Metaphor Re:Fantazio Demo Shows Promise for Performance on Steam Deck

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Almost completely out of nowhere, SEGA/ATLUS dropped a demo for the upcoming Metaphor Re:Fantazio, their highly-anticipated upcoming JRPG. I have been looking forward to this game ever since it was announced, and with this demo, we can now play through the beginning of the game to give us a taste of what we can expect in the full version. This also means we can test it on the Steam Deck, which gives us a little look at how the game could run, so we did exactly that!

Before going into it, I want to note that this is a demo and will most likely not reflect the performance of the full game. This gives us an idea of what frame rates and settings we can look at for the full release, but this is just a demo, so I will be treating performance similarly to a beta.

For the most part, I am quite impressed with the performance. In closed-off areas, the framerate can hit 60 FPS, though it did require some settings changes. I ended up playing with a 75% resolution scale to keep performance higher, and while there were still some drops, I was happy that it could stick above 50 FPS the entire time when in these closed-off areas.

However, the larger areas were more concerning. At the beginning of the demo, you are in a desert, and it can hit the framerate hard. It would stick above 30 FPS at the 75% resolution scale and no ambient occlusion, but it was very close most of the time. Even still, it did stick above 30.

With this in mind, I can confidently say that the game should be playable at 30 FPS, no matter what. If a demo/beta performs like this, I am more confident that the full game will improve. As for how much better, I am not sure, but I do have faith in ATLUS. Seeing how they have turned performance around for Persona 3 Reload, as well as Valve's work with Proton, has been fantastic, and it went from some areas dropping to 30 to almost a full 60 FPS.

So, do I think it is worth getting on the Steam Deck? If the demo is anything to go off of, I would say yes. The game itself is so much fun and the demo is only providing a snippet of it. I can't imagine how great the full game will be! I would consider this a safe bet for 30 FPS at playable settings, but I am hoping to be able to play at 100% render resolution for the full release. Time will tell for sure, but with ATLUS developing, I have a lot more faith in it.

Metaphor Re:Fantazio is available for pre-order for $69.99 ahead of its October 10th release date. It is rated Steam Deck Playable due to small in-game text and needing to manually change graphics for optimal play. There is some minor small text in the UI, but otherwise, I haven't seen anything unreadable so far.

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