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Fix For Endless Boot Screen Bug
By StackzGaming
Can't start the game? Stuck on a "spinning crystal of doom"? This guide is for you.
   
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Created by
StackzGaming
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Languages: English
Posted
27 Aug, 2022 @ 4:40pm
701 Unique Visitors
6 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
WARNING 
The Problem 
Root Cause 
Solution 
Comments
WARNING
The steps below are provided only as a courtesy. Proceed at your OWN RISK: this may delete save progress, etc., but is currently the only known way to get past this issue (so you can't use the save anyway).

The full ramifications of this are unknown - so if you're not confident, don't do this step. Just know, that until/unless the devs fix this issue, you won't be able to launch the game.

Consider also:

If you delete the two files only, it should work to restore access, but you may get corruption again. If you delete the whole SOULHACKERS2 folder, it should then cleanup the cloud save (in theory).

Which way you go is up to you. I couldn't even get as far as manual save, so I just deleted the folder to make sure EVERYTHING was frickin clean. But if you got into the game a ways, you might want to keep your save, so deleting the two .DAT files should be enough - but again, proceed at your own risk.
The Problem
You were able to play the game; but when you booted this time, you got stuck in a "spinning crystal of doom" boot screen and cannot continue.
Root Cause
ATLUS/SEGA doesn't know how to write their software to check the integrity of files and where there's an issue, correct it. The result is that when you have cloud saves enabled, they end up getting corrupted during sync; you can manually re-sync, but you're just sync'ing corrupted data files.
Solution
You need to delete the local user data file store for the game. In Windows, you need to navigate to your Roaming AppData folder. If your Steam is installed on the C: drive, and say your login username was "JSmith", your path would be C:\Users\JSmith\AppData\Roaming. Open any Windows Explorer folder and type that into the address bar to get to the main folder.

Then, go into the SEGA folder, into the SOULHACKERS2 folder, and navigate down into the SystemData folder. So you're going into (from the path above):

AppData\Roaming\SEGA\SOULHACKERS2\Steam\150288879\SaveData\SYSTEMDATA

And delete "data.dat" and "systemdata.dat".

If you have NEVER created a manual save because you never got that far, you should be able to just delete the whole SOULHACKERS2 folder (because you lose nothing and it's cleaner, just to make sure there's not some other corrupt file somewhere

Game should run correctly now. If not, you may need to disable cloud save and repeat these steps.
11 Comments
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Sam 15 Jul, 2023 @ 1:52pm 
Also, you can try deleting just your autosave folder. Obviously, make a backup, so you can undo.

I had a power outage while I was playing, and when I restarted the game later, it was stuck in this loop. Long story short: the autosave that was corrupt. Lost a little bit of game time, but that's better than not playing at all.

Try this order of operations:

Make a backup of that savedata folder.

Delete everything. Try starting.

If it works, great. If not, maybe uninstall and reinstall...

So, if it booted, it'll be like starting the game for the first time.

Close out, then copy the subfolders of savedata backup back into the the folder, one or two at a time. if they work, close out, add a couple more back, and try again.

You're trying to find the busted folder, so go through til you find a folder that causes it to fail. Remove that one, and go through the rest.
corracyde 16 Jun, 2023 @ 11:52am 
I changed it to experimental and it's worked fine ever since. I can double check my game settings too when I can hop on my deck.
R10K 4 Jun, 2023 @ 12:09pm 
hello anyone please help me
R10K 28 Apr, 2023 @ 7:49pm 
Im too dumb to understand this is it possible to dumb it down for a poor soul like me this game has been collecting dust after this bug.
StackzGaming  [author] 1 Nov, 2022 @ 3:32pm 
Which is why I initially recommended (in bold at the bottom) to just do the whole folder as it's cleaner. The two DAT files were expected to be the minimum - but not necessarily all. Because if it created a save, the save is basically corrupt, meaning you have to start over anyway.
madrat821 1 Nov, 2022 @ 10:17am 
Tried your advice by deleting the two .DAT files. Cloud saves are also off. SAME PROBLEM.
LeonKJ215 2 Sep, 2022 @ 4:22pm 
yeah so just uninstall the game & reinstall but before you start the game turn off cloud saves. another option
LeonKJ215 2 Sep, 2022 @ 4:09pm 
can i just uninstall & reinstall the game?
[LVA] DM 1 Sep, 2022 @ 8:54am 
Alright I 've finally found the folder : /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1777620/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/SEGA/SOULHACKERS2/Steam/67779410/SaveData/SYSTEMDATA/
StackzGaming  [author] 31 Aug, 2022 @ 12:45pm 
Negative. Check the forum, there were people talking about it.