Welcome to the Steam Deck Weekly earlier this week. Following last week’s surprise announcement of Bandai Namco’s Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster, we have some news to keep up with, as well as the latest Steam Deck verified game. Stay tuned for a special interview and recap tomorrow. The big Steam Summer Sale 2024 also goes live today, and as usual I’ve added some suggestions at the end of the article.
Steam Deck Game Reviews and Impressions
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster Steam Deck Review
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster debuted on Switch last year, and as a newbie to both games, it’s a very good package. I’m disappointed with the performance issues and a few other issues. There are some issues that I hope we’ll see ironed out in updates, but they’re still present on Switch today. Read my review of the series on Switch. Last week, Bandai Namco announced the release of Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster for PC via Steam, which would have been a huge release if it hadn’t been rated in some regions a few months ago. Regardless, with the launch of Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on PC via Steam, not only do we have the final versions of both games for current platforms, but we also have fantastic Steam Deck versions.
In terms of content, “Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster” is the same as the Switch version released last year. These include Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins, which include improved graphics, cheats, quality-of-life improvements, and more. Read about switch ports here. What makes this PC version even more interesting is that the original game was developed by Monolith Soft, the company now best known for Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles games. In fact, even on Steam, Nintendo is mentioned in the copyrights for both games. Things we didn’t see in the Fatal Frame/Project Zero version retain Nintendo’s rights on the Switch.
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster for PC allows you to adjust the window mode (full screen, windowed and borderless), resolution (320×200 to 4K), toggle vertical sync, adjust anti-aliasing quality (low, medium, high, off) ) and gamma correction. This is fairly straightforward for a PC port, but considering this is a port of an older Switch game that’s already been ported to PC, that’s not surprising.
When playing at 720 docking, the frame rate is well above 100fps, even at 144hz. If you don’t see higher frame rates when playing a game, make sure to check the vertical sync settings in the game and the frame limit in the quick access menu. I chose to play at 90 fps on the Steam Deck OLED most of the time, and only noticed some frame rate drops to 80 when I set the anti-aliasing option to High. This applies to both Baten Kaitos and Origins. However, when playing at native 4K resolution, the game runs at around 30 fps, and drops to around 20 fps or lower during combat. Even if you’re playing docked, I don’t recommend using this feature on the Steam Deck. If you play in 1080p, thankfully it’s always above 70fps.
On the Steam Deck, Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster works out of the box, but there’s a small problem. When you first start a new game, your character will experience a slight jitter issue. A few minutes of playing after moving to another area resolved the issue, and it hasn’t happened again since. Otherwise, the game runs correctly at 16:10, has Steam Cloud, full controller support, and invokes the on-screen keyboard for correct text input. When playing on the Steam Deck, it’s annoying to use B to confirm and A to go back. The developers seem to have just kept the same face button placement here as on the Switch version. However, the digital art book included in the first monthly version cannot be used on the Steam Deck.
In its current state, Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on the Steam Deck is a better experience than the same version on the Nintendo Switch, despite some quirks. Not only does it run nearly flawlessly at 90 fps, but it can also reach higher speeds when played in docked mode. If you skipped the Switch version in favor of something with better performance, it’ll be worth the wait. The quality-of-life improvements on the Switch version already make the game worth playing, but Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on Steam is the best game to pick up right now.
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster Steam Deck Review Rating: 4/5
News and trailers
“Street Fighter 6” enters its second year as M. Bison launches on PS5, Steam, Xbox Series X and PS4. M. Bison is the first of four characters introduced this year, followed by Elena, Mai and Terry. I’ve been playing with M. Bison for a while and he looks great so far. Check out his launch trailer below:
Square Enix has also released the complete patch notes for Final Fantasy XIV 7.0, which has extended the maintenance window by a few hours. Early access to Dawntrail starts today, with the full version launching on July 2nd. I’ll be reporting on this, so stay tuned. (EDIT: Dawntrail is now in Early Access and I will be playing it on the Steam Deck)
Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader has received a major update, 1.2, which is the game’s largest update to date with over 2,500 changes. The update also brings new animations, cutscene updates, quality of life improvements, and more. Watch the trailer below:
This week, Humble Games and Summerfall Studios launched the Stray Gods: Orpheus DLC for Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical. The DLC is available now on Steam and all consoles for $9.99. I will review this in the near future. Watch the trailer below:
Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced more character rosters for Dragon Ball: Sparks! zero. The new trailer shows off 10 new members of the playable roster, bringing the total to 100, with more to come. The trailer shows off Yajirobei, Super Vegetto, Goku Black, Super Saiyan Momoshiki, Aniraza, Goku (Super), Ultra Instinct – Mark -, Future Trunks, and more. Watch below:
Capcom plans to fully reveal Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered (DRDR) on July 1 at the CAPCOM NEXT Summer 2024 showcase. The showcase will also feature more news about Kunitsujin: Path of the Goddess, as well as a look at Resident Evil 7 for iOS and macOS.
Raw Fury has announced a partnership with Gameclaw Studio to distribute the Region of Ruin game globally. The first game is out now, while the second can be wishlisted here . Watch the trailer below:
This week, Velan Studios launched Midnight Murder Club, a new FPS party game featuring hide-and-seek and shooting in the dark. It will be released on Steam this fall. Watch the trailer below:
Now that EVO 2024 is approaching, the first news is that Cygames will have a booth from July 19th to 21st. It will include a playable version of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising update 1.50 as well as exclusive rewards.
ATLUS and SEGA have some eye-catching shows at Anime Expo 2024. On July 5, Atlus launched “Metaphorical World: ReFantazio” starring Hashino Katsura and Soejima Shigenori. On July 6, SEGA launched “Shadow’s New Age,” starring Takashi Iizuka (creative officer of Sonic Team), Kirk Thornton, and Stephanie Sheh (English dubs of Shadow and Maria). The last event on July 6th is “Essence of Fandom Party – Like A Dragon & Yakuza Experience”, hosted by chief producers Hiroyuki Sakamoto and Kazuhiro Nakaya (voice actors of Kasuga Ichiban and Akira Nishikiyama), through the event, Guests and more celebrated the launch of the series.
Cygames brings Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, Granblue Fantasy: Relink and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising to Anime Expo and offers hands-on anime classes wait. I’m so excited to finally see Umamusume: Pretty Derby in English.
The final bit of gaming news is a demo of the auto-chess style PvP combat game Claws & Chaos, now available on Steam.
In addition to gaming news, Valve has finally added game recording capabilities to Steam via the beta branch, including Steam Deck. I tested it on a beta version of the Steam Deck LCD and it works great so far. I hope to take advantage of this in future gaming reports and reviews to showcase specific performance-related content.
New games verified and playable on Steam Deck this week
- Angry Feet – Verified
- Death of a Wish – Playable
- The Dragon is Dead – Playable
- Riven – Playable
- Station to Station – Playable
Steam Deck game sales, discounts and specials
The Steam Summer Sale 2024 is now live, and today I want to recommend 10 specific discounts to Steam Deck owners. They are as follows:
That’s all for this Steam Deck Weekly. As usual, you can read all of our past and future Steam Deck reports here. If you have any feedback on this feature or what you’d like us to do on the Steam Deck, please let us know in the comments below. Hope you all have a nice day and thank you for reading.
