The game was provided by SEGA for review. Thank you!
Ever since seeing Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles 2 at Summer Game Fest in June, I was completely turned onto the series. I had always wanted to watch the anime, but I was convinced to get into it as soon as possible, thanks to my short experience there. I was so convinced that I wanted to experience the story from the beginning, so I played the first game before diving into this one to get the full game-side story before this one and see how the gameplay has improved. After playing it, I can confidently say that there have been many fantastic improvements over the last game, and it solves a lot of the issues I had before.
Most of the changes I loved come in the form of quality-of-life improvements, and general gameplay remained the same. Like the previous game, the story is on a linear path, consisting of 3D cutscenes, fights, boss battles, and 2D cutscenes that provide exposition and extra information for everything happening in the story.
The sequel picks up right after where the last one ended, taking place from the Entertainment District story arc and ending after the Hashira Training arc. Further following Tanjiro Kamari’s story, we get to see him face off against more demons and continually grow to master the Hinokami Kagura and get closer to defeating the demon lord: Muzan Kibutsuji.
The story mode is pretty linear, going from cutscene to combat to cutscene, but it’s very entertaining to see play out. As someone who hasn’t watched the anime, I was captivated by the way the story was told, and I love the extra exposition cutscenes that can be found to pad out some of the events I want a little more information about. I’m purposely being vague here so I don’t spoil the story for anyone who doesn’t know the story yet, but I was not disappointed.
One thing CyberConnect2 showed with the previous game was their successful balancing and translation of drama and humor, and that’s on full display again. If anything, I’d say this game has even more humorous moments that made me crack up, and it never felt out of place. Seeing Inosuke’s muscular mice bringing him his sword in the Entertainment District had me audibly laughing just seeing how ridiculous they are.
In between battles and cutscenes, there will be small areas where we can freely run around and explore. This was in the previous game as well, but Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles 2 fixes a major problem that made these moments a chore. Now, we can run and jump around, allowing us to traverse faster and interact with the areas more. With the areas being littered with collectibles and side quests that consist of one-off battles or fetch-quests, I had a much better time going through and getting everything that these areas had to offer.
And those challenging boss battles return in full force, which I had a blast playing through. The bosses offer unique challenges thanks to their AoE attacks, and it was a blast to watch the quick time events unfold to see how our slayer was able to destroy the demon. Dashing away from these attacks is still obnoxious, like in the previous game, but it didn't change how much I enjoyed the fights.
Combat remains largely unchanged as well, and if you have played the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, this will be very familiar. You run around a 3D arena, jumping, dodging, blocking, and attacking your enemy. We have our basic attack, which can be modified based on the direction we hold our joystick, heavy attack, and an assortment of skills to use. We can also bring another fighter with us to swap out or call upon to use their skills to help us.
It’s as flashy as ever, using the gorgeous cel-shaded art style that accentuates their anime/manga roots. The awesome combo system returns to give us a chance to combine skills and regular attacks to create these great combos without it feeling unfair, while the Surge system also returns to help us turn the tide by boosting our attack if the bar is filled enough.
Ultimate Arts are also here again, giving us some great cinematic attacks that deal massive damage. They are a joy to watch unfold, and with this game, we have Dual Ultimates to utilize. If we have specific support partners, and our Surge bar is filled high enough, we can trigger an ultimate, cinematic attack that has both of them work together to destroy our foe. It’s arguably more flashy to watch unfold, and with each Demon Slayer fighter having at least one other person they can dual ultimate with, it’s a welcome addition.
However, dodging is still a sore spot for me. Dashing to the side or backwards is how we can dodge attacks, but the distance it covers is still a little too short to dodge attacks. This mostly affects bosses with AoE attacks, but I still found it hurting me in regular fights. We can also block as an alternative, but I tend to prefer dodging and attacking.
One of the other issues I had with the previous game is its replayability. Outside of the story, there wasn't much to do. Luckily, that isn't a problem here. Outside of the story and collectibles, there are different game modes to enjoy. We have offline and online versus matches with over 48 characters to choose from, as well as The Path of a Demon Slayer and Training Paths. The former allows us to play through some of the battles from the previous game with a cutscene to explain it, while Training Paths is a new roguelike-esque mode.
