Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. If you missed my Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck review, read it here. Today’s article has Steam Deck impressions and reviews for Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, Visions of Mana, Gori: Cuddly Carnage, Bloons Card Storm, and more. This week also sees a few notable new Steam Deck Verified games and the usual slew of sales and discounts. Let’s get into the reviews and impressions first.
Steam Deck Game Reviews & Impressions
We are officially in the very busy season of the year, and I’m going to try and cover as much as I can this week through a few scored reviews and impressions of games on Steam Deck with one preview as well.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash Steam Deck Impressions
Over the years, we’ve seen Cygames try and expand its Umamusume property through indirect ways with DLC in its other games, through the anime, and more. Umamusume: Pretty Derby itself is finally getting localized this year as well on mobile, and Cygames has released a party game based on Umamusume with Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash.
I need a bit more time for my full review of Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash when I’ll likely also cover the Switch version, but I’ve been playing Cygames’ first ever official Umamusume: Pretty Derby release in the West on Steam Deck ahead of its launch this week. Until then, I wanted to give you an idea of how Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash is on Steam Deck.
Out of the box, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash seems to run at full 16:10, but it is stretched. I recommend going into the settings and changing the resolution to 720p and display mode to full screen so it displays correctly. One thing to keep in mind is Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash currently has some video playback codec issues resulting in a color bar pattern for some videos. I tested 3 different Proton GE versions including 9-9 with no luck as the game wouldn’t load some modes unless I used Proton Experimental.
Aside from the videos, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash runs fine at its 60fps target. I’m looking forward to playing more of it for my full review that hopefully covers the console versions as well. As of now Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash doesn’t have a Steam Deck rating from Valve, and I imagine it will be marked unsupported until the cut-scene issue is addressed.
Reynatis English Release Preview
Reynatis from NIS America and Furyu is set to release on September 27th for Steam, PS5, PS4, and Switch following its Japanese debut. Ahead of its launch, I had a chance to attend a preview event for the game to check out some of the English build. Usually, I don’t bother doing hands-off previews, but I’ve been curious to see how the English localization is, and also learn more about this release.
Since this was a hands-off preview, I can’t comment on how the game feels or how it is on PC, but Reynatis is shaping up to be one of Furyu’s more ambitious games with its story, setting, and seemingly smooth combat. Over the years, I usually end up clicking with Furyu game stories and soundtracks, but one or two aspects always feel lacking. With Reynatis, I’ve been interested in the narrative and combat as well. Reynatis takes place in a recreation of modern-day Tokyo and the different perspectives make it seem like it will be unique. I won’t comment on much of the gameplay until I try it out for myself, but the English localization so far seems very good. I am a bit disappointed at no English dub though.
A lot of folks likely are interested in Reynatis because it has music by Yoko Shimomura and a scenario from Kazushige Nojima both of whom are well known to Square Enix fans for their work on Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and more. If we do get a demo in the near future, I recommend trying it out to see how you find it for yourself.
I’m looking forward to playing Reynatis myself hopefully soon for review, but it definitely feels like this might end up one of Furyu’s better games in recent years. While the story and setting are definitely highlights, I’m very interested in seeing how the combat system feels. Stay tuned for more Reynatis coverage in the near future.
Visions of Mana Steam Deck Review
When Visions of Mana was announced, I was very happy to see the series back after we saw the superb Collection of Mana and then the remake of Trials of Mana released across multiple platforms. When I tried the demo for Visions of Mana, I was concerned because there were some aspects that didn’t work for me at all, but I was hopeful. Fast forward to today and Visions of Mana is available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Steam. I’ve been playing it on both Steam Deck and PS5 for review, and it ended up surprising me in a good way, but I feel like it would have benefited from a few months of polish and tweaking when it comes to its general movement. I’m going to focus on the game on Steam Deck in this review, but also cover how it feels on PS5.
If you’re new to the Mana series, you can still start with this one. Visions of Mana is a new game in the series covering the Mana Tree and more. If you, like me, have played prior games, this will feel great in some ways, but you might be let down in parts, especially for the story. Visions of Mana’s strength is in its gorgeous world, the combat, and general gameplay. It is a huge step up over Trials of Mana in its scope and visuals, just like Tales of Arise felt in a way when it was released. The issues I have with Visions of Mana are to do with its general feel. The movement and camera never feel good. While I managed fixing this on PS5 with the camera distance and movement speed, I wish it was snappier in general.
On the PC port side, Visions of Mana is quite bare-bones. You can adjust screen mode, resolution, frame rate target (30fps to unlimited), toggle v-sync, adjust FSR 2, and just “graphics settings” presets. These presets are low, standard, and high. It doesn’t tell you what the three options change, but it does affect draw distance, post-processing, and more. While the game boots up seemingly fullscreen at 16:10, it is actually stretched. Don’t be fooled into thinking the game supports the native resolution. Changing the display mode from borderless to windowed or fullscreen will have it adjust to 16:9 where the elements and screen are not stretched. A friend of mine recommended trying out forcing a lower resolution in the demo to get better performance, but that seems to come with its own issues where the resolution options bug out even when you go back to forcing native or higher resolution on the Deck’s own display.
