Best Final Fantasy 16 Steam Deck Settings for Gameplay Performance at ~30 FPS
Final Fantasy 16 has finally been released on PC and it actually plays rather well on the Steam Deck.
Mentioned Code
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WINEDLLOVERRIDES="version=n,b" %COMMAND%
Written Tutorial
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Summary
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Square Enix has finally gotten around to releasing Final Fantasy 16 on the PC. In today's video I'll show you how the game performs in a starter town, which graphic settings are best to use, what you should expect when playing it on the Steam Deck and at the end I have an extra bonus performance mod that can help boost the FPS up a bit.
#steamdeck #finalfantasyxvi #finalfantasy16
Final Fantasy 16 is finally available on Steam right now for $50, but you can get the complete edition, which includes The Rising Tide and Echoes of the Fallen DLC, for $70 total.
As of recording this video, the game is labeled as Unsupported for the Steam Deck
Which Valve says is due to it not being able to be configured to run well on the device.
final fantasy 16 performance
But as I've gotten to play more and more of the game, I've learned that it can be setup to hit over 30 Frames per Second for the majority of the game.
Yes, it will drop to around 27 FPS in some larger fights. . .and while traversing in some very crowded cities.
But when the gameplay counts, Final Fantasy 16 is usually able to stay just above 30 frames per second
Now, I will say that the major downside here is that cutscenes tend to run horribly on the Steam Deck. With performance dropping to the low 20s. . .and sometimes even to around 12 FPS. But in my experience so far, this does not cause the cutscene to become laggy or actually stutter. You will likely just notice the animation not being as fluid as one would like.
The poor performance in these areas make me think that Square will be able to push out a few more updates to the game in an attempt to improve its performance and optimize the cutscenes. I suspect the removal of Denuvo could actually fix many of these performance issues.
With all of that said, I have yet to experience any crashes at all. And seeing such a graphically intensive game running on the Steam Deck is rather impressive. I suspect there will still be some people completing the game on the Steam Deck as they're just a huge fan of the series.
Final Fantasy 16 settings
First, let's go over the graphical settings for Final Fantasy 16 so that it's playable on the Steam Deck.
It's going to be incredibly difficult to play the game without some sort of upscaling enabled. You could try and drop the resolution down to 800x500, but honestly, that won't make much of a difference.
Instead, as of recording this video, you'll get the best results by dropping all of the settings down to low while enabling FSR 3.
No, it's not going to look as pretty as it does on a desktop PC with a beefy video card.
But this is more than acceptable on a handheld console like the Steam Deck.
I don't want this video to be longer than it needs to be, so let me know in the video description below if there's any demand for a gameplay video. I can even show a before and after comparison for how the game runs normally compared to the bonus performance tweak that is possible.
bonus performance
With that said, there is an unofficial FSR 3.1 mod that we can trigger by changing a few things.
Firstly, you want to switch the game over to Proton GE.
Then, give the game a special launch option as follows. . .
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="version=n,b" %COMMAND%
I'll be sure to have this included in the video description below for those who want to copy and paste it
This DLSS Mod using Proton GE is said to be able to get the game running around 50 to 60 frames per second in most fights.
But again, cutscenes are so poorly optimized that you may still want to wait until it has received a few updates.
conclusion
Square Enix was not happy with the revenue they were able to bring in from the launch of Final Fantasy 16. I know I have not been happy with their staggered releases and think they could do much better by releasing their games on the PlayStation and on PC at the same time.
While I had hoped that this delay would have given them more time to optimize the game for handheld consoles like the Steam Deck, it's clear that something is going on with the cut scenes.
And with Final Fantasy games relying so heavily on cut scenes for its story it makes it difficult to recommend this to anyone who is only able to play it on a Steam Deck.
But be sure to subscribe to the channel as I will definitely be doing a follow up video in the future when the company is able to smooth out some of these issues.