The Path of a Demon Slayer is a nice touch, but playing through the story more intimately than in the last game was more enjoyable. Still, I appreciate an option for those who want to experience the story before. The Training Paths are a nice touch as well, allowing us to face off against multiple enemies as we get to the final fight. It is laid out like a grid where we choose where to go next, and if we beat the enemy and complete an optional objective, we will get a usable boost to augment our fighter. We can fight against each of the 9 Hashira, all with three different difficulties. We can also get some prizes from the grid, which includes new Slayer ID customization options and more.
On top of that, each character has their own Mastery level, which goes up the more you use them to unlock new titles, profile photos, and costumes. The Kimetsu Point Shop makes a return as well. We get points as we fight, and use them to unlock new characters, costumes, voices, quotes, stamps, and more Slayer ID customization options. Most of the characters and costumes can also be unlocked through the main story, but it's nice to have another option.
We also have Gears, which allow us to augment our fighters a bit more. You can get gear as you play the Story or buy it from the Kimetsu Point Shop, which provides different effects. Most of them need to meet some requirements to activate during battle. They can range from increasing your attack power to increasing how fast your skill gauge replenishes. We have three slots for gears and three different loadouts to fill out. It's a nice feature to have, and some gears don't do as much as I would like, but with the right gear, it can be very useful and enjoyable to play around with.
Overall, the variety is nice. As much as I enjoyed the story, which I did a lot, I enjoy the new modes and playing around with the Gear system. The Mastery levels are a nice touch as well, especially to get those extra costumes. I definitely felt compelled to come back and play more even after the story was completed.
This is definitely an improvement over the previous game, and I loved playing it. It also plays really well on the Steam Deck, and to my surprise, better than the last game.
As for playability on the Steam Deck, it's fantastic. As I mentioned above, Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles 2 plays significantly better than the previous game, easily hitting 60 FPS consistently. There were some boss fights that caused it to go down during certain attacks, but it primarily stuck to 60 and stayed stable even in the areas where we can freely walk around. The battery drain ranged from 14W - 19W.
The game actually runs at 60 FPS on the Max settings, and there's very little visual or battery drain change when going to the lowest. Along with not having any settings to change the framerate, the Max settings at 60 FPS are going to be the best way to play. We can't cap the framerate through SteamOS since it will slow the entire game down to a crawl, but it plays wonderfully without needing to do so. There will just be almost no way to lower battery drain, but in the end, it's still playable.
There are some slight slowdowns at max settings in some of the group battles where you face 50+ demons, but these are far and few and I powered through it. Changing to the High quality preset.
The pop-up tutorials are with keyboard and mouse glyphs, but the actual legends in-game are correct gamepad icons. Also, pressing the "Steam" button and going back into the game minimizes the screen and makes it unplayable, so doing that will force you to close the game completely and reopen it.
The game allows us to customize the HUD, camera controls, subtitles, region, sensitivity, audio settings, and controller button type.
It doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is a fantastic improvement over the previous game. The story is exciting, the combat is flashy, the cel-shaded visuals are gorgeous, and the new game modes and features add a great amount of replayability. The dash is still a short distance, but the quality of life changes to free-roam areas make the story significantly more enjoyable.
To my surprise, it's also more playable on the Steam Deck than the previous game. It hits 60 FPS at max settings, and while it has some minor slowdowns in the story, it's not nearly enough to stop my enjoyment of the experience. This is a great step up from the previous game, and I highly recommend it.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is a fantastic step up from its predecessor, fixing almost all the issues I had from before and runs better on the Steam Deck.
The game was provided by SEGA for review. Thank you!
Over the last few years, there have been plenty of anime that have come in and out of my life. One such anime that hasn't, even though I have been interested, is Demon Slayer. I have seen its gorgeous art style and animation, and the story sounds quite interesting. When I was at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, I had the pleasure of trying the second game in the Demon Slayer video game series, and though I hadn't played the first yet, it convinced me to not only start watching the series, but go back and play the original game to be ready for the sequel.
So, I went into it. I had the chance to play Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles and experience the beginning of the story. For the most part, it doesn't disappoint, but some quality of life improvements and a little more to do outside of the story could have elevated it to an even better experience that could have been on par with other fighters.