Visions of Mana is currently rated as Steam Deck Playable by Valve, but it has notable performance issues right now. Regardless of the settings I used when it comes to frame rate target or upscaling, I couldn’t get a locked frame rate even targeting 30fps with it dropping below in crowded areas. When using the low preset and different upscaling methods for testing purposes, the game runs above 60fps in parts, but it also drops below 30fps. Some areas just stutter in general, and even playing on Ultra Performance upscaling with the really low image quality isn’t enough. Visions of Mana’s art style really doesn’t work with heavy upscaling so I would not recommend it. After spending about 5 hours just testing out different settings across my save files in Visions of Mana, I settled on playing with FSR set to quality and the high preset for a 30fps target with drops below to the high 20s.
If you’re ok with around 30fps and regular drops below to the high 20s, Visions of Mana is fine on Steam Deck, and looks excellent on the handheld’s screen when playing at the high graphics preset. I would recommend downloading the free Visions of Mana demo to try out the different graphics options, but note that the final game runs a bit differently. It is still worth checking to see how the aesthetic scales on Steam Deck with different settings used. Visions of Mana needs more optimization right now on PC in general though. I’d also love for the PC port to actually see more detailed graphics options added so that players can adjust things individually rather than relying on console-like modes.
On the control side, Visions of Mana has support for controller and keyboard + mouse inputs. You can also change the controller glyphs which is always a welcome option.
Speaking of console, Visions of Mana on PS5 is great after some tweaking. The default camera movement and distance felt awful. Having changed it to zoomed out and the camera speed to 10 resulted in a massively better feeling experience. The default gave me motion sickness in parts. I would also recommend toggling on auto-run. If you, like me, play on both current consoles or Steam Deck, I would grab Visions of Mana on PS5 for sure over Steam Deck until it gets some patches on the latter.
Visions of Mana has higher highs but also lower lows than Trials of Mana, but it is a game I’m glad I got to experience by the end. If you enjoyed Trials of Mana and games like Tales of Arise specifically on the gameplay side, Visions of Mana is worth your time. I just wish the movement and PC port were better. In its current state, it is excellent to have a modern Mana game and Visions of Mana delivered on that front. Just don’t expect it to reach the highs of Secret of Mana. While it is rated Steam Deck Playable by Valve, I recommend playing it on PS5 rather than Steam Deck with how bare-bones the PC port is in its current state.
Visions of Mana Steam Deck review score: 3.5/5
Gori: Cuddly Carnage Steam Deck Review
When I first saw promotional art for Gori: Cuddly Carnage, I thought it would be a short horror game. I didn’t expect it to be a blend of Ratchet & Clank, Cyril Cyberpunk, and an action game with a ton of early 2000s humor sprinkled across. If that sounds good to you, just go download the demo because it is great.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage has you playing as a badass cat in an action platformer that happens to have better combat than any recent game in the genre. While the aesthetic might not work for some, I found it perfectly suits the writing and was impressed by the smooth animations and visuals throughout my time playing it.
On PC, Gori: Cuddly Carnage lets you adjust graphics presets (low, medium, high, very high), resolution, display mode, FOV, frame rate target (30fps to unlimited), toggle v-sync, toggle motion blur, toggle ray tracing, upscale method (off, DLSS, XeSS), and also adjust the quality for anti-aliasing, shadows, textures, effects, and post-processing. The PC version is quite a feature packed port for a game like this, and it controls perfectly on Steam Deck with good rumble as well.
On Steam Deck playing at the very high preset with no upscaling used, expect to play with a 30fps target. I didn’t want to settle for just 30fps of course. Using the medium preset with no upscaling is good for playing with 45fps at 90hz on Steam Deck OLED. If you want to aim for 60fps or higher, I recommend playing with higher visuals but XeSS. Taking things all the way down at the low preset and XeSS set to ultra performance results in 90fps with some drops. It doesn’t look bad even now, but it is definitely a visual step down from native anti-aliasing.
I also had access to Gori: Cuddly Carnage on PS5, and that version is just as impressive as the PC version with multiple performance modes including a ray tracing mode, 120fps mode, and more. It also has good DualSense support.
When it comes to the game itself, Gori: Cuddly Carnage has some camera issues that affect platforming sections and also a few boss battles that annoyed me. While the latter could just be certain encounters not clicking with me, I hope the former can be addressed.
