I cannot launch NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION Sphere of Influence

[siribump]

I try to launch NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION Sphere of Influence but the game cannot play. I try to fix it for more solution but it's not work. Could anyone help me please.

[tvance52]

When you try to the play the game through Steam you should get a small game launcher menu screen.

It should have a list of options to the right of a small picture of the game's box art:

- Play Game
- Read me
- Portrait Editor
- Settings
- Manual

I assume this is not coming up when you try and start the game? Or do you get the game launcher and select "Play Game" and then nothing?

Knowing at what point the game is failing may give some ideas on what is going on. Let me know if you get the small game launcher screen or not.

Also, here is a thread from 2015 about having trouble launching the game. There is a high probability that this may be your problem, check if you have DirectX 9c:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/392470/discussions/0/520518053454047729/#c520518053454122857

It mentions in that thread that trying to launch from your Steam installation folder using the actual game .exe file. For me, my installation folder is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION Sphere of Influence

You want to use the "NOBU14PK", which should be listed as an "Application" or shown as an .exe file. The poster in the linked thread said this gave them an error message that helped them understand what the cause was. Maybe this will do the same for you by showing an error message but I do not know, I am only repeating what was said in that thread.

Note: I do not know if the link to MicroSoft's website in the thread above is to the correct version Direct X or not. Maybe that is to the latest version of DirectX, I do not know as I did not check. But as others mention in that thread, the correct version of DirectX should be part of the game files and maybe there was a problem during installation.

So, you could uninstall the game and then reinstall it. If that does not work, use Steam to check the file integrity. And if neither of those work you can try and download and install DirectX 9c version yourself.

(To verify the integrity of the game files, right click on the game in your Steam Library, select "Properties" and then "Local Files" and there should be a "Verify integrity of game files" option.)

After installing the version of DirectX that NA:SOI needs you may need to restart your computer for it to take effect. At least one of the posters in the thread said that, so you may need to reboot your computer after installing DirectX 9c.

Most computers are running more updated versions of DirectX, so it may be a matter of not having the older version that NA:SOI was built to use.

So, if this does not work then please post again and let us know what steps you are taking when launching the game and what you see, if anything. Especially if the small game launcher is appearing or not.

Knowing at what point the game is failing may give some ideas on what is going on.

[Jasmine005]

Originally posted by tvance52:

When you try to the play the game through Steam you should get a small game launcher menu screen.

It should have a list of options to the right of a small picture of the game's box art:

- Play Game
- Read me
- Portrait Editor
- Settings
- Manual

I assume this is not coming up when you try and start the game? Or do you get the game launcher and select "Play Game" and then nothing?

Knowing at what point the game is failing may give some ideas on what is going on. Let me know if you get the small game launcher screen or not.

Also, here is a thread from 2015 about having trouble launching the game. There is a high probability that this may be your problem, check if you have DirectX 9c:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/392470/discussions/0/520518053454047729/#c520518053454122857

It mentions in that thread that trying to launch from your Steam installation folder using the actual game .exe file. For me, my installation folder is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION Sphere of Influence

You want to use the "NOBU14PK", which should be listed as an "Application" or shown as an .exe file. The poster in the linked thread said this gave them an error message that helped them understand what the cause was. Maybe this will do the same for you by showing an error message but I do not know, I am only repeating what was said in that thread.

Note: I do not know if the link to MicroSoft's website in the thread above is to the correct version Direct X or not. Maybe that is to the latest version of DirectX, I do not know as I did not check. But as others mention in that thread, the correct version of DirectX should be part of the game files and maybe there was a problem during installation.

So, you could uninstall the game and then reinstall it. If that does not work, use Steam to check the file integrity. And if neither of those work you can try and download and install DirectX 9c version yourself.

(To verify the integrity of the game files, right click on the game in your Steam Library, select "Properties" and then "Local Files" and there should be a "Verify integrity of game files" option.)

After installing the version of DirectX that NA:SOI needs you may need to restart your computer for it to take effect. At least one of the posters in the thread said that, so you may need to reboot your computer after installing DirectX 9c.

Most computers are running more updated versions of DirectX, so it may be a matter of not having the older version that NA:SOI was built to use.

So, if this does not work then please post again and let us know what steps you are taking when launching the game and what you see, if anything. Especially if the small game launcher is appearing or not.

Knowing at what point the game is failing may give some ideas on what is going on.

Hello I'm having this issue now as well. It's been awhile since I played this game so I just wanted to come back to it but it won't play. all that happens is the Steam syncro start up appears then vanishes and thats it. the game start up menu never appears. I've verified the files and reinstalled the game. now i've downloaded some dirextx9c thing from mircrosoft and it just dumped a ♥♥♥♥ ton of files on my computer in my temp folder. it seems to range from 2005_d3dx9 to 2010 d3dx9 cabinet files and the game still won't play. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[tvance52]

A couple ideas, I have no idea if any of these will work:

1) did you try running the game using the .exe file in the installation folder? I mention above that some users said they get an error message showing why the game won't launch. Maybe that will give a hint what the problem is?

