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Steam Deck users everywhere gave up on the prospect of playing Final Fantasy 16, with the RPG boasting too much power for the handheld PC. It seems that all hope isn’t lost, as Valve have taken it upon themselves to make the action RPG more playable on their smaller system.
Fans did tinker with FF16 on Steam Deck before but it only led to extremely blurry visuals, poor framerates, and an overall rough experience. Most Deck users had settled on using GeForce Now on Valve’s handheld, letting them stream the game without worrying about making it run properly. While this update won’t magically turn the Deck into a PS5, this shows that there’s still life on the system.
How to play Final Fantasy 16 properly on the Steam Deck
The folks at Steam Deck HQ reported on patch notes for Proton Experimental, revealing that a recent update to this Proton will make Final Fantasy 16 more playable on Deck. According to the notes, the patch “Fixed Final Fantasy XVI having low FPS due to excessive DLL lookup.”
Proton Experimental is a compatibility layer for Steam that can make certain games run better if the default program isn’t up to snuff. Most players use this Proton to play games labeled “unsupported” by Valve or require a performance boost. Sometimes, they can even be updated to fix specific games, hence, this update for the massive Square Enix RPG.
It will be interesting to see how much this patch will fix Final Fantasy 16. Admittedly, the program has made many games more playable before but we doubt that FF16 will go over 30FPS or perform as well as it does on Sony’s PlayStation 5.
Steam Deck is here to stay
While fans wouldn’t mind a hardware upgrade to the Steam Deck, it’s clear that Valve and other companies still see it as a viable system. Valve can’t keep updating Proton Experimental constantly on the Steam Deck, but seeing them make Final Fantasy 16 playable on the handheld is miraculous stuff.
Handheld gaming has found new life recently, with the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch paving the way forward. They can still play some high-quality games even if they aren’t as powerful as an Xbox Series system. You won’t see Tears of the Kingdom on a PS5 anytime soon.
For more on Steam Deck, check out how Saber Interactive updated Space Marine 2 to make it more playable on the handheld PC. Konami made the Silent Hill 2 remake playable on Valve’s smaller system, showing the system is a top priority. As for Final Fantasy 16, check out how much storage space this massive RPG is asking for.
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