Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth Steam Deck Impressions – Open World Efficiency, PC Port Options, and Extra

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is now accessible on PC, and in contrast to Remaining Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade which was delayed on Steam, Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth has launched on each Steam and the Epic Video games Retailer. Remaining Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s PC launch was not nice at launch, and whereas it did enhance for its Steam launch, it nonetheless wasn’t superb. Sq. Enix has been pushing Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth’s PC port and the options fairly a bit by selling the visible enhancements, graphics choices, and even getting it Steam Deck Verified. 

It is a notable enchancment over how the PC launch of Remaining Fantasy XVI was dealt with with it not being playable on Steam Deck and never a lot promotion previous to launch outdoors of a superb demo which Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth hasn’t seen for PC but. Regardless of that, I wasn’t positive what to anticipate from the latter on Steam Deck. Given how Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth appeared on PS5 in efficiency mode, I used to be curious to see whether or not it was a good expertise on Steam Deck even with visible cutbacks. Having now put in over 25 hours into the Steam launch of Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on Steam Deck, it’s attention-grabbing to see how a lot this sport scales down, but it surely wants some extra work to be a straightforward advice on Valve’s handheld proper now.

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth PC port options – shader compilation and extra

Remaining Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s PC port was very fundamental with choices to regulate texture decision and shadow decision. Past that, you could possibly solely regulate decision, body price, show mode, and HDR. It additionally had loads of stuttering points on Home windows that had been addressed to a point on Steam Deck. With Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth, it seems like Sq. Enix is taking issues critically. On first launch, I used to be greeted by a “Making ready shaders” display which is an effective signal since that is an Unreal Engine sport on PC. It did not take lengthy to progress, after which I bought into the sport’s precise graphics choices.

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is a way more feature-packed PC port with help for VRR, precise graphics high quality presets, dynamic scaling choices (separate minimal and most choices), and lots of different choices. These allow you to regulate background mannequin element, ocean element, character mannequin element, impact particulars, texture decision, shadow high quality, fog high quality, anti-aliasing technique (TAA or TAAU on Steam Deck and ROG Ally, however DLSS is supported as per Sq. Enix), variety of characters displayed, character shadow show distance, and eventually a low-resolution font possibility. This font possibility helps readability of textual content when working at decrease resolutions.

Whereas I do not know if it is not possible, I hope FSR 3, body era, and perhaps even TSR choices might be added to the PC model. The present upscaling resolution leads to a bit an excessive amount of ghosting in some scenes and the picture is not sharp sufficient. 

On the management aspect, you should use a mix of controllers and keyboard and mouse for gameplay. Each allow you to rebind many choices throughout in-battle actions, out of battle actions, and menu controls. 

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth Steam Deck efficiency within the open world and cities

Earlier than attending to Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on Steam Deck, I would like to provide some context for the PS5 model’s visible modes. I used to be not pleased with how Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth appeared in efficiency mode on base PS5 at launch. The High quality mode was good, however the digital camera motion gave me movement illness. I ended up enjoying about 15 hours again then on efficiency mode, and determined to cease till it probably will get patches to enhance the visuals. It bought up to date to supply two choices for its efficiency mode, but it surely wasn’t superb even then. Different video games began releasing and I put it on maintain to solely resume enjoying on my PlayStation Portal the place it was an amazing expertise on my setup.

Then the PC model bought introduced and I made a decision to attend to play it there and thought it could be an attention-grabbing launch to strive on Steam Deck. I did not anticipate a lot out of the PC launch on Steam Deck due to how the efficiency modes ended up on PS5, however the affirmation from Sq. Enix that it was being optimized for the hand held gave me some hope. 

Remaining Fantays VII Remake save knowledge bonus in Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on Steam Deck

When you have performed Remaining Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on Steam Deck, Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is not going to detect the save knowledge for the in-game bonus. I needed to obtain each video games on my ROG Ally for the save knowledge bonus to be accurately detected. As soon as I did this, I booted up the sport on Steam Deck and contiunued enjoying to make sure I’ve the save knowledge bonus summons accessible in my primary save.

