I have the same issue. I hope the upcoming Duckstation psx emulator will not have this problem.

I follow a suggestion from the above URL (https://github.com/libretro/pcsx_rearmed/issues/41#issuecomment-235270798) that dankcushions post, and the game doesn't freeze now !

I had to set psx cpu to 72
pcsx_rearmed_psxclock = "72"

@zenamistress Please mind the language, we're trying to keep this forum an all ages place. Also, don't resurrect old posts - this is 3 years old post, a lot of things changed since then.