Square Enix's souls-like Final Fantasy game, Strangers of Paradise, was released yesterday on Steam! While the game is sitting at a "Very Positive" overall rating, and for good reason, it unfortunately has some issues trying to launch it on the Steam Deck. When trying to launch, the game will just stick to a black screen and then go right back to the library as it can't load at all, but luckily, we have a way around it using Proton GE and a launch option! So here is how to fix Strangers of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin and get it running on the Steam Deck.
Download and Force Proton GE Compatibility
The first thing you will need to do is use Proton GE to run the game. While it can launch with Proton Experimental, Proton GE is necessary for cutscenes to work. We created an official Proton GE guide that you can follow along which goes into what Proton GE is and how to get and update it, but here is a short summarized version on how to get it:
- Go to the Steam Deck Desktop Mode
- Download ProtonUp-QT from the Discover Store
- Open ProtonUp-QT and click "Add version". It should default to the newest Proton GE version, so just hit "Install" once it shows up. Then wait for it to download.
- Go back to Game Mode!
Now, go to Strangers of Paradise's preferences (Press A on the Cogwheel) and then go to the compatibility tab. There should be only one option there, so check off the box by pressing A and then use the new drop-down menu to navigate to the Proton GE version you just downloaded. If it is the newest one, it should be GE-Proton 7-54 (as of writing this now). Once that is checked off, then we should be ready for the launch option!
Adding the Launch Option
Stay in Strangers of Paradise's preferences, but go back to the General tab. Scroll all the way down and you should see a text box that says "Add a Launch Option". This is where you can add a string of text to change how the game launches. This is for more advanced users, but we can play around with it regardless! In this box, you will need to enter this text:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES=“amd_ags_x64=b” %command%After you add that, press B to move away from the text box and you can exit the preferences! You should be all done and ready to go, just launch the game!
And that's it! It isn't super complicated, but it does get the game running. We are waiting for the shader cache to be compiled and downloaded before we write up our review, but stay tuned as we will be getting to it! Regardless, make sure to go into the graphics settings and set the "Window Mode" to "Full Screen". It will end up filling the entire Steam Deck screen, which is just so nice.
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