With these caveats out of the best way, I used to be initially fairly impressed with how Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth appeared and ran within the opening hour or so. The Steam Deck held the 30fps goal effectively with first rate visible, however issues began to get a lot worse within the busier areas. 

As for fundamental options and Steam Deck help, Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is Steam Deck Verified, however that does not actually inform you the total story since Valve leaves out some vital particulars or options (like cloud saves) when testing video games for the Steam Deck Verified score. Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth helps 16:9 gameplay on Steam Deck, has Steam Cloud help which I examined a couple of occasions throughout my ROG Ally and Steam Deck, helps HDR on Deck, and compiles shaders on preliminary launch and after updates. 

The open world specifically runs effectively with the 30fps goal, however the foliage and different geometry components load very near you as you progress round. The sport defaulted to the low preset on Steam Deck for me, and that may be a bit conservative, however I’ll get to my advisable settings beneath. What shocked me probably the most is that the movement blur on Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth feels prefer it has been carried out higher than the PS5 model the place I nonetheless get movement illness at 30fps. I even related my Steam Deck to the identical monitor I exploit to play PS5 video games on and the digital camera motion did not hassle me as a lot. 

Attending to Junon was a precedence for stress testing, and like Kalm, the efficiency struggles to hit its 30fps goal on Steam Deck with it fluctuating throughout the mid to excessive 20s. You could possibly set the dynamic decision decrease than 66% right here, however even at 50% it is not sufficient to get a locked 30fps. Having virtually no body drops beneath 30fps throughout boss fights like Midgardsormr with the usage of summons was nice to see. I believe Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on Steam Deck is an effective secondary expertise to your primary PC playthrough for doing open world actions and different non-obligatory content material, but it surely is not adequate proper now for a full playthrough except you actually don’t have any different option to play it. In that case, hold the caveats in thoughts about the way it struggles in cities and another conditions.

One other annoying visible situation is ghosting. This was additionally current on base PS5, however it’s extra of a difficulty right here at decrease resolutions and with busier scenes. I had this occur with each TAA and TAAU. As for stability, I had no crashes in any respect on Steam Deck, however I did have the bottom glitch and it seemingly load another space’s flooring with Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa showing like they had been caught within the floor. I mounted this by saving and loading again into the sport. 

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth Steam Deck advisable settings

There are two issues to remember with Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth. The open world, dungeons, and closed areas carry out lots higher than busy cities. I spent loads of time with completely different dynamic decision targets and different settings in Kalm and Junon particularly because the body price was at its worst right here throughout the 25 or so hours I performed. My Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth Steam Deck advisable settings are utilizing each setting on low, dynamic decision scaling (most) at 100%, dynamic decision scaling (minimal) at 66%, TAAU anti-aliasing, characters displayed at 2, and character shadow show distance at 2.

With a 66% minimal scaling goal, I discovered it seems lots higher within the open world, dungeons, and closed areas and it held its 30fps goal somewhat effectively. You will notice some minor drops although. Junon even early on struggles hitting 30fps except you set the minimal scaling goal to 50%, and even then it might’t do a locked 30fps right here. I tolerated the dips and inconsistent body tiems in these hubs as a result of it labored fantastic throughout the precise gameplay and boss fights. Talking of boss fights, my testing for the advisable settings additionally contains utilizing summons. I used Ifrit, Shiva, and extra right here. 

I additionally had HDR enabled in my testing, and whereas I did not change any of the settings, it appeared actually good out of the field in conditions like getting out of the mines and in the direction of Junon early on. The summon battles with particle results additionally held up effectively on the Steam Deck’s display. The picture is clearly not as crisp as Remaining Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on Steam Deck, however this can be a way more demanding sport as you possibly can see from the way it seems on PS5 in comparison with the sooner launch.

