Atlus’s newest JRPG, Metaphor ReFantazio brings with it modest PC system requirements – which makes it ideal for portable play on devices such as the Steam Deck. Valve’s handheld gaming PC has grown in popularity in recent years, and runs on a custom version of Arch Linux, which raises concerns on its ability to play the game.
Thankfully, Metaphor ReFantazio does seem to work on the Steam Deck surprisingly well, averaging 50 FPS in most scenarios with the right settings in place.
These settings can be found detailed below.
Optimized Metaphor ReFantazio settings for the Steam Deck
In-game settings
Display Settings
- Resolution: 1280×800; Deck native resolution
- Screen Mode: Fullscreen; can be toggled to Borderless
- Monitor: 1 by default; leave as is
- V-Sync: Off; always keep this disabled
Graphics Settings
- Screen Brightness: Adjust to your liking, or leave at its default value
- Graphics Quality: Custom; we will not be using the predefined presets here
- Rendering Scale: 75%
- Ambient Occlusion: Off; currently bugged and absolutely wrecks performance when enabled
- Texture Quality: Normal; do not bump up to High
- Frame Rate Limit: 60 FPS; best to leave it capped in order to avoid excess battery drain by pushing out more frames than the Deck can display
Steam Deck specific settings
- Frame Rate Limit: 60 FPS; can be capped to 40 FPS if you wish to use a more conservative power profile
- TDP: 15 W; Lower to 12 W if you are comfortable with 30 FPS for more battery life
- Battery Drain: 20-30W; expect 1.5 to 2 hours of battery life on the original, LCD Steam Deck – with roughly double (3 to 4 hours) on the Steam Deck OLED
The Steam Deck OLED also possesses HDR capabilities, which are recommended to leave enabled. The Proton Experimental translation layer is recommended.
Do not expect a consistent 60 frames per second while playing on the Deck.
