Castlevania Dominus Collection Is Great on Steam Deck, But You Can Make It Better

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I adore the Castlevania series, so when Konami released another collection of older Castlevania games, I purchased it immediately and started to download it on my flight back home from Gamescom. The Castlevania Dominus Collection was even more appealing to me personally since it included the DS games, which got me hooked on the series initially (shout out to Dawn of Sorrow). And yes, it is fantastic on the Steam Deck, but there is one tiny change you can make to increase battery life by up to 3 extra hours without losing any framerate!

The Castlevania Dominus Collection runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck, hitting the maximum 60 FPS cap with ease, but I noticed that it drains a bit too much battery for what is being played. Without changes, the game drains around 10W - 12W of battery, and for DS games, this is way too much. However, with two changes, we can not only bring the battery down to 6.5W - 7W drain, but it will ultimately bring battery life from 5 hours to 8 hours with an almost full charge. This was tested on a Steam Deck OLED, but LCD should have similar savings.

By setting the TDP limit to 4W and GPU Clock Speed Frequency to 800MHz, we can curb battery drain while keeping a stable 60 FPS with no issues whatsoever. This is more in line with what I expected from a collection like this, and I am glad it's possible to change it up.

Other than this, the three games in this collection are fantastic. The way the team decided to tackle and fix up any stylus/touchscreen actions is wonderful, and we have a redesigned version of the first Castlevania arcade game: Haunted Castle! Overall, the collection is well worth it, and I can't say that enough.

Castlevania Dominus Collection can be purchased now on Steam for $24.99.

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