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth PC launch enhancements over Remaining Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

As you possibly can inform to date, Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is a a lot better PC launch than Remaining Fantasy VII Remake when it comes to the port options, graphics choices, the way it compiles shaders, and varied visible presets. Numerous these are fundamental options you anticipate in a PC launch lately, however you possibly can by no means take issues as a right with some video games. I have never performed Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on a desktop PC, however I used to be curious to see the way it fared on my ROG Ally since that’s extra highly effective than the Steam Deck and it additionally has Home windows 11.

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth ROG Ally impressions

I’ll revisit this sooner or later if I’ve time for it, however I additionally put a couple of hours into Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on my ROG Ally (Z1 Excessive) to see the way it appeared and performed in comparison with Steam Deck. Sadly, I did not have an incredible expertise initially. I am unsure if the problems I bumped into are due to the most recent Home windows 11 replace, Home windows 11 points basically, shader-related ones, or one thing particular to the ROG Ally {hardware}, however no matter my settings, I bumped into common stuttering throughout open world exploration. I have never had time to check past a couple of hours on this handheld, however I had a a lot smoother expertise with Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on Steam Deck in the identical areas. I may resolve loads of the problems by setting the sport’s dynamic decision vary to 50-100% on the low preset with the sport at 1080p. I examined this with each the V-Sync and VRR choices on the ROG Ally. 

I hope the problems I bumped into on the ROG Ally (together with the ghosting which can also be current on Steam Deck) might be resolved as a result of Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth seems lots nicer right here than on Steam Deck with regards to picture high quality for a 30fps goal.

Since Sq. Enix has promoted lighting enhancements for Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on PC, I used to be curious to see how issues modified. To attempt to get a good suggestion of those modifications for some fundamental comparisons, I went to the identical spot in Kalm on the ROG Ally with the settings at their highest and enjoying at 1080p (as you possibly can see within the screenshot comparability above). I disabled dynamic decision and turned off TAAU. TAA is compelled sadly. That is clearly not a good way to match the lighting variations, however it’s one thing. 

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on Steam Deck vs ROG Ally vs PlayStation Portal

Whereas it is not a real moveable expertise because you’re streaming it out of your PS5, Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth in efficiency mode on PS5 streamed to your PlayStation Portal (assuming PS Distant Play works effectively for you) or the PC model streamed to your Steam Deck are the perfect present methods to expertise the total sport on a handheld system proper now. I’m going to get again to enjoying Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on my PlayStation Portal streamed from my PS5 since I take pleasure in having full DualSense characteristic help and it runs and appears lots higher than the sport does on my Steam Deck and ROG Ally. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see how Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth scales on the extra highly effective PC handhelds coming sooner or later, the ROG Ally X (with extra reminiscence), and in addition in a possible Nintendo Change 2 model. I additionally look ahead to retesting it because it will get any potential optimization updates on PC.

After having fun with Remaining Fantasy VII Remake from its debut on PS4 to PS5 after which Steam Deck, it’s a disgrace that there are visible points holding again the sport on PS5 in efficiency mode, and in addition many caveats to the way it performs on Steam Deck proper now. That it runs in any respect is spectacular for positive, but it surely is not going to be a super expertise for anybody who goals to play this fully on Steam Deck.

Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is Steam Deck Verified, and whereas it does play higher on the hand held than many different AAA Verified video games, it nonetheless is not a super expertise because of some visible and efficiency points regardless of the decrease decision. Given how the open world and dungeons ran and appeared in my testing, I might really suggest this as a complementary expertise to your primary PC playthrough. For those who deal with the primary story and cities in your PC, Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth on Steam Deck might be a great way to complete off mini-games or open world busywork. It additionally helps that you should use the Steam Deck’s proper trackpad as a mouse for precision aiming when required. Hopefully Sq. Enix continues to work on the PC port so it might get to a greater place on Steam Deck.