Can There Be Expectations for 'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth' on Steam Deck?
As a Steam Deck fan, I felt a pang of disappointment when Square Enix revealed the recommended PC specifications for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on PC. The reason? The "minimum" requirement listed is Nvidia's RTX 2060, a GPU that outclasses the Steam Deck's capabilities. It's the second game in a row that demands an RTX 2060-class graphics card, following in the footsteps of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle which ran sluggishly on Valve's handheld.
My apprehension regarding the PC version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth performing poorly on the Steam Deck was further strengthened by the underwhelming performance of Square Enix's last PC port on both the Deck and ROG Ally. That game was Final Fantasy 16, which has a significantly lower GPU requirement (Nvidia GTX 1060) than Final Fantasy VII, and features AMD-driven frame generation.
All that the Steam Deck fans have to cling to as a glimmer of hope is the teaser tucked away in Square Enix's announcement blog: "The team is working hard to optimize the game for Steam Deck." Square Enix promises more details about official Steam Deck verification "in the future."
This one sentence sounds more like a wish rather than a commitment, so for now, we can only keep our fingers crossed and wait until the game's release on January 23, 2025.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Minimum PC Specifications
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth offers various benefits on PC, such as a peak framerate of 120FPS, enhanced lighting, detailed environments, and sharper textures. NVIDIA DLSS and VRR are also included in the package to improve image quality and upscale images.
Square Enix provides the following baseline hardware for achieving 30FPS on "low" graphics quality at 1080p:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 / Intel Core 14-8100
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6600 / Intel Arc 1580 / NVIDIA GeForce RRX 2060
- Memory: 16GB
- Storage: 155 GB SSD (!)
I'll pay close attention to things as we approach the release date for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on PC next month. Besides checking the game's performance on the Steam Deck, it will also be interesting to observe how it fares on the slightly more powerful ROG Ally.
Despite the challenging minimum PC requirements for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I'm still holding onto hopes that Square Enix will successfully optimize the game for the Steam Deck, as mentioned in their announcement blog. However, the current recommended specifications, including an Nvidia RTX 2060, seem to be out of reach for the Steam Deck's capabilities, potentially limiting my playtime for the anticipated game.
