While Sword of Convallaria does have a native PC port available via Steam, it is restricted to Windows based machines as of the time of writing this article. This is rather unfortunate, given that the PC port does come with a few bells and whistles of its own – such as keybinds and controller support.
Thankfully, using a program known as PlayCover, we can emulate the iOS version of the game, enabling it to run rather flawlessly on Apple Silicon machines. Further information on playing Sword of Convallaria on Macs with M-series of processors can be found detailed below.
Playing Sword of Convallaria on Mac using PlayCover
To play Sword of Convallaria on M-series Macbooks, you will need to install PlayCover first. Make sure to download the latest Nightly version of the program instead of the stable/beta variants.
Once downloaded and installed, follow the steps below to get the game up and running:
- Download the .ipa file for Sword of Convallaria from a website of your choice (such as decrypt.day).
- Boot up PlayCover, and click the + icon within the ‘App Library’.
- Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the ipa file, and select it.
- Once selected, wait a few minutes for the installation to wrap up.
Don’t launch the game just yet – there are still a few minor configurations to complete:
- Right click on the game icon and click on ‘Settings’.
- Within the ‘Graphics’ tab, select an iOS/iPadOS device of your choice (must be M1 or newer).
- Set your game resolution to 1080p.
- Keep the resolution scale at 1.0, and enable the Metal HUD if you wish to monitor performance.
- Make sure the Application Type is set as ‘public.app-category.games’.
Caveats to keep in mind while running Sword of Convallaria on a Mac
While the steps described above will allow for the game to run with minimal issues, there are a few pointers that should be kept in mind, given that PlayCover technically emulates the iOS versions of an app:
- No controller support is available. Community made keymaps can be useful in this regard.
- The game’s framerate is locked to your display’s maximum refresh rate.
- Touch controls are emulated, and thus requires extensive use of the mouse and trackpad for gameplay.
- Asset quality is generally worse than that of the PC version.
While it is technically possible to boot up the Windows version of Steam using Crossover and/or Whisky, the game exhibits a peculiar bug where it does not progress past the initial ToS loading screen. This could change with future updates though.
