DQB 1 fails to load game after crashing during a save

[marionette]

I found a fix :: I was able to recover everything. I deleted all of my saves (well, I copied them to a backup folder before deleting them), then started the game to force Steam to download all save data from the Steam Cloud. After doing so, the game started up normally again. In hindsight, this should have been something I tried very early on, considering it happened after the game crashed during a save.

Original post follows ::

I've played DQB 1 up through the third chapter. I had just gotten the Bashmobile and cleared the first two enemy waves. I went to save before the third wave and, while saving, the save hung at about 20%. I stepped away to make some tea to see if it would complete and when I came back about five minutes later, the game had closed out.

Now, when I try to launch the game, it will load the game (the initial game startup won't load, I don't even have a chance to get to the save) to about 20%, then hang there. No amount of waiting has allowed it to progress, though it doesn't appear to crash.

Of note, I'm not using any mods.

- Verified game files.
- Restarted my computer.
- Uninstalled and reinstalled the game.
- Un/reinstalled on a different drive.
- Ensured all updates were applied.
- Ensured my video driver was updated.
- Ran directly instead of through Steam.
- Ran as admin.
- Attempted a safe startup of the game.
- Attempted to re-run the config for the game.
- Reinstalled Steam.

- Full run of DISM and SFC.
- Nothing of interest in Event Viewer.

- Other games, _including DBQ2_, load without issue.

Everything I've found so far discusses issues at the beginning of the game's life on Steam dealing with outdated drivers. I was 30+ hours in without issue when this happened. Similarly for trying to search here on Steam.

Does anyone have any links or recommendations on what additional steps could be tried to get the game working again?

Other games, _including DQB2_, load without issue and are playable.

Edit :: I finally got the game running again. ...by creating a new Windows profile and trying from there. So apparently something got borked with my Windows profile.

I installed the game to a directory both profiles could reach and confirmed it worked on the new profile, but when I went back to the original profile, the loading issues occurred again. With this done, I went through and purged all registry keys related to the game and all related files for the game (using Agent Ransack to find every last thing I could with it).

After doing this and restarting my computer again, I reinstalled the game once more. However, it still fails to load on the original profile, and has no issues with the new profile.

At this point, it's clearly an issue with something on my Windows profile. I'll poke around and see what I can find with it and, if I find a fix, I'll update this post. Until then, the game is playable on the new Windows profile. Since other games work without issue on the original, I can use the new profile for the time left in DQB1, then purge the profile (or perhaps keep it for future safety). If no further updates are here, then I never found a fix on the original profile.

Newest Edit :: I was able to recover everything. I deleted all of my saves (well, I copied them to a backup folder before deleting them), then started the game to force Steam to download all save data from the Steam Cloud. After doing so, the game started up normally again. In hindsight, this should have been something I tried very early on, considering it happened after the game crashed during a save. I'll also be adding this to be beginning of this now-overly-long post for ease of finding it.