Before I go into my thoughts on the game, I want to mention again that I have not seen the anime or read the manga. The game's story may be missing some more details that are in the anime or manga. So, I am coming in as a newcomer to the Demon Slayer series.
Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles was developed by CyberConnect2, and if you have played the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, the gameplay and story mode will feel very familiar. It almost all clicked as I went into my first fight, even with some of the minor changes to combat overall, and how the story mode is structured. As someone who loves the Ultimate Ninja Storm games, this was a nice return to the mechanics I have come to know and love, but it also brought with it some of the elements I didn't enjoy.
Starting with the story mode, it follows the beginning of the story through the Mugen Train arc, following Tanjiro Kamado's story becoming a Demon Slayer and seeing him start to grow as a fighter. I won't go too much into detail about the specifics, but the story is primarily told in 3D cutscenes, fights, and some exploration. There are also some 2D cutscenes that give a little more exposition to the story than what we experience in the main sections.
I would say, coming from an outside perspective, the story is told nicely. I understood what was going on, and the exposition pieces I found filled in the gaps. It did a great job of making me want to see more, to experience what would come next. The story mode doesn't take long to get through, but the time I spent with it made me keep going and play almost completely without breaks. It also balances some very humorous moments well without detracting from the overarching story. Zenitsu's actions were constantly making me crack up, and that moment where Tanjiro made that disgusted face when stopping Zenitsu from trying to get some random girl to marry him was priceless.
We also have the return of boss battles that have Quick Time Events (QTE) at the end of them. The bosses were generally harder and included their own mechanics that change up the usual normal pace of combat. At the end, we would sometimes get those QTEs where we got to press buttons while our character went in for an epic finisher move. I have always loved these in CyberConnect2's other games, and that feeling carries over here as well.
The biggest issue I have with the story mode is the parts that require running around a closed-off area. Instead of going into back-to-back fights with cutscenes, there will be areas we can freely run around in and find collectibles. These moments were a chore. I don't mind finding collectibles, and this is how we unlocked more exposition pieces, but the areas were too large, and walking around took too long. There was no way to run or jump or interact with the world much. It felt like boring padding, and I would have preferred back-to-back cutscenes and fights over having to run around. It was enough to make me pause for a moment and take breaks, just because getting from point A to point B and collecting everything took so much longer than it should have.
Thankfully, the actual combat, which is the primary gameplay, is as great as I remember. Like the Ultimate Ninja Storm games, we are on a 3D battlefield in a decently sized circular stadium. We can run around freely, while keeping locked onto our enemy, while jumping and dodging as we please. We have a basic attack, which can be comboed and changed a bit depending on whether we hold the joystick up or down, heavy attacks, and skills to utilize.
Demon Slayer's gameplay is a bit basic and can amount to button-mashing at times, but the flashiness is what keeps me coming back for more. The satisfaction of every hit landing, the sparks flying, and the gorgeous cel-shaded effects of skills are as glorious as ever. I enjoy having multiple different skills to use and can just be done with the press of a button. They have their own resource bar that they use, which replenishes over time, and there are three we can use at any given time, depending on the direction we are pressing or if we are in the air.
Each of the 24 characters also has their own ultimate attacks and surges. The Surge bar has multiple levels, and using it at different times has different effects. At level 1, we get a Boost, which refills some of our bars, while waiting until level 2 gets us a Surge, which enhances all of our stats, and we can use skills freely without the bar going down. We can use it for ultimate attacks, or Ultimate Arts, as well, which are cinematic attacks that deal lots of damage. We can also bring in a partner and call upon them to help us out or swap between them mid-battle.
I also want to commend CyberConnect2 for both the variety of Ultimate Arts and the combo system. There are different variations of some of the characters that have their own unique attacks, which I appreciate a lot. I also enjoy the combo system, and it feels like I can chain together attacks and skills to create engaging combos. There is a time limit, which makes sense, but I was able to pull off some satisfying combos like my basic that hits them into the air, then I smack them down, use a skill, and then pull off a basic combo one more time.
