Topic: Hardcore Mecha crashes driving me crazy

Posting here to see if I’m the only one suffering.
I was cruising through Hardcore Mecha’s story mode and mostly enjoying the mech anime fun but the game keeps crashing and I am at my wit’s end.
I get to the showdown with Nomad at the end of stage 8-2 and either mid-fight or during the escape sequence after, the game inevitably crashes and closes the game. Then it’s back to the mission select screen, all progress in 8-2 is lost. I’ve had 5 crashes in s row trying to clear this @<*? stage so I can hopefully unlock survival mode.
Not at all impressed w the stability of this game! Am I the only one?

FWIW, I’m playing on a launch-gen Switch, docked, with a cartridge copy of the Jpn version of the game. Jpn dialogue w Eng subtitles. I checked and I’m playing the latest update of the game.

Maybe there's some RAM overload like in DOOM, Wolfenstein II, Troll And I, and even Super Chariot?
A couple of games have this problem and it's only fixed by shutting down the Switch entirely and rebooting it with freshly emptied RAM (power off instead of standby).

@Teksetter Did you email the developer about this as well? That would be the first thing to do.

@SKTTR
Thank you for that great reminder! It's been at least a month since I powered off my Switch. I just keep merrily putting it in sleep mode each day. I've seen advice here at NL and elsewhere tell people to power off their Switches occasionally, and I totally forgot lately.

I will give this a try tonight and then try level 8-2 for (hopefully) a lucky 7th attempt!

@SwitchForce
Thank you - the thought of contacting the devs did occur to me. I think first I'll follow @SKTTR 's excellent advice and actually power off my Switch and then re-try the game, though. I've heard that doing so can correct some performance issues. If that works, rookie mistake and shame on me!

@Teksetter
Were you able to resolve this? I have basically the exact same specs (my switch might be slightly newer,) docked switch, physical jpn release cartridge, playing with English text, Japanese dialogue, stage 8 - 2 and it crashes every time at the places you point out.

I also rebooted my switch to clear up ram and it didn’t fix it.

It’s driving me crazy, it’s crashed on me six times and I’m finally giving up until it’s fixed 😥

@Grove
Thanks for reaching out and I’m sorry you’re suffering too!
I tried @SKTTR ‘s advice, power-cycled my Switch, and like you it STILL crashed during a load sequence after the boss fight.
So I tried it again in handheld mode, and that worked!! The game seemed to run smoother and I finally cleared that boss and finished story mode.
I put in a few hours in survival mode and have had fun unlocking mechs and earning power ups, but again when playing on my tv there was an intense fight with lots of slowdown during which the bad guys shot down my Valkyr— er, I mean Geier EVOL and then the game locked up on a loading screen again. Fortunately the game had saved my decent 30min run just before that.

So the game seems really unstable. I hope a patch is coming to fix these issues! Maybe try handheld to get through story mode, then proceed carefully through survival mode (might be best to die intentionally after clearing each 50-wave checkpoint).
Good luck!

Good to know that it seems to run better in handheld mode. That's how I prefer to play anyway so hopefully I won't have issues when my physical copy arrives.

@BenAV
I think you'll find handheld runs with less stutter and crashes than in docked mode. Which is a bummer for me, as my aging eyes prefer gaming on the big screen.

But either way, for super robot fans I think you'll find it a fun game and worth the purchase. Story mode was underwhelming and it is certainly plagued with tech problems (there are lots of visual and audio hiccups while playing on TV), but survival/simulation mode has been fun to sink time into, collecting robots and weapons. I haven't even tried multiplayer yet. I can't remember if it had online vs. mode or not. I would prefer on-line co-op of some sort, really.

I'm having the same exact problem where the game crashes after beating Nomad. Nothing is working! I've tried it over 10 times, most of the time with handheld. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the game, I purchased the digital version. I've powered off the Switch. It still crashes. Not sure what to do.

@AVPit55
Oh no! It’s awful to hear it can crash even in handheld, and even if you’re playing the digital version of the game. I must have just been lucky to get through the Nomad battle on my first try in handheld.

I honestly don’t know what else to try, other than email Rocket Punch studio on this particular problem. And see if they are working on patching it. The general quality of the port seems pretty poor to me - I’m not sure why the Switch has to chug so hard to run this game. ☹️
This is the first game I’ve played from a Chinese developer, and it’s not a good first impression!

@Teksetter @Grove @AVPit55 I still haven't started the game so I can't test it but I noticed that the game auto updated today so maybe it's fixed?

@BenAV
Hi, yeah I was excited to see there was an update when I played yesterday evening.

First thing, the update file size seems like it was huge. It took my Switch with a wired connection 17mins to download, then another 12mins to install.
Maybe this was just an aberration (or multitudes of online Black Friday shoppers) but I’ve downloaded entire games in less time than that!

Upon booting up the game, I didn’t notice any immediate improvements in load time or content. I tried going online for quick play versus mode, but failed 3 times saying the server was busy. (The dev’s message board there just said the usual “Server online,” for what that’s worth.) 😑
Survival mode seemed much the same, but no crashes in about 2hrs and maybe a little more stable? I didn’t revisit the crash nightmare that is story mode stage 8-2, so not sure if that’s improved yet.

I’d really like to see some patch notes for the update, because it’s not apparent nor really communicated well to players. And that update file size is worrying. ☹️

I noticed the auto update as well and couldn't wait to try it. Unfortunately it's more glitchy with story mode when I tried the board with Nomad and crashing before I even got to fight him this time. At this point, I've memorized this level so well I can clear it fairly quickly.

I contacted Nintendo Support and they referred me to the publisher, Lightning Games. I wrote to them but have not received a response.

I did start playing online more however and it's a lot of fun so I guess I'll have to do that if I want to play. I wouldn't be able to play this game on the move though since I'd need internet access. I hope they fix this issue soon, I'd like to play simulation mode.

@AVPit55
Thanks for sharing! Hearing that story mode is still crashing is not good news - it's a real shame that the rather fun Simulation (survival) mode only unlocks after you beat story mode. I saw one game review mention the same problem, how the final stage crashed on them and they had to retry the entire stage again before they could beat it. I think it took me 6 failed attempts, and I finally lucked out on the 7th. I had the whole stage pretty much memorized, too! That's the closest to speedrunning I will ever get!

Over the weekend I dabbled with online quick matches, which I agree are fun. Still buggy, but fun. And if it crashes, its not like you lose 20 mins or so of progress! Still, survival mode is just as fun, with more frequent and more numerous unlocks, and (for me, at least) less stress getting wrecked by better human players.

I'd say if your patience allows, maybe try stage 8-2 from time to time and maybe luck will eventually favor you! Then you'll never need to go back to that godforsaken stage again!

HOLY CRAP!!! Last night I just had that feeling and I tried getting through that level again. Even let the cutscenes proceed without skipping and IT WORKED. I finally got through the level and now I have been having a blast with simulation mode. Thank you Teksetter for your good wishes and advice.

@AVPit55

Hey that’s great news! Congratulations!!
Letting the cut scenes play out without skipping is a great idea. I think on my last few tries I took my time and tried not to push the hardware if I could help it. Isn’t it sad we had to do that just to avoid crashing the game??? Seriously...

Anyway, glad you finally got to play survival mode! I unlocked all the UNF mechs, but haven’t touched the Red Dawn ones yet.
That meant I didn’t have any mechs that could wield the 2-handed cannon type weapons for a long time, though, and I bet a good M2 cannon or large Vulcan could power you through lots of waves early on. So it may be worthwhile to unlock a cheap cannon-compatible Red Dawn mech when you’re starting out.
Have fun!!