MediEvil Resurrection dragon armor attack doesn't work / doesn't produce flames

[NABN00B]

Game or games this happens in

MediEvil Resurrection
UCUS98620_1.00
UCES00006_1.03

What area of the game / PPSSPP

Attacking with the Dragon Armor equipped is supposed to make you breathe fire. The fire doesn't render the vast majority of the time. Sometimes it works after just loading into a level but breaks after a couple of seconds.

Happens on every backend and software renderer too.

Repro:
Load a save file (attached in logs), select a level, equip Dragon Armor (press select -> 3rd row -> second to last item) and press X or square to attack.

What should happen

https://youtu.be/flNpsZgZHZo?feature=shared&t=15

Logs

UCUS98620_0001.zip

Save:
UCUS98620000.zip

Platform

Windows

Mobile device model or graphics card (GPU)

Vendor: NVIDIA VendorString: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Driver: 561.9.0.0

PPSSPP version affected

v1.14.4 release, v1.18.1 release, v1.18.1-1792

Last working version

No response

Graphics backend (3D API)

Other

Checklist

• Test in the latest git build in case it's already fixed.
• Search for other reports of the same issue.
• Try resetting settings or older versions and include if the issue is related.
• Try without any cheats and without loading any save states.
• Include logs or screenshots of issue.

[NABN00B]

I've done a bit more testing and I can't even damage enemies with this attack. Looks like the game doesn't produce the flames to begin with.

Changing IO timing method to UMD read delays didn't help.
Existing framerate and timing hacks don't help either.
However, underclocking the CPU (set to 100) does work.

Seems to be a timing issue or a game bug.

It happens in all 4 game versions.

EDIT: it also happens int he PS4/5 re-release according to posts here https://forum.psnprofiles.com/topic/170393-playstation-classics-issues/page/15/

[hrydgard]

Then it's a bug in the game that happens to work due to some timing being different on hardware. These are some of the hardest issues to fix properly :/ Underclocking is not ideal, but I guess workable if the game still runs fast enough...

[NABN00B]

At least PSN eboots are identical to their UMD counterpart so there's only 2 game versions to worry about. 😄