However, flashiness wasn't enough to ease over some of the issues that arose. While we can dash into enemies if we are further away, our side-dash, which acts as a dodge, has such a short distance that it was almost useless. This was primarily an issue during boss fights in the story mode that had AoE attacks. There were more times I just couldn't dodge over times where I was able to get away, and it was frustrating. This does happen in regular battles as well, though not as often. Either way, it was aggravating.
Outside of the story mode, we have our general Vs. mode for online, offline, and practice fights, and a Training mode. With the game getting a sequel, finding a good number of fighters online will be more difficult. Offline and practice are nice as well, and the Training mode adds a nice variety with extra fights with their own unique objectives, but it all feels a bit off, knowing the next game, which sounds like it will enhance the gameplay with new features like Dual Ultimate, a Gear System, Training Paths, and Masteries, it's hard to justify spending more time here.
As we play, we get Kimetsu Points that can be used to unlock characters, stages, voices, and more. Most of the characters and stages can be earned through playing the story, but it's a nice option to have to unlock the other characters and stages if we don't want to.
The reason I would recommend getting this is mainly to experience the beginning of the Demon Slayer story. It looks like the second game will have a way to relive/review the previous story by allowing us to fight certain battles, but experiencing the entirety of the chapter in its glory is its own experience.
Overall, Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles is quite playable on the Steam Deck, and the default settings are generally the best way to play. We are locked at 30 FPS, but on mostly high quality settings. This keeps battery drain relatively low throughout the entire game, sticking below 13W generally. Some parts of the story do cause higher battery drain, like running around the areas freely and some boss battles with larger AoE attacks, but it will stay stable.
Trying to play at 60 FPS at these settings does work, and most regular fights will stick to this framerate nicely, but the areas running around and boss battles will drop with large battery drain. We can lower the settings to help, but we would need to go to almost the lowest and it makes the game look way too sharp. Even on the lowest settings, I saw slowdowns at 60 FPS on the character selection menu, but the actual fighting was at a stable 60 in regular fights.
Still, even though it's possible, I preferred playing at 30 FPS on higher settings. Battery drain was lower, framerate was consistent throughout the entire story, and it looks much better. It may be a slight sacrifice, but being able to experience the beginning of the Demon Slayer story on the go is wonderful.
I did notice the tutorial images show keyboard and mouse icons instead of controller, which feels weird, but the rest of the in-game legends show the correct icons.
We can change whether our camera is inverted and modify speed, change some of the HUD, voice language between English and Japanese, turn the volume up or down, and change keybindings.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles is another great showing from CyberConnect2, with some minor issues that tear me away. Experiencing the beginning of the story is awesome, and the gorgeous art style, cinematic combat, and flashy visuals are a joy to see. I especially like the way humor was balanced here, with there being more hilarious moments than I expected and portrayed very well. There isn't much I feel compelled to do outside of the story mode, and I felt parts of the story were obnoxious and obvious filler, but it was still interesting to see for myself. I still disliked dashing to dodge, even though holding down the B button helped, but I like the combat overall.
The game also plays wonderfully on the Steam Deck at its default settings. We will need 30 FPS for full stability throughout the story, but with high-quality settings, I have no complaints!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
The game was provided by Bandai Namco for review. Thank you!
Ever since I can remember, I have loved Naruto. It quickly became my favorite manga, anime, and anime-styled video game series. I still have fond memories playing Clash of Ninja on my Gamecube for the first time and loving every part of it, but my favorite Naruto series of all of these was the Ultimate Ninja games. From playing the first game on PlayStation 2, I was hooked by the artstyle and platform-fighting mechanics, as well as the cool cutscenes and interactivity for ultimate moves. The series has come a long way 20 years later, and Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is the culmination of it all.
The general gameplay mechanics haven't been changed much. You will choose a team of up to 3 ninja and run around a 3D landscape and fight against your opponent. You can utilize different attacks, items, throwables, and chakra to turn the tide with different Jutsu and ultimate attacks. You can also awaken, which enhances your attacks and Jutsu to turn the tide and your other teammates to use support attacks.
