirm stuff when there's no hard proof. Faqs and such are often not too reliable because the people who wrote them have often experienced the game with an emulator or pirated/backup material.

And it's not nitpicking. If it naturally occured, then giving tips on how to by-pass those bugs is perfectly valid. If the problem lies with the emulation, then...well it's an emulation problem that has litlle to do with the game itself.
That's one of the problem with Snes emulation: Right now, it's literally a bug galore. Harder to know which bugs are caused by emulation and which bugs naturally occured.

[Cidolfas]

Well... true, there's no way of being completely sure about these things, but the FAQs were written way before the game was translated. Ian Kelley is fluent in Japanese (his FAQs on the Japanese ToP and SO2 were very useful) and I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying when he said he was using the cart. Neither was Tomato. So it's not firsthand, but I think the sources are fairly reliable.

And frankly, I don't think it matters from whence the bug comes into play when most people will be playing it on the same platform anyway. You'd be amazed at how many people posted on the GameFAQs Star Ocean board in the last year asking "my game froze, what do I do?" "Music stops, what do I do?". The answers are just on the page there. 8-) They don't really care where the bug *comes* from, just how to fix it or avoid it. If the bug stops showing up in future versions of ZSNES, we'll all just be happier. 8-)

[Louis Cypher]

Incidentally, Ian's FAQ for Star Ocean was written before the game was dumped, so yeah

He's also helped immensely by doing a couple of scripts for me - Assault Suits Valken, Rockman & Forte, Shin Megami Tensei and SMT2 immediately come to mind, as well as partial contributions a number of other projects.

[Dmog]

Well... true, there's no way of being completely sure about these things, but the FAQs were written way before the game was translated. Ian Kelley is fluent in Japanese (his FAQs on the Japanese ToP and SO2 were very useful) and I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying when he said he was using the cart. Neither was Tomato. So it's not firsthand, but I think the sources are fairly reliable.

And frankly, I don't think it matters from whence the bug comes into play when most people will be playing it on the same platform anyway. You'd be amazed at how many people posted on the GameFAQs Star Ocean board in the last year asking "my game froze, what do I do?" "Music stops, what do I do?". The answers are just on the page there. They don't really care where the bug *comes* from, just how to fix it or avoid it. If the bug stops showing up in future versions of ZSNES, we'll all just be happier.

Well then, if it's really a problem with the original game, then the emulation should not try to correct those bugs.For the sake of accuracy.But I know most people would rather play an innacurate,less buggy version

[Cidolfas]

I'm still not quite getting what your problem is with the page. The site has nothing to do with emulation or fixing any bugs. It just lists the current bugs and indicates what to do to recover or avoid them. If any information on it is incorrect I'd be happy to correct it, but other than that...?

[Dmog]

I'm still not quite getting what your problem is with the page. The site has nothing to do with emulation or fixing any bugs. It just lists the current bugs and indicates what to do to recover or avoid them. If any information on it is incorrect I'd be happy to correct it, but other than that...?

No problem. The comments I wrote weren't really relating to your webpage.

[Midnight]

After somewhat extensive playing of Star Ocean 1, I've found the best way to avoid most freezes is to make sure the music is playing, in town it rarely matters(I've never frozen in town, I don't think) BUT if you enter a monster map and the music isn't playing, go back to town and come back until the music starts playing. I've found that at least 90% of my crashes or so had been because the music didn't start on the field, and after a battle the game would freeze. From what I recall when the game starts with the music on the field, it will be okay, even if the music dissapears after a battle. That being said, I'm eventually gonna conduct some testing with other crash prone areas and see if I notice anything that sticks out. (Please keep in mind this is from my experience, and you may or may not experience the same. I apologize if this is not the case for you, but I figure there cannot be that much of a difference in terms of why the game is crashing between ROMs, assuming they originated from the same place)

[Dmog]

Just made a non-related post refering to SDD1

http://board.zsnes.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... 5422#95422




Just to say, I just spend an hour playing Star Ocean (Original Non-patched version) in bsnes 0.15 an I have yet to encounter some of the issues listed in the first post. Which led me to believe it's mostly BS caused by imperfection emulation in either Zsnes/Snes9x or something caused by the patching.

(Sorry for doing the "post necrophilia" thing lol Then again, can you truly "necrophile" a sticky? )

[Mark57Raider]

yep know that i think about it, while i was playing the game there were alot of crashes in the game, but it didn't stop me from playing the game all the way through. I have to say Cidolfas did a great job dejaping the rom and it really turned out good for the best. And a great dejap for all the others that worked in translating. I can't think of any other games that could be dejaped in the mean time.

[Joe Camacho]

yep know that i think about it, while i was playing the game there were alot of crashes in the game, but it didn't stop me from playing the game all the way through. I have to say Cidolfas did a great job dejaping the rom and it really turned out good for the best. And a great dejap for all the others that worked in translating. I can't think of any other games that could be dejaped in the mean time.

Hahahahaha... I can't see if this is a joke or not.

[Mark57Raider]

it's actually not a joke. i was being serious. I know it sounds weird. How i phrase dejap into dejaping and dejaped in all, but my overall statement is that i was pleased at well translated star ocean was into english.

[Cidolfas]

The most I did was some testing and script editing. The vast majority of the work was done by Dark Force and Tomato.

[kevman]

They are not related at all. No shared plot or anything.

They were developed by the same people, and share some common code (most of the sound engine). That's about it.

[Cidolfas]

Yes, all three follow the same timeline (SO1, then SO2 about twenty years later, then SO3 about 400 years later). SO: Blue Sphere (GBC) also shares the same world and takes place a couple of years after SO2.

[Clements]

Ahh, So tell me is there anyone out there whos played Star Ocean and hasnt had any problems with the game freezing almost every ike 20 min or so?

Me. 11 hrs+ gameplay and no freezes.