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Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time from Stage-5 is lastly out there worldwide for all consoles and PC (Steam) after a protracted wait. Whereas I would like extra time to play the sport for my full evaluate, I wished to cowl how the sport feels with over 20 hours performed throughout the Steam Deck, Nintendo Change, and ROG Ally. This characteristic will cowl Fantasy Life i Change efficiency impressions, Steam Deck beneficial settings, ideas on the PC port, and extra. Word that I’ve eliminated any story spoilers by redacting quest names on the highest proper of the screenshots when required. I’ve additionally examined cross save forwards and backwards throughout Steam Deck and Change to make sure it really works nicely.

Fantasy Life i Nintendo Change efficiency impressions

Whereas many of the hours I’ve put into the sport have been by means of the Steam launch, I’ve since examined the Nintendo Change model after my digital pre-order unlocked. Fantasy Life i has cross save, and I’ve synced my Steam save to take a look at the busier areas and likewise to check out a brand-new save on person profile. I wished to see how the opening felt to get a good suggestion of Fantasy Life i’s Change efficiency from day one. Word that that is with model 1.1.0, which is a bit behind the PS5, PS4, and Steam variations. The Change model additionally didn’t have an early unlock for the Digital Deluxe Version like different platforms.

Fantasy Life i on Nintendo Change runs higher than I anticipated based mostly on the Change footage from the final Direct. I’ve solely performed it handheld thus far, and the general visuals are softer than you’d anticipate on Change even when performed on the go. Load occasions aren’t unhealthy, however the efficiency is unfortunately inconsistent with dips under 30fps usually together with in just a few cut-scenes. Even when it seemingly holds its goal body price for a while, body pacing or hitching points dampen the expertise. This occurs in busier areas just like the sandy components of Ginormosia and even close to the Capital of Mysteria with numerous NPCs. I used to be positively anticipating a rougher expertise than this, however it is not near perfect. 

I hope Stage-5 patches within the capability to disable the depth of area like within the PC model as a result of I hate the way it blurs the sides of the display in particular conditions. Another factor I hope to see in an replace is touchscreen assist. Whereas it is not one thing you’d want throughout fight or exploration, having touchscreen assist to progress cut-scene conversations or navigate by means of the menus would’ve been good. Past that, the Change model has first rate HD Rumble and is playable, however I would not advocate getting it until you might be enjoying the sport on one other platform and utilizing the Change model with cross save as your solution to play on the go when wanted.

It stays to be seen, however It might be nice if the Change model’s present efficiency points might be resolved when performed by way of backward compatibility on Change 2 earlier than the official Nintendo Change 2 Version releases. Till then, this Change port is sweet to must play alongside one other model, however not one I would advocate as your major solution to expertise Fantasy Life i proper now. Hopefully a few of the efficiency points might be addressed in updates. 

Fantasy Life i PC graphics choices and port options

As a result of Megaton Musashi W: Wired  had such an excellent PC port that scaled nicely on handhelds, I wasn’t too apprehensive about Fantasy Life i, however I am very impressed with the Steam model. It has a great deal of graphics choices, scales nicely, and works fairly properly with mouse and keyboard enter as nicely based mostly on the little I performed with these controls. 

If you’re enjoying on Steam Deck or different handhelds working SteamOS, you may run into a problem the place the sport locks you out of fixing show mode and determination. I will get to that under. Fantasy Life i allows you to modify show mode (windowed, borderless), decision with assist for 16:10, toggle v-sync, restrict body price (30, 60, 120, uncapped), toggle movement blur on, use a graphics preset (low, medium, excessive, customized), allow HDR, and modify display brightness.

The Fantasy Life i graphics preset mechanically adjusts particular settings that you would be able to additionally modify individually. These are shadow high quality (low, medium, excessive), anti-aliasing (FXAA, TAA), toggle international illumination, toggle ambient occlusion, toggle display area reflections, toggle depth of area, modify object high quality and show depend (low, medium,excessive).

