Completion with just a pistol? PE1

Hi all!

I live in a PAL region and managed to get myself an American copy of Parasite Eve, which I am playing by using FreePSXBoot.

However the game freezes if I change my gun or armour in combat, which is very annoying!

So is it easy enough to beat the game by just using 1 gun? I have mostly been using a Pistol anyway. I am currently on day 5 but haven't played for a while after I died fighting that monster that split into 4 parts in the subway.

Any help is appreciated, especially if anyone else has come across this freezing issue.