Unlike the other games, though, this is the largest offering by far. With over 130 characters to choose, including Ashura, Indra, and Karma Boruto, and over 66 stages, there is no Naruto game with a matched roster. It is awesome being able to play as each of these unique characters and see their cinematic moves or team attacks. It would have been really awesome to see a bit more variety in the some of the character's moves, especially the Boruto/New Age versions of the other original characters like Shikamaru or Sakura, but I am happy that they added a second Ninjutsu attack to each character and made support transitions easier for greater combo potential.
This is also the first time you are able to experience the entirety of the Naruto and Sasuke arcs in a single video game. It goes through when they first meet, all the way up to their final battle after the Ninja War. After playing through all of the other Ultimate Ninja Storm games, I do wish more cinematic boss fights were brought in, instead of a general overview of most events, but it was still great being able to fight the Shukaku as young Naruto and destroy Pain in the same game. There is also an enjoyable original story told through Boruto. It is cool having a new story to play while experiencing the original, and I enjoyed it.
And like the other games, the multiplayer aspect is largely in-tact. There is the local fights, which you can use a 2nd controller for, and online battles. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a match for online battles, somethign I will try once the game is officially released, but if it works similarly to the older games, I will be pleased. You can also customize your fighters a bit too with different costumes and new accessories, both of which can be fun to play around with.
If you are looking for the best version of this series, Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is the way to go. It really is the best aspects of the games thanks to its expanded roster and story coverage. I still wish more of those larger cinematic battles made it into this game, and a bit more variety with some of the other forms of the original characters, but I still had a blast nonetheless! And even though it has some odd behavior, it is just wonderful to play on the Steam Deck.
My time with Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections started off a bit rocky. When I first got in, I was aiming for 60 FPS and it kept going down to 45, which did slow it down greatly. I initially thought this meant I would have to cap to 30 FPS in game, which is ok, but not great for a game like this. Luckily, thanks to the ability to set a static GPU Clock Speed frequency, this is completely fixed.
By setting the frequency to 1200, the framerate immediately shot up to 60 with some minor dips to 58-59, which weren't noticeable. For 99% of the game, and during normal combat, this held perfectly. I noticed some dips in the story mode during certain battles, like Kurama vs Yugito, or some heavy cinematic moves, could dip a little. To account for the story mode, I would keep the TDP limit at 11, but regular matches will have high drain that is unnecessary. I was able to set TDP limit to 9 when just doing some local battles.
Oddly enough, the game may sometimes completely dip in performance. I was able to fix this by turning the GPU Frequency off and on, or making sure the game was connected to Wi-Fi. I initially thought the latter was more important due to performance going down when the device was in sleep mode and being woken up, but then some of the time, it would work again, so it was a bit hard to pinpoint the issue.
I ended up keeping the game at its default settings, with motion blur turned off for personal reasons, as turning on MSAA could randomly tank performance. I was able to play some matches with 8x on, but there was some slowdowns. Theoretically, 2x should work perfectly fine, but when I changed that setting, performance dipped to 35 FPS out of the blue and I couldn't fix it unless I rebooted the game.
As for online, I couldn't really test it and I will need to re-assess once the game is released. I believe it should work okay, but I can't say for sure just yet.
When it comes to accessibility, there is a new "Simple" control mode which can automate combat and make it easier for newcomers or younger players to hit crazy combos. Otherwise, you can change volume settings, subtitles, language, and voice settings (Japanese, English, Portugese, French, Spanish, and German supported).
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, so there are some black bars at the top and bottom, but there is full controller and cloud save support.
Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is a fantastic way to celebrate 20 years of the Ultimate Ninja Storm series. It brings together a massive amount of characters to relive the battles that have spanned over the Naruto, Shippuden, and Boruto manga/anime and being able to re-live the entire Naruto tale and his battle to save Sasuke. I would have loved if more of the battles were brought over for the story mode instead of a more general overview, but the large roster and addicting gameplay make this game a keeper.
It does have some odd behavior here and there on the Steam Deck, and performance can randomly fall from time to time, but it plays extremely well with the right settings and is a blast on the Deck!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
A copy of the game was provided by Modus Games for review. Thank you!