Fantasy Life i Steam Deck impressions

Fantasy Life i is Steam Deck Verified. I do know that does not imply as a lot because it did earlier than on the subject of new video games, however on this state of affairs the ranking is completely justified. Whereas it initially may take a minute or two to obtain or replace Epic On-line Companies once you launch it for the primary time, all the things works completely out of the field. Sure, regardless of it utilizing anti-cheat, it really works wonderful on Steam Deck. I’ve put in round 20 hours simply on my Steam Decks out of the overall playtime thus far. The whole lot from textual content enter mentioning the keyboard to efficiency is flawless with HDR supported on the Steam Deck OLED. 

There’s one small situation proper now which will or could not have an effect on you once you play it. In the event you attempt to change any graphics settings, the sport will change from 800p / 16:10 to 720p and 16:9. Since Fantasy Life i on Steam Deck locks the show mode and determination choice by default, the repair entails utilizing the “Steam Deck=0 %command%” (with out the quotes) as a launch choice. This allows you to modify no matter settings you need in-game.

Barring that, Fantasy Life i is ideal on Steam Deck. I’ve examined over a thousand video games on Valve’s handheld through the years and recurrently take a look at new and older titles for our RPGs on Steam Deck characteristic , however Fantasy Life i is likely one of the greatest by far for the way nicely it performs and fits the system. You possibly can even faucet to progress dialogue and use the precise trackpad for precision placement through the constructing part (by means of Steam Enter).

Fantasy Life i Steam Deck beneficial settings and a repair

For the reason that Fantasy Life i cut-scenes are capped on PC to 60fps, I like to recommend aiming for 60fps on each Steam Deck LCD and OLED for essentially the most constant expertise. In the event you play on an OLED, ensure you aren’t working the sport capped at 60fps in-game on the 90hz show. I ended up sticking to the sport uncapped, however utilizing the Steam Deck fast entry menu to cap it to 60hz for a clean expertise all through. Actually, I’ve solely had just a few cases that lasted a second or two in menus the place the body price dropped under 60fps within the time I’ve put into Fantasy Life i on my Steam Decks. 

Numerous the choices that have an effect on efficiency aren’t actually helpful when performed on the smaller display. The primary setting I like to recommend throughout the board is disabling the depth of area. I hate the way it blurs components of the display. Past that, you could possibly simply set the sport to medium and never fear about the rest. Utilizing the Excessive preset will end in drops nicely under 60fps so I don’t advocate it on Steam Deck. I additionally turned down shadows like I normally do. 

Fantasy Life i ROG Ally impressions and beneficial settings

As standard, my ROG Ally testing has been completed on a ROG Ally Z1 Excessive with the GPU set to 5GB VRAM. I am on the most recent driver replace that was shipped final week and all the things is updated. I did not spend greater than an hour with Fantasy Life i on ROG Ally as of this writing, however when testing on Steam Deck, I found just a few stress check areas which made this simpler. I wished to see how a lot I might push the visuals on ROG Ally throughout its completely different modes and likewise see if I might hit 120fps on it in handheld mode. 

For the absolute best visuals, when enjoying at 1080p and utilizing the excessive preset, you may get a strong 30fps within the 30W mode. When making an attempt this on the 25W mode, I seen it drops a bit to the excessive 20s in very busy areas. I do not advocate aiming for 30fps in Fantasy Life i given the visible variations doesn’t justify the excessive efficiency penalty.

When working at 1080p and utilizing the low preset, Fantasy Life i within the 25W mode runs at 70fps or extra. Dropping to the 15W mode leads to body charges within the mid to excessive 60s right here. I then turned the decision all the way down to 720p and used the low preset. The end result was between 100 and 120fps. Getting 60fps locked when utilizing the 15W mode shouldn’t be attainable until you drop to 720p. The 900p mode is shut, and VRR helps, however you will note drops into the 50s usually. 

Having now performed Fantasy Life i on Nintendo Change, Steam Deck, and ROG Ally, I am curious to see the way it feels each time the Nintendo Change 2 Version releases. Keep tuned for my protection on that in addition to my full evaluate of the sport.

Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time will launch worldwide concurrently for PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X|S, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Change, and PC (Steam) on Might 21. It releases later for Nintendo Change 2 as Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time Nintendo Change 2 Version. In the event you’re planning on getting it or have already got it, make certain to take a look at all our Fantasy Life i recreation guides right here.