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JRPGs feel right at home on the Steam Deck, but there really aren't any that feel like the Romancing SaGa series. The games are very non-linear and adjust to the decisions you make and how you play. There's also an unconventional leveling-up system where, instead of traditionally gaining experience and unlocking new moves, you actually learn them depending on the weapons you take into battle and the moves you select. It's so cool how it's structured out, and Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is probably the best entry in the series so far.
I have been extremely lucky to have a key and be reviewing the game, though I need a little more time before the full review is done. Regardless, I can say with certainty how the game is on the Steam Deck, and playing it portably like this is going to be an incredible time. I can also say this may be one of my personal favorite JRPGs I have ever played thanks to its more unconventional mechanics.
While this article will mostly focus on Steam Deck performance, I will say that the game is phenomenal so far. If you are looking for a really great JRPG to add to your library and crave a unique experience with mechanics that you don't normally see in the genre, this will be a must-have. My full review will be coming soon with my full opinion, but expect a high score for its content as it is just so much fun to play.
But on to performance! The game starts off with Dynamic Resolution enabled, which makes the game takes care of the settings for you (stopping you from accessing them). While you can play like this, I did notice some dips from 60 FPS in some bigger areas. It also tends to drain a little more than I would like. So, I wanted to see what I could do by manually taking care of the settings. I turned off Dynamic Resolution, set everything to the max quality, and proceeded to start benchmarking for my settings.
However, there wasn't much to do after that! Romancing SaGa 2 can be played at the max quality settings at 50 FPS locked. This does drain the battery a little higher at times, but it will generally stick between 10W - 15W like this. 50 FPS also feels extremely smooth, and while it isn't 60, this isn't a game where I feel I am missing anything from the change. And we get to play at the maximum quality, which makes it look as beautiful as humanly possible.
I did find it weird that changing Texture Filtering forces the game to need a restart, since usually this is something that you can change without it, but once I set it to max, I didn't need anything else. This is easily one of the best JRPG experiences I have had on the Steam Deck, and I am so glad it was with Romancing SaGa 2.
In my full review, I will have different settings to play at 60 FPS and limit battery drain as much as possible, but this will easily be my recommended. 50 FPS with no compromise to quality is the best way to play Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven on the Steam Deck, and it deserves to be in your portable library. Don't pass up on this experience!
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven can be purchased on Steam for $49.99 and is rated Playable due to small in-game text. However, I haven't noticed any text too small just yet, but there definitely is some text that could be more comfortable to read if it was a little bigger.
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