The iconic beat 'em up is back and fresher than ever in this iteration and man does it show. Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is an addicting, side-scrolling fighting game that I had trouble reviewing. Not because it was hard or that I didn't enjoy it, it's because I got so into the game that I stopped paying attention to the mechanics and how well it worked on the Deck and just got sucked into the fun.
The gameplay loop is tight, choosing two characters and going into levels to take down enemies with a combination of normal moves, throws, and jumps. There are also special moves that, if you kill more than 3 at a time, will also drop health. The game also incorporates roguelike elements into it, which keep you on your toes and constantly building out your character and strategizing what kind of playstyle will maximize your strengths. You will buy these upgrades with money you get from killing enemies with special moves and breaking boxes in the environment. I love this addition to the game and feel it really brings a new level of strategy to a genre that is usually just beating up enemies.
You can also use money to exchange for tokens, which you can use to unlock one of nine new characters, tips, art, and music. Each character also has their own moveset, making each one feel distinct. On top of that, you will choose two different characters, so you can mix and match with a faster attacker versus a slower, heavier one. And of course, all of this can be done in split-screen multiplayer with another friend who chooses their own team of two.
Even while I am writing this review, I am playing the game more and just find it very hard to stop and this is partly due to how amazing the game runs on the Steam Deck.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons needs absolutely no changes to run flawlessly on the Steam Deck. Without any caps or limits, you can expect a solid 60 FPS with a 7W - 10W drain, usually hovering around 8.5W - 9W. This is around expected for the game, so I have absolutely no complaints.
The game doesn't have 16:10 resolution support unfortunately, so there are black bars above and below the screen, but they don't impact the game as much. Fortunately, there are cloud saves and full controller support though.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons is a fantastic side-scrolling beat 'em up that combines the fighting gameplay with a roguelike progression system that makes each run feel more meaningful and customizable. Add in fantastic pixel-like visuals to this addicting gameplay loop and you come away with a game that feels like an essential part of your Steam Deck library. This is an easy Best on Deck game and I can't recommend it enough!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Update 7/7/2022 - Guilty Gear Strive has been labeled playable by Steam!
Guilty Gear Strive is the newest entry in the long-running fighting series made by the incredible Arc System Works. This game is the culmination of the series in more ways than one with incredible artistic direction, refined and upgraded combat mechanics, and an insane soundtrack. Arc System Works has long been known to be the king of 2D fighters and this game solidifies their position.
While this game has an unsupported rating from Steam/Valve, I am happy to report this game works pretty fantastic on the Steam Deck. The game is playable at the best settings with native resolution, but there are some changes I would make to make it still look great and save some battery. I found the sweet spot to be 1152x720 with the scaling resolution around 80.
Pair this with FSR turned on with sharpness at 3-5 and quality looks fantastic. You can push scaling resolution to 90 and it will look a bit better, but I didn’t see enough of a change to justify higher Watt usage and temps. Changing the overall in-game quality to “high” instead of “best” didn’t change visuals as much, but did save a little battery. I had no issues with the audio during my testing either and Proton GE 7-20 worked like a charm.
I didn’t experience any huge bugs, though there was a couple inconveniences that caught me. There was one instance where my framerate slowed during a battle to 7 FPS for about 2 seconds until bouncing back and I was stuck at a victory screen twice. I believe it was because of my connection to the internet though and closing the game and turning it on worked fine.
And yes, game can be fully played offline. My icons for the controls in-game also changed to keyboard, so I had to go into system settings and change the Button Display Format to “Controller”. The game also doesn’t show Steam Deck controller icons, instead showing Xbox icons. Other than some text being a bit on the small side, the game performed very well with no other bugs appearing.
I did notice two specific stages had a bit more trouble sticking up to the 60 FPS performance mark. L’oro Di Illyria had the worst of it getting close to 50 FPS and 75c at times, while Ajatar Hunting Ground spiked to the same but held close to 56 FPS when it did dip. Of all the stages though, I noticed Council of Three being the easiest to run off of with 12W usage and 68c - 69c temps.
Overall though, I would absolutely give this game a playable rating instead of unsupported like Valve says. After some fine-tuning, the game sticks to its 60 FPS cap pretty regularly and still looks wonderful.
Need some help understanding how we got to our score? Check out our Guide to Steam Deck HQ.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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