Press X when selecting the rom, you can switch from clean to patch mode.
Try to compare the two - the black screen between battles, entering houses etc is a lot longer in clean mode.
Anyway, I'm trying a patched version now.
Edit: seems to work!
Still, it's gonna be a while before we get a working rom. There's bound to be some sort of anti-piracy measure.
Incidentally, was there one for the Japanese versions? How long was it till someone found a way around it?