DS #4628: Sands of Destruction (USA)

[GeekyGuy]

Hmm....not sure what your issue may be. The game runs fine on my CycloDS using 1.56b6 (which seems to be a very solid FW), trimmed ROM (222MB), but I only played as far as getting into the first dungeon, doing a few battles and finding a.....recharge point, I'd guess you'd call it. I did skip the opening sequence animations though. The only thing I had to do was copy all the RARFIX files into the main set of files, overwriting whatever dupe files it had between the two. Then the whole thing unrar'd to a 256MB nds, which I trimmed with NDSTokyoTrim to 222MB, put it on my cart and it worked fine. When I first booted it, a little box came up saying something like, "creating save file, please wait", with a little character dancing in the box for about 15 seconds or so, then the game continued and ran fine.

Maybe try reformatting your microSD? Possibly you never deleted your CycloDS folder on the microSD when you updated your firmware? That folder is instantly recreated anyway and the only thing you need to do is put any skins or cheat dats back in it. I NEVER just leave the old CycloDS folder there when I update firmwares, it can cause flakiness like what you're describing.

Hope you get it figured out.

Hmm...thanks, man. No, I never really considered first deleting the old Cyclo folder before updating, but I'll keep that in mind for future updates. I am curious, however, about the RARFIX you mentioned. I didn't do anything like that, so perhaps that's my problem. After all, I first attempted to play the game with the original firmware I had on there, but I got the same results. So perhaps the issue lies with the RARFIX.

 

[haflore]

I don't delete the Cyclo folder on mine and have never had any problems.

BTW there's a Beta7 for Cyclo now, maybe it'll help you.

 

[The Catboy]

The guy above me obviously has no likeness for RPG games or for unique games. This game is okay in every section. Gay Gamer you have no taste for good games>_>. Don't listen to his advice, I'm into five hours of playing this game and I have had no troubles with it. It is a very awesome game

I am not the biggest fan of RPG's nowadays to be honest with you (school has consumed my video game life!), but when I made that post it was mainly because I wasn't feeling at all right due to well a lot of reasons. Please ignore that post.

 

[georgebeller]

It randomly froze on me after my second battle when playing at the main character in the grotto.

Dunno if it's a security thing or what. Running AK2i

It did the exact same thing here, random freeze at random battle in grotto. AK2i on akAIO 1.5.1
Any solution?

 

[DJ91990]

Random freezes you say?
Hmm...Advance Wars; Days of Ruin was crashing on me the other day...try doing the following;
Reformat your MicroSD card with the Panasonic SD Formatter and then when you restore your files to your SD Card, delete globalsettings.ini.
Globalsettings.ini, this little bastard can decide to be a total dooshnozzle and freak'n corrupt. When you delete this and run AKAIO again, it will regenerate a new one, although you will need to set it back to the skin you had active again.

I have gotten to, oh darn, how far did I get in the bloody game again!? *Goes to look* Oh yes, that right! I got to Fallenmire.
I have experienced no CRASHES of RANDOMNESS at all.

Also, what makes the battle system harder!? It plays the same, I think SEGA was talking out their arse or something.
If anything, they made the battles EASYER! Just SPAM Skills and grind near HP/SP Recovery areas before activating an event/boss.

Yes, even the Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest Golden Rules work in this game.
1: Grind like a hoe
2: Earn Money off grind kills like a Pimp
3: Buy the best stuff and max out your recovery items, LIKE A BOSS.
4: DESTROY TEH WORLDZ! LIKE A BOSS!!

 

[don_eno]

i have two questions about this game.
1. after 15 or 20 minutes of playing the sound freeze and i can't play it anymore.
2. there are two roms of this game one 256 mb and the other 89.2mb. i have the 256 mb rom and a R4 v1.24

 

[Aweome Nes]

I'm running R4 with YSMenu
I downloaded the xenophobia release
The game at first is fine then when i save the sound seem to stop when you get to the next area the sounds goes off like crazy closed my DS and no sound then the game freezes
Anyone having the same problem?

 

[lolzed]

i have two questions about this game.
1. after 15 or 20 minutes of playing the sound freeze and i can't play it anymore.
2. there are two roms of this game one 256 mb and the other 89.2mb. i have the 256 mb rom and a R4 v1.24

wut?both aren't questions but i get what you were saying
the answer to 2 is that the 89.2 is compressed,if you extract it it's 256mb,i dunno what you were saying about the 256 tho

 

[Suimancer]

I'm having the same problem using NO$GBA. I hope some could help.

 

[dib]

This game is far more insufferable than I ever thought it would be. Playing the Japanese version for a few minutes it looked pretty good (for a DS game, at least) but anything past a few minutes is torture. Terrible story, executed at a painfully slow pace. Tons of anime bullshit abounds.

And as far as looking good, even that turned out to be deceptive when slowdown is the norm while simply walking around locations.

