Steam Deck has been freely available for some time now, and MeinMMO author Irina Moritz has looked into how her favorite MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV runs on it.
Since my school days, handhelds have always been a staple in my bag. I have liked these gaming devices for their mobility and compactness.
Some of my favorite games are only available for the Nintendo (3)DS and the PlayStation Portable, and it made me a bit sad that handhelds have been gradually pushed out of the gaming market by smartphones over time.
When the Nintendo Switch was announced, I got it without hesitation. However, I struggled for a long time with the decision about the Steam Deck. The main reason was that I had already been working from home before the pandemic, and the “portable” advantage of handhelds became irrelevant. I can just as well play Steam games on my PC.
AAA-MMORPG on a Handheld – A Strange Feeling
I have been following the development of handhelds for the past 20 years and still have some of them lying around in my drawer. One would think that I should not be surprised by the technological advancements and performance of the Steam Deck.
Nonetheless, it was a strange feeling to play such a large MMORPG like FFXIV on a handheld. Almost as if it shouldn’t be possible. Once I got somewhat used to the controls, there were no more problems. FFXIV runs smoothly and easily on the Steam Deck.
The FPS fluctuate according to internal Steam Deck analysis between 60 and 30, dropping below 30 in areas like Limsa. The GPU utilization is about 50% – 70%. In dungeons and raids, there are no noticeable performance drops that would affect gameplay.
The battery situation looks a little gloomