Red_Frog: Also, keep in mind the game can use a staggering amount of RAM. At the title screen, it's Working Set is nearly 1.8GB.

Red_Frog: I don't know if you've solved this yet, but make sure you give it a good while to start. Especially if the process appears to still be crunching numbers and not completely frozen.

I knew from previous plays that the game can take a while, I just timed it with my stopwatch and it took approximately 1:57 before the game finally popped up on first load. For reference, that was with a Phenom 2 throttled to an idle 800MHz.

If the game isn't going to start, there's a good chance it will terminate on its own like it does with one of my notebooks (which I'm sure the failure to ultimately run is due to the elderly video card, ATi Mobility M1, or simply a lack of RAM).

Also, keep in mind the game can use a staggering amount of RAM. At the title screen, it's Working Set is nearly 1.8GB. Your 32 bit system may be starved somewhat and doing some extra thrashing on your Virtual Memory.

I would say, so long as the process remains active and your drive is seeing activity, let it continue while you do other things. It may likely take quite a few minutes to load.

Red_Frog: That could certainly be frustrating. Especially considering the game is pretty good, one of the best Metroidvanias I've played.

Looking on the bright side though, I think the game is still in active development (with another two characters to be released, actually). I don't know what limitations they may have with their engine, but perhaps they'll improve loading in new patches. If you do discover that the game does start after a long while, you might also consider bringing that up with the developers to see if their engine could allow them to improve the initial startup and load in assets as required.