I'm beginning to think Japan doesn't understand that you don't have to hire the first voice actor to audition for a role. I am also led to believe that no studio in the entire country has ever tried budgeting for a director to bring some order to the acting.

And for yet another jRPG installment they have sucked the adventure completely out of the genre. Choosing locations on a menu. Woo. What will it take to have a game with an overworld again, that even the earliest NES games were able to achieve? How about locations you would actually revisit and find something to do? Why has that become too much to ask of Japanese developers in the past decade, other than the fact that they seem indolent and unmotivated?

The only thing this game has going for it is being able to skip the story entirely with the start button, which I've made great use of and hours in I have no idea what is going on nor do I find myself caring. My only real letdown is that the battle system isn't nearly as interesting as I first expected: turning out to be another formulaic variation on the same theme that they've been running to since the late 80s. Which has never proven to be a bad thing other than it can't singularly carry a game when everything else is comprised of unmitigated suck.

 

[Sanderino]

I'm running R4 with YSMenu
I downloaded the xenophobia release
The game at first is fine then when i save the sound seem to stop when you get to the next area the sounds goes off like crazy closed my DS and no sound then the game freezes
Anyone having the same problem?

Me too! Shit! I hoped it waj ust my SD, it's kind of annoying, isn't it? And the game looks like it's acting kind of slow eh?

 

[Bladexdsl]

it works perfect in no$zoomer. game isn't that good though.

 

[don_eno]

I'm running R4 with YSMenu
I downloaded the xenophobia release
The game at first is fine then when i save the sound seem to stop when you get to the next area the sounds goes off like crazy closed my DS and no sound then the game freezes
Anyone having the same problem?

Me too! Shit! I hoped it waj ust my SD, it's kind of annoying, isn't it? And the game looks like it's acting kind of slow eh?

same problem here

 

[KevInChester]

The voice acting as has been mentioned many times isn't of the highest quality... however my main issue is the pacing, all delivered at the same tempo, with pauses in between each characters speech. This really throws off any sense of urgency in the game.

After escaping from the prison, you are then treated to non interactive story setting scenes totally something like 12 minutes. Felt like torture.

 

[KuRensan]

The Fighting is fun (More animation than Pokemon)
only the video's (not really videos) are to long and as KevInChester Said
there is a pause between the talking in the video so that is making
the video's longer. Played 1 hour and I'm now in the ship (not the green guy's one)
It's great story but the video things are to long ^^

SOS-Rens

 

[Augustburnsred]

Hey peeps is this game freezing on anybody?

I have an authentic acekard2i running 1.5.1 with latest loaders.

Ive been playing for almost 5 hours already and now im stuck. in azure city when you visit the city for the second time it hangs on a black screen. Ive downloaded the rom 3 times at 2 different places and i still have the same problem with the game hanging when you enter the shopping center in azure city. the music continues to play but the video never comes back up?

 

[BAHIM Z 360]

The only thing that drawed my attention to this game was it that some devolpers from xenogears actually worked on it

I Hope that the game have a good story.

 

[Terenigma]

So far my opinion on this game is divided

pros:
Great battle system (i assume everyone knows about pressing L to access the other attacks)
Great graphics
Story seems cheesey but interesting
Difficulty is just right
Battles across both screens looks cool especially on enemies that take up both screens

Cons:
Camara is anoying to turn
long pauses in speech during cutscenes
Attempts at humour fall flat
Voice acting is bad especially in battles
Too frequent random fights

 

[georgebeller]

Hey peeps is this game freezing on anybody?

I have an authentic acekard2i running 1.5.1 with latest loaders.

Ive been playing for almost 5 hours already and now im stuck. in azure city when you visit the city for the second time it hangs on a black screen. Ive downloaded the rom 3 times at 2 different places and i still have the same problem with the game hanging when you enter the shopping center in azure city. the music continues to play but the video never comes back up?
QUOTE(DJ91990 @ Jan 15 2010, 06:11 AM) Random freezes you say?
Hmm...Advance Wars; Days of Ruin was crashing on me the other day...try doing the following;
Reformat your MicroSD card with the Panasonic SD Formatter and then when you restore your files to your SD Card, delete globalsettings.ini.
Globalsettings.ini, this little bastard can decide to be a total dooshnozzle and freak'n corrupt. When you delete this and run AKAIO again, it will regenerate a new one, although you will need to set it back to the skin you had active again.

I have gotten to, oh darn, how far did I get in the bloody game again!? *Goes to look* Oh yes, that right! I got to Fallenmire.
I have experienced no CRASHES of RANDOMNESS at all.

It seems the DJ91990 advices did the trick for me, i'm not so far in the game but i passed the first two dungeons without trouble. Fingers crossed.
And thanks for the response DJ91990.

 

[The Catboy]

Got around to playing this game when I was in less pain, it's not bad.
Not the best game I ever played (that award goes to Portal), but not as bad as I as I said it was when I hurting.