Overall, I’m very pleased with how Gori: Cuddly Carnage is on Steam Deck, and expect it to get Verified very soon. The game itself surprised me with its quality, and it is one I won’t forget for a while. It excels with its fun gameplay, good writing, and great combat and feels right at home on Steam Deck from start to finish. It is just held back by a few annoyances.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage Steam Deck review score: 4/5
Bloons Card Storm Steam Deck Gameplay Impressions
When I learned about Bloons Card Storm, a collectible card game set in the Bloons game universe, I was curious about it. I had access to a Steam preview build of the game ahead of its full launch later this year on mobile and Steam, and it has been an interesting experience. Having played the Bloons games on iOS with touch controls, I wasn’t sure what to expect with Bloons Card Storm, but it feels right at home on Steam Deck with touch controls. As of now there is no controller support in the preview build, but it plays perfectly with touch controls.
As for the game itself, Bloons Card Storm feels like a nice addition to the crowded genre. I played a few levels of the PvE mode and like how the team brought over Bloons characters and abilities to this world. If you’re new to Bloons, I recommend playing the super popular Bloons TD 6 or TD Battles 2 before, but you can still play and enjoy this one. I just hope the monetization is handled well when it launches because I can’t see what the in-game store is selling right now.
I can safely say that it runs and looks great on Steam Deck even in its early preview build. Hopefully it gets controller support at or around launch though. It is shaping up to be a nice and accessible card game, and the cross platform multiplayer means I’m definitely going to get a few friends to give it a shot at launch.
Age of Mythology: Retold Steam Deck Gameplay Impressions
I’ve been very excited for Age of Mythology: Retold because I played the original a ton back in the day. The action RTS bringing together gods and monsters was already great on PC, but this remake had me more interested because it was coming to console day one. You might be wondering why that matters for a Steam Deck review, and I need to go back a bit to Age of Empires coming to Xbox for that.
When Microsoft brought Age of Empires II Definitive Edition to Xbox, it played wonderfully with full controller support and a fantastic port. The company sadly did not bring this controller support to the PC version and I’ve had to rely on using the trackpad on Steam Deck to play Age of Empires II Definitive and also Age of Empires IV. I ended up playing both of those more on Xbox because I really love the controller support. It isn’t as good as playing with a mouse and keyboard for some specific areas, but I played enough of these games with a keyboard and mouse when they first released.
Age of Mythology: Retold had a beta test on Steam, and when I tried it out, I was glad to see it included controller support even on Steam. This was enough for me to pre-order the game’s Premium Edition a few days ago to play on Steam Deck. So far, Age of Mythology: Retold feels great on Steam Deck, after making one change.
By default, Age of Mythology: Retold is marked as Steam Deck Playable by Valve, but I actually couldn’t get it to boot up at all on my Steam Deck OLED or LCD models. It kept freezing or crashing. Moving to GE Proton 9-9 fixed this issue for me. I haven’t played enough to do a full review yet, but I’m glad at how good Age of Mythology: Retold feels and looks on Steam Deck right now. I’m looking forward to playing it more over the coming weeks.
As for the best graphics settings for Age of Mythology: Retold on Steam Deck OLED, I need a bit more time to see how it performs later on. Right now, I’ve settled for 45fps at 90hz with a combination of medium settings with FSR 2 set to quality. It is going to be interesting to see how it fares later on in the campaign.
Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn Steam Deck Gameplay Impressions
Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is Tengo Project and NatsumeAtari’s newest remake of a classic, and it is a damn fine release overall. Shaun is working on a full review of this one, but I wanted to cover how it feels on Steam Deck and also Xbox briefly.
Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn on PC lets you adjust resolution and screen mode (borderless, windowed, and fullscreen). It only has 16:9 support, but the aesthetic absolutely shines on Steam Deck with the particle effects and crisp animation work. As for the PC port itself, there are some control issues if you want to use a keyboard, but I played Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn on Steam Deck only and it felt right at home on Valve’s handheld with fast loading and no performance issues.
While Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn’s source game isn’t as amazing as the likes of Pocky and Rocky or even The Ninja Warriors like we’ve seen from Tengo Project in the past, it has gotten an excellent release that runs and looks perfect on Steam Deck and Xbox Series X. I also enjoyed playing it online through Steam Remote Play Together with a friend of mine in another country. If you aren’t sure about this one yet, I recommend downloading the demo and trying it out for yourself.
News and Trailers
Let’s start this week’s section with a brand-new extended showcase for Atlus’ upcoming RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio. It continues to look amazing and I can’t believe it is only a little over a month away. Watch the trailer below:
Following that, Square Enix just posted new details for the upcoming Romancing SaGa 2 remake titled Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven coming to Steam and consoles this October. Check out some new screenshots here and one showcasing Glimmer below:
Now let’s shift gears to the Nintendo Indie Direct + Partner Showcase that had 99% games coming to or on Steam. I’ve included the highlights here. Marvelous USA had an impactful trailer for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma coming to Switch and Steam in Spring 2025. Watch it below:
Bandai Namco announced Tales of Graces f Remastered for January 2025 release on Steam and all consoles with visual upgrades and DLC included. Watch the trailer below:
Konami and M2 have released Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia in one collection out now on Steam and all consoles. I’ll be reviewing this one next week so stay tuned for that.
