Welcome to today’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. I didn’t think there would be much news this week, but the Nintendo Direct proved me wrong on many fronts as expected. Most of the third party games included are also coming to PC, and I will be playing them all on Steam Deck. Aside from the Nintendo Direct third party news, there are a few notable game releases this week including my early Steam Deck impressions of Elden Ring’s big expansion. Let’s get into the reviews and impressions first.
Steam Deck Game Reviews & Impressions
ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree Steam Deck impressions
Having played ELDEN RING on Xbox Series X, PC, Steam Deck, and PS5 the year it was released, I’ve since moved to focusing on the game on Steam Deck mainly. While it doesn’t run as well as it does on Xbox Series X with VRR or playing the PS4 version on PS5, I enjoyed how good it looked and played natively on Steam Deck. When ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree was announced, I was most interested to see how the new areas felt on Valve’s handheld, and whether there were any improvements to the PC port that was quite lacking at launch. I now have a Steam Deck OLED, and playing ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree’s opening hours with HDR on it have been pretty amazing.
The original ELDEN RING on Steam Deck was actually a more consistent experience than playing on a desktop PC with Valve having fixed the shader issue. I still hear friends who have top of the line PCs with 4090s complain about random stuttering even today. On Steam Deck, I wasn’t able to get ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree to run at a locked 40fps at all without dropping the image quality or features too much. I opted to aim for a locked 30fps which I capped using the Steam Deck’s quick access menu. I also enabled HDR for playing on my Steam Deck OLED. Based on the few hours I’ve put into ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree on Steam Deck today including on my Steam Deck LCD, aside from one part that caused performance to drop below 30 with too many effects for a few seconds, it is holding its 30fps target well, and looks excellent on the small screen. I left most settings at the auto-detect preset, but turned shadows and volumetric lighting down a bit.
Aside from what I’ve experienced of the new visuals and content of the expansion, I recommend turning on the new inventory features immediately. They help a lot. If you haven’t beaten the main game yet, the change to the final boss makes an unfun fight much better. I say unfun, but that only really is a problem for melee focused builds. I still think the change is good. I won’t say more to avoid spoilers.
If you’re new to ELDEN RING and haven’t bought it yet, but want to play it on Steam Deck, I recommend getting the ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree Edition which includes the base game and the expansion. Buying it that way will work out cheaper than buying the expansion separately later on looking at how FromSoftware game prices have been under Bandai Namco with DLC. You also can’t access the DLC until quite a bit later as well.
I need more time to do a full review of ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree on Steam Deck, but it is very promising so far when I play it offline, and I can’t wait to see how more of the expansion looks on Valve’s handheld. I haven’t tested it online yet, but I can safely say that ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree is gorgeous on Steam Deck OLED so far, and I look forward to being equal parts shocked at how good it looks and frustrated by the inevitable boss walls I run into.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Steam Deck Port Review
A while ago I reviewed Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes on the Nintendo Switch and found a charming spiritual successor to the classic Suikoden series brought down by significant technical issues. Well, I’ve had the chance to play the game on Steam Deck now, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s completely free of issues, it’s night and day. I dare say one can properly enjoy the game here. And that means I can speak to the game a bit more, so I’ll do that.
This game is of course the crowd-funded, long-awaited Suikoden follow-up put together by some of the people behind the original game, including the series creator Yoshitaka Murayama, who unfortunately passed away scant months before this game’s release. One can only imagine the pressure the team must have been under to deliver on the hopes and dreams of a dedicated fanbase on such a limited budget, and in a lot of ways you can feel all of that in the end result. This is as close to a new Suikoden game as we’re likely going to get, and it was clearly put together with a lot of passion and not quite enough resources.
Still, if you’re looking to scratch the itch and can accept that this was never going to live up to a full-sized production from a major video game publisher at the height of its powers, I think you’ll find a lot to love in this game. Collecting all of the characters is just as enjoyable here as it was in the Suikoden games, even if most of them are lacking the charm and utility you might hope for. There’s a really interesting battle system at play here, one that you’ll have to properly engage with. The overall story isn’t particularly great, and it has some trouble escaping the shadow of what came before, but it’s engaging enough to keep you going. The game is sometimes loyal to those twenty-five year old games to its own detriment, but if that’s the flavor you’re after I think you’re likely to forgive that.
If you’re looking for a sequel to the classic Suikoden games that can hang comfortably with the best entries in that franchise, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes might not be up to your expectations. But if you’re just trying to get a little of that old magic back, there’s enough pixie dust in this game to carry you most of the way to Neverland. It’s a game brimming with passion, struggling against its limitations, but ultimately a genuine expression, and it’s always nice for something like that to come into this world. -Shaun Musgrave
News and Trailers
The news highlights of the week are mostly from the Nintendo Direct. I’ve included my favorites below.
Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection might be the biggest surprise of 2024 for me in terms of announcement. I kept hearing so much about these games but never got to play them. With this collection on Steam, Switch, and PS4, I’m going to make sure I play it. The games also have rollback netcode thankfully. Watch the announcement trailer from Capcom below:
Capcom also announced the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection for Steam and consoles. It launches on September 6th worldwide with pre-orders now live. While the first game is available on mobile and DS, the second game was never released in English. That changes with this collection. As a huge fan of the series, I’m excited to revisit Ace Attorney Investigations and play the second game for the first time.
Farmagia from Xseed Games and Marvelous USA launches on November 1st alongside an anime. The monster farming game with character designs from Fairy Tail’s Hiro Mashima will also see a physical release on consoles. I’m looking forward to this one. Watch the trailer for it below:
Speaking of Hiro Mashima, Fairy Tail 2 from Gust and Koei Tecmo is also due this year in Winter on Steam, PS5, PS4, and Switch worldwide. It is the follow-up game to 2020’s Fairy Tail for PS4, Switch, and Steam. Watch the announcement trailer below:
Spike Chunsoft is localizing Natsu-Mon 20th Century Summer Vacation for PC this August on Steam. The adventure game from Toybox and Millennium Kitchen is also getting DLC when it arrives on PC in Japanese later this month. I never played the Japanese Switch version, but will be checking this one out on Steam. Watch the Japanese trailer below:
NIS America announced Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero for Steam, PS5, PS4, and Switch set for 2025 release. This is the first new Phantom Brave game in a very long time, and it features more than 50 characters with 300 skills. It is a turn-based strategy game without a grid, and I can’t wait to see how a modern game in this series feels like.
As a surprise to everyone, Bandai Namco launched Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on Steam this week. It debuted on Switch last year, and I thought it wouldn’t be ported given Nintendo and Monolith Soft’s involvement. It has a month 1 edition including a digital artbook. Read my Switch review here. I’ll be covering the Steam version on Steam Deck as well.
PowerWash Simulator’s Alice’s Adventures Special Pack DLC launches on July 2nd adding Alice in Wonderland to PowerWash Simulator for Steam and consoles. It includes five locations, a new outfit, and much more. Watch the release date trailer for it below:
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is set to release its Orpheus DLC for $9.99 on June 27th for Steam and consoles. I enjoyed the base game and will be checking this one out to see where it takes the story.
Level-5 is releasing the first major content update for Megaton Musashi W: Wired soon with a 50% off sale on Switch and Steam. This content update arrives in 3.1.0 bringing in UFO Robot Grendizer and much more. Watch the update trailer below:
The amazing Fate/Samurai Remnant has gotten its third major DLC pack this week in Record’s Fragment: Bailong and the Crimson Demon. Check out the launch trailer for the DLC below:
Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition launches on June 25th for Steam and consoles offering 4K 60fps with improved graphics, control improvements, and more. Watch the trailer below:
I saved the best for last with Square Enix’s announcements from the Nintendo Direct including Fantasian Neo Dimension bringing an enhanced version of the amazing Apple Arcade game to Steam and consoles leading the news. It is due later this year, and it includes a new difficulty option as well.
Square Enix is remaking Romancing SaGa 2 as Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, and it looks incredible. Set to launch on October 24th, this 3D remake is coming to Steam, PS5, and Switch. It feels weird that this remake is such a bigger production than the newest mainline game but here we are. Watch the trailer below:
The final announcement is Dragon Quest III HD 2D Remake coming November 14th for Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch worldwide. It looks stunning, and remakes of Dragon Quest I and II will be following in 2025.
New Steam Deck Verified & Playable games for the week
Only a few notable games this week compared to the last few weeks, but some heavy hitters like No Rest for the Wicked (I’m still playing this), Kingdom Hearts, and more are in the newest batch of games tested by Valve.
- Anomaly Collapse – Playable
- FOUNDRY – Playable
- KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX – Verified (via TouchArcade reader Mor)
- KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue – Verified (via TouchArcade reader Mor)
- Mullet Mad Jack – Verified
- No Rest for the Wicked – Verified
- Winning Post 10 2024 – Verified
Steam Deck Game Sales, Discounts, and Specials
Next week, the big Steam sale begins. Ahead of that, you can grab Dragon Age games in the new Dragon Age franchise sale here or grab Everspace 2 and more in the Games Made in Germany 2024 sale here.
That’s all for this edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.