Welcome to this week’s slightly early edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. Following a review of last week’s surprise release of the Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster from Bandai Namco, there’s news to catch up on, and the latest Steam Deck Verified games. Stay tuned for a special interview and review tomorrow as well. The big Steam Summer Sale 2024 is also live today and I’ve included a few recommendations at the end of the article as usual.
Steam Deck Game Reviews & Impressions
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster Steam Deck Review
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster debuted on Switch last year, and was a very good package as a newcomer to both games. I was disappointed by the performance issues and some of the other quirks present. I was hoping we’d see some of the issues resolved in updates, but they are still present on Switch today. Read my review of the collection on Switch here. Last week, Bandai Namco shadow dropped Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on PC via Steam, and it would’ve been a huge shock of a release had it not been rated in some regions months before. Either way, with Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on PC via Steam, not only do we have the definitive version of these two games for current platforms, but a fantastic Steam Deck release as well.
In terms of content, Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster is the same as the Switch version that was released last year. This includes both Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins with improved graphics, cheats, quality of life improvements, and more. Read about the Switch port here. What makes this release on PC more interesting, is the fact that the original games were developed by Monolith Soft who are most known now for the Xenoblade Chronicles games under Nintendo. In fact, Nintendo is mentioned in the copyright of both games even on Steam. Something we didn’t see with the Fatal Frame / Project Zero releases that retain Nintendo’s copyright on Switch.
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on PC lets you adjust window mode (fullscreen, windowed, and borderless), resolution (320×200 to 4K), toggle v-sync, adjust anti-aliasing quality (low, medium, high, off), and gamma correction. This is pretty bare-bones for a PC port, but not unexpected given this is a port of older games for Switch that has been ported to PC.
Playing at 720 docked sees frame rates well above 100fps and even at 144hz. If you aren’t seeing higher frame rates when you play, make sure you check the v-sync settings in-game and the frame limited from the quick access menu. I opted to play at 90fps on my Steam Deck OLED for the most part and only noticed some drops to the 80s when setting the anti-aliasing option to high. This applies to both Baten Kaitos and Origins. When playing at native 4K though, the game runs at around 30fps and it drops to the mid 20s or lower during combat. I don’t recommend this on Steam Deck even if you play docked. If you play at 1080p, it is always above 70fps thankfully.
On Steam Deck, Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster runs out of the box with one small issue. When you first start a new game, your character has a minor dithering issue. This got resolved after a few minutes of playing after moving to another area, and didn’t happen after that. Aside from that, the gameplay runs at 16:10 correctly, it has Steam Cloud, full controller support, and invokes the on-screen keyboard for text input correctly. Having B for confirm and A to go back is annoying though when playing on Steam Deck. The developers seem to have just left the same positions for face buttons as the Switch version here. The digital artbook included in the Month 1 edition does not work on Steam Deck though.
In its current state, despite some quirks, Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on Steam Deck is a much better experience than the same release on Nintendo Switch. Not only does it run nearly perfectly even at 90fps, but it also can go above when playing docked. If you skipped the Switch release in the hope of a version with better performance, your wait has been worth it. The quality of life improvements in the Switch version already made that worth grabbing, but Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on Steam is the one to get right now.
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster Steam Deck Review Score: 4/5
News and Trailers
Street Fighter 6 begins Year 2 with the arrival of M. Bison on PS5, Steam, Xbox Series X, and PS4. M. Bison is the first of four characters coming this year with Elena, Mai, and Terry following. I’ve played a bit with M. Bison and he seems amazing so far. Check out his launch trailer below:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/pRQdjb4QSWA?[youtube]
Square Enix also released the full Final Fantasy XIV 7.0 patch notes with maintenance on for a few hours more. Early access to Dawntrail begins today with the full release set for July 2nd. I’ll be covering it so stay tuned for that.
Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader got its major 1.2 update, which is the biggest update yet for the game with more than 2500 changes. This update also arrives with new animations, cut-scene updates, QOL improvements, and more. Watch the trailer for it below:
This week, Humble Games and Summerfall Studios launched the Stray Gods: Orpheus DLC for Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. The DLC is out now on Steam and all consoles for $9.99. I’ll have a review of this in the near future. Watch the trailer for it below:
Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed more of the character roster in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO. The new trailer showcases 10 new additions to the playable roster with the total at 100 with many more to come. This trailer showcased Yajirobe, Super Vegito, Goku Black, Super Saiyan Rosé, Anilaza, Goku (Super), Ultra Instinct -Sign-, Future Trunks, and more. Watch it below:
Capcom teased Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (DRDR) with a full reveal planned for July 1st during CAPCOM NEXT Summer 2024 showcase. The showcase will also have more news on Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and a look at Resident Evil 7 Biohazard for iOS and macOS.
Raw Fury announced that it has partnered with Gameclaw Studio to publish the Regions of Ruin games worldwide. The first game is out now while the second one can be wishlisted here. Watch the trailer below:
This week, Velan Studios announced Midnight Murder Club, a new FPS party game featuring hide and seek and shoot in the dark. It is set to launch on Steam this fall. Watch the trailer below:
We are close to EVO 2024 now, and the first set of news is Cygames will have a booth from July 19th to 21st. It will feature a playable build of the 1.50 update for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and exclusive rewards.
At Anime Expo 2024, ATLUS and SEGA have a few notable streams. On July 5th, Atlus has The World of Metaphor: ReFantazio featuring Katsura Hashino and Shigenori Soejima. On July 6th, SEGA has A New Era of Shadow featuring Takashi Iizuka (Sonic Team Creative Officer), Kirk Thornton and Stephanie Sheh (English voices of Shadow and Maria), and more. The final event on July 6th as well is the Essence of Fandom Party – Like A Dragon & Yakuza Experience featuring Chief Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto and Kazuhiro Nakaya (Ichiban Kasuga and Akira Nishikiyama’s voice actor) celebrating the series with activities, guests, and more.
Cygames is bringing Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising to Anime Expo with hands-on sessions and more. I’m excited to finally see Umamusume: Pretty Derby in English.
The last bit of games news is a demo for the auto chess style PvP battler Claws & Chaos now available on Steam.
Aside from games news, Valve finally added a game recording feature to Steam including Steam Deck via the beta branch. I tested it on my Steam Deck LCD that’s on the beta, and it works great so far. I hope to make use of this a lot for future game coverage and reviews to show off specific performance-related things.
New Steam Deck Verified & Playable games for the week
- Anger Foot – Verified
- Death of a Wish – Playable
- 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 I wanted to recommend 10 specific discounts today for Steam Deck owners. They are below:
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.