Blazing Sword Save File Deleted?

[PersonWithTime]

Hey y'all! So, I believe the topic title says it all, but I'll elaborate here.

So I bought an actual GBA cartridge of Blazing Sword and I lent it to my friend months ago and he's been playing it regularly and he'd come over and I'd watch him play it, and all that jazz. But everything was fine until a few days ago, he came over and all of the save files were deleted. He played the game that same day with the files intact but just in the span of a few hours all three save files were gone.

Thankfully I didn't have any personal save files on it, and he was three chapters away from the final chapter, and I still had my save of the final chapter on the Wii U virtual console, so I showed him some cutscenes online had him play the final chapter, THANK GOD! Cause that way was better then things being anti-climactic.

But I was really wondering what could have done that and if anyone else had any experiences like that in any of their FE GBA games?

I looked a little online and I think the obvious answer would be the battery, but I thought Nintendo fixed that problem with the GBA. My Pokemon Sapphire and Emerald both had their batteries run dry and they can still save (they can't tell time but that's... that's another topic). Also the support log in my Blazing Sword is still intact. It even kept the supports that my friend got on his play through.

So that's everything I got to say! Looking forward to what people have to say... that is... if people see this... THANKS!

[Alex95]

Battery could be an issue. Our Pokemon games have had their batteries fail, we still need to replace the one on Emerald...

Another reason could be removing the cart or turning off the power WHILE it was saving. I did that on my Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga cart and I lost all the data. Was at Joke's End, the second to last area of the game...

(It was also a bootleg, so you might want to check the legitimacy of your cart as well.)

[yokokazuo]

Does it still save? My files got erased on mine, but I think the cartridge had gotten damaged or something. It also won't save at all now (when you choose save it does the action, but still shows an empty file)

Edit: never mind, on mine everything is lost including supports

I feel like I have had a time where my save data got corrupted on other GBA games though. I think they worked fine again, but I may have had to start over again.

Before starting a new file though, I would try removing the game card and putting it back in/turning the GBA on and off a few times to see if they are back. If not though then I think hey may be lost for good.

Oh I just remembered that Sacred Stones save data had gotten erased once, but only on one file since my battery died right when I was saving...

Edited November 27, 2016 by yokokazuo

[Zelgius]

I've had this happen to me with both Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones when my battery dies during the auto-save after a unit action.

[PersonWithTime]

Another reason could be removing the cart or turning off the power WHILE it was saving. I did that on my Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga cart and I lost all the data. Was at Joke's End, the second to last area of the game...

(It was also a bootleg, so you might want to check the legitimacy of your cart as well.)

My friend turned it off when Canas died, I wasn't there so maybe he did that while it was saving?

I'm not too sure... but I'm like 99% percent sure it's legit. I um... I do have Binding Blade and Mother 3 reproduction cartridges... as well as a bootleg Leafgreen and I know it doesn't feel the same way those cartidges feel. Plus I bought my Rekka no Ken with the original box, and it came with the instruction booklet and an advertisement for the gameboy player. I'd have to be one elaborate fake.

Before starting a new file though, I would try removing the game card and putting it back in/turning the GBA on and off a few times to see if they are back. If not though then I think hey may be lost for good.

Yeah, I tried doing that a few times. The weirdest part was that the first time I saw the that the save files were gone so was the extras menu. But the 2nd time I started it up the extras menu was back and it's stayed since then.

I've had this happen to me with both Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones when my battery dies during the auto-save after a unit action.

Oh boy, all I know personally is that my friend turned it off when Canas died, because he refused to let Canas die. Could the timing in that situation have deleted the files?

[Alex95]

IIRC the game autosaves when a unit dies, but I've restarted several times when someone dies and I've never experienced a lost of data. Then again, it's possible.

[PersonWithTime]

IIRC the game autosaves when a unit dies, but I've restarted several times when someone dies and I've never experienced a lost of data. Then again, it's possible.

I know! I personally do that all the time and it didn't happen to me. I also have a legit Binding Blade copy and holy damn people love dying in that game, but nothing has gotten deleted there.

But here's some more weirdness!

I checked the sound room and only 10% of it has been completed, also there's only pictures from Lyn's story. Why is this so weird? Because the mode selection screen is still active! I can play Hector's story on hard if I wanted too, but there's no pictures of anyone's story besides Lyn's in the sound room.

[Balcerzak]

This happened to me once. All save data was wiped, but the cartridge could make new saves just fine. I don't remember what had caused it. IIRC I'd turned it off without saving, letting the autosave feature do its work, after arriving somewhere by bus and needing to depart. When I turned it back on, everything had been cleared out. I think it's just something that has a rare chance of occurring on old cartridges.

[wheelsonfire]

Happened to me several times… Never knew what caused it, and strangely never had this problem on my other GBA cartridges…

[Harvey]

This is normally a trend for GBA games and it doesn't last very long. A lot of my GBA games no matter how many times you save them they all get their data erased the minute its turned off. The only few games that still have their data are my Pokemon Emerald and Sapphire because even if the battery is dead, surprisingly the save file is there... Then I have DK King of Swing which still has the data along with Super Star Saga.

Funny because I just bought a used copy of Blazing Sword and while it did have some saves as soon as I checked, I deleted them all and I've yet to test whether it actually works or not. If it doesn't, I'll most likely emulate it since...well, I own the game copy legally.

But thank god this issue is fixed in the DS line onwards with them having flash memory carts...granted its not exactly as strong as an SD card and all but the amount of times you save is in 1000 which is a lot!

Edited November 29, 2016 by Harvey

[PersonWithTime]

This happened to me once. All save data was wiped, but the cartridge could make new saves just fine. I don't remember what had caused it. IIRC I'd turned it off without saving, letting the autosave feature do its work, after arriving somewhere by bus and needing to depart. When I turned it back on, everything had been cleared out. I think it's just something that has a rare chance of occurring on old cartridges.

That sucks. I hope it's a rare chance because I don't want it happening again. I may try and buy another used copy of Blazing Sword and see if that one's okay. I mostly bought this copy for the box and the inserts.

Happened to me several times… Never knew what caused it, and strangely never had this problem on my other GBA cartridges…

I hope it's just an isolated case to this GBA game.

This is normally a trend for GBA games and it doesn't last very long. A lot of my GBA games no matter how many times you save them they all get their data erased the minute its turned off. The only few games that still have their data are my Pokemon Emerald and Sapphire because even if the battery is dead, surprisingly the save file is there... Then I have DK King of Swing which still has the data along with Super Star Saga.

Funny because I just bought a used copy of Blazing Sword and while it did have some saves as soon as I checked, I deleted them all and I've yet to test whether it actually works or not. If it doesn't, I'll most likely emulate it since...well, I own the game copy legally.

But thank god this issue is fixed in the DS line onwards with them having flash memory carts...granted its not exactly as strong as an SD card and all but the amount of times you save is in 1000 which is a lot!

Yeah, it doesn't really help that I barley have any GBA games that aren't Pokemon.

And I really only have Sonic Advance 2, which I haven't played yet because I need to play 1. I have WarioWare and WW:Twisted, both of which still have save files, as well as Minish Cap, which I haven't played in years but my save file from years back is still there. I really need to replay Minish Cap someday soon.

But yeah, I have a copy on the Wii U virtual console, but I prefer to play games on the consoles they were made for, it's a quirk of mine. Plus I want the damn silver card on normal mode. I didn't buy Mario Kart: Double Dash with the bonus disc for nothing!