2) A few people have said the game would not launch after download but then worked fine after restarting their computer. I am not sure why that would be the case, and you probably have restarted your computer at some point after your most recent installation, but that's a simple thing you may try if you haven't.

3) If the game will not launch at all, then it is possible your anti-virus and/or security programs are blocking access to the files. This happens sometimes with games when an anti-virus program doesn't recognize the files, and becomes somewhat more common the older a game gets. If this is the case you can try two things:

- Run the game as an administrator
- Add the game's installation folder as an exception in your anti-virus/security program

- Running the game as an administrator:

Go into the installation folder. Fastest way is to right click on the game in your Steam Library and select "browse local files". Then right click either the "N14PKLauncher.exe" or the "NOBU14PK.exe" (both will be listed as "applications" depending on how you have your view settings). You can click "Run as Administrator" and see if that works.

- Anti-virus and Security exception:

Another option could be adding an exception to your security programs, since the game won't launch it's possible they are blocking access to some of the files. You can do this by (using my WIN10 computer settings since they're what I can see to walk you through):

a) go into your computer's "Settings", which should be an option on your Start menu at the very bottom left of your toolbar/taskbar at the bottom of your screen (unless you set it at the top or side).

b) select "Update & Security"

c) click "Windows Security" on the left side menu and then "Open Windows Security" at the top on the options

d) select "Virus & Threat Protection"

e) down to "Virus & Threat Protection Settings" and select "manage settings"

f) go down to "Exclusions" and select "Add or remove exclusions"

g) click "Add an exclusion" and select "folder" on the drop down menu.

h) find your NA:SOI installation folder and select that to exclude it from your Windows Security program. Should be the folder in your Steam folders, obviously, I listed by file location in the previous post I made in this thread.

There are tons of different anti-virus programs, so I can't do a step-by-step for all the different ways they may handle exclusions. So for those, any other anti-virus or security program you'll have to figure that out.

[Jasmine005]

Originally posted by tvance52:

A couple ideas, I have no idea if any of these will work:

1) did you try running the game using the .exe file in the installation folder? I mention above that some users said they get an error message showing why the game won't launch. Maybe that will give a hint what the problem is?

2) A few people have said the game would not launch after download but then worked fine after restarting their computer. I am not sure why that would be the case, and you probably have restarted your computer at some point after your most recent installation, but that's a simple thing you may try if you haven't.

3) If the game will not launch at all, then it is possible your anti-virus and/or security programs are blocking access to the files. This happens sometimes with games when an anti-virus program doesn't recognize the files, and becomes somewhat more common the older a game gets. If this is the case you can try two things:

- Run the game as an administrator
- Add the game's installation folder as an exception in your anti-virus/security program

- Running the game as an administrator:

Go into the installation folder. Fastest way is to right click on the game in your Steam Library and select "browse local files". Then right click either the "N14PKLauncher.exe" or the "NOBU14PK.exe" (both will be listed as "applications" depending on how you have your view settings). You can click "Run as Administrator" and see if that works.

- Anti-virus and Security exception:

Another option could be adding an exception to your security programs, since the game won't launch it's possible they are blocking access to some of the files. You can do this by (using my WIN10 computer settings since they're what I can see to walk you through):

a) go into your computer's "Settings", which should be an option on your Start menu at the very bottom left of your toolbar/taskbar at the bottom of your screen (unless you set it at the top or side).

b) select "Update & Security"

c) click "Windows Security" on the left side menu and then "Open Windows Security" at the top on the options

d) select "Virus & Threat Protection"

e) down to "Virus & Threat Protection Settings" and select "manage settings"

f) go down to "Exclusions" and select "Add or remove exclusions"

g) click "Add an exclusion" and select "folder" on the drop down menu.

h) find your NA:SOI installation folder and select that to exclude it from your Windows Security program. Should be the folder in your Steam folders, obviously, I listed by file location in the previous post I made in this thread.

There are tons of different anti-virus programs, so I can't do a step-by-step for all the different ways they may handle exclusions. So for those, any other anti-virus or security program you'll have to figure that out.

Hello thank you for the quick response I have sone everything you have suggested and the game still will not play, all steam does is the cloud sync.

I've verified files, restarted computer, excluded for anti virus programs, ran everything as administrator. I don't know what else to do, this has gotten to be just as bad as Tales of Symphonia, which is giving me exactly the same problem.

[tvance52]

wish I could help but I don't have any further ideas.

No error message on trying to start through the .exe file? If not, I assume that means there are no missing or outdated files related to NA:SOI.

The problem doesn't seem related directly to the game, however, if this are other games you experiencing this. That is, something in your computer settings, files, programs (or missing ones) is likely the culprit if it is happening on more than one game. I really have no idea of the source, however, as a ton of different things could cause a game not to launch.

You might try mentioning this on the Tales discussion board. Maybe someone there has an idea on solutions. Whatever is causing the problem is likely causing it for both games.

Again, wish I had something else for you but I don't know what else to try...