Capcom announced Capcom Fighting Collection 2 featuring Capcom Vs SNK, Power Stone, and 6 other games coming in 2025 to Steam, Switch, and PlayStation. Capcom also announced that the Marvel Vs Capcom collection launches in under 2 weeks.
The excellent Cuisineer from Marvelous USA is coming to Switch and other consoles early next year alongside a big update for the Steam release. I’m definitely getting the physical edition.
The Ghibli-inspired action-adventure game Europa was showcased for Switch during the Nintendo Indie World showcase and will launch on October 11th for Switch and Steam.
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, the next mainline Atelier game is coming to Steam and all consoles including Xbox, a series first, in early 2025, and it looks incredible.
Tetris Forever is the new Gold Master Series release from Digital Eclipse coming this year featuring more than 15 playable classic games from the series’ history. Some have never seen a release outside Japan before.
PowerWash Simulator is going deeper into the madness with the Shrek Special Pack coming soon for Steam and all consoles.
FAIRY TAIL 2 from Gust and Koei Tecmo is finally coming to Steam, Switch, and other consoles beginning December 11th. Watch the trailer below:
Fantastic Games: Presented by Day of the Devs will be taking place from September 20th to 22nd, and the full list of games and developers has been revealed. I’m excited for quite a few of those, and I even have played a few of those already (but I can’t say which ones yet!).
Channel: Death by Night City, Big Sir Games
darkwebSTREAMER by We Have Always Lived in the Forest
Fear the Spotlight by Cozy Game Pals and Blumhouse Games
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic by Steel Wool
Grunn by Sokpop Collective
Hollowbody by Headware Games
Holstin by Sonka
Horses by Santa Ragione
Karma: The Dark World by Pollard Studio, Wired Productions and Gamera Games
Pinball M (DLC) by Zen Studios
Post Trauma by Red Soul Games and Raw Fury
Skate Story by Sam Eng and Devolver Digital
Tom the Postgirl by Oopsie Daisies
SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream got two new character trailers this week. Check out the Yui and Oberon trailers below:
D3 Publisher launched the first DLC pack for Earth Defense Force 6 in the form of Earth Defense Force 6 – Lost Days DLC 1. It is out now on Steam and PS5.
Super Evil Megacorp posted a roadmap for TMNT Splintered Fate following its launch on Apple Arcade and Switch revealing that it will be Steam Deck Verified and more.
Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is coming to Steam and current consoles on November 7th with 120fps support and more. It plays amazing on Steam Deck already. Try the demo here.
Panic’s newest showcase aired a few days ago and it is absolutely worth watching if you like interesting games.
Ahead of Tokyo Games Show, SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced the next RGG Summit for September 20th at 3 AM PT. You can watch it below when the event begins:
Pinball FX brings in Goat Simulator and The Princess Bride as DLC tables this week on Steam and other platforms. Stay tuned for my coverage of both of these and the game itself in the near future:
The first DLC for That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles, “A Strange Fate” is now available with Hinata as a new playable character and an original story by the original author. Watch the launch trailer below:
SYNDUALITY: ECHO OF ADA has a new trailer with closed network test sign ups now live. Sign up here and watch the trailer for it below:
The final bit of news is The First Descendant’s Season 1: Invasion now available bringing in a new descendent: Hailey, battle pass rewards, new dungeon invasions, and much more.
New Steam Deck Verified & Playable games for the week
A lot of interesting additions this week with the newly released Castlevania collection and Gundam Breaker 4 being marked as playable alongside Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics getting Verified ahead of its launch in under two weeks. I’m also glad to see the upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters release and Regency Solitaire II get tested by Valve.
Age of Mythology: Retold – Playable
Castlevania Dominus Collection – Playable
DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince – Playable
GUNDAM BREAKER 4 – Playable
MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics – Verified
Pool Panic – Verified
Regency Solitaire II – Verified
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse – Verified
The Elder Scrolls Online – Playable
Visions of Mana – Playable
Steam Deck Game Sales, Discounts, and Specials
The notable sales of the week include a Tales of franchise sale where I recommend Tales of Berseria as the best game in the series on Steam followed by Tales of Arise, Kingdom Come Deliverance at 90% off, and Red Dead Redemption II at 60% off on Steam. Note that for Red Dead Redemption II, you can’t buy the Steam version outside Steam while you can for the other games I’ve mentioned here.
That’s all for this edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.
