Wii role-playing game Pandora’s Tower was released a couple days ago, on April 16th, in North America. The North American copy of the game apparently has a game-freezing bug, which, if encountered, forces players to shut down their Wii consoles. Courtesy of Destructoid, below you’ll find an explanation of the bug and what you can do to avoid it.

The Bug:

After Tower 13 opens, you’ll be unable to return to Towers 11 or 12. When you choose either level from the stage select menu, the game will lock up at the loading screen and you will have to hold the power button on the console to force shutdown. The game will also freeze if you try to enter 11 or 12 from the side doors at the base of Tower 13 rather than from the stage select menu.

The Solution:

The game will refuse to load Towers 11 or 12 until you visit Tower 13 at least once, but as I said above, simply entering 11 or 12 via the Tower 13 base is not enough. You have to step through one of the doors leading to the Tower 13 outer wall staircase first; once outside, you can use the Shard of Divinity item to teleport back to the Observatory. Now you should be able to enter 11 or 12 from the stage select menu without locking the game.

To confirm if your visit to Tower 13 was registered, highlight its entry on the stage select menu. If a preview image of the Tower 13 environment appears, it means you’ve been there at least once. Conversely, if no preview image appears, it means you have not.

Again, here are the steps:

Choose Tower 13 from the stage select menu. Enter one of the doors leading to the Tower 13 outer wall staircase. Use a Shard of Divinity to teleport back to the Observatory. Towers 11 and 12 should be accessible from the stage select menu now.

There may be other methods, though I haven’t tested anything else yet. One other possible method is stepping out to the outer wall, going back inside via the same door, then trying to open either side door leading to 12 or 13. This alternative would be useful if you don’t have a Shard of Divinity in your inventory, but again, I’ve yet to confirm its effectiveness.

Once you’ve visited Tower 13, you can enter 12 or 13 at your leisure. However, should you have completed the game once already and chosen to reload a past chapter instead of reloading from a save point, you’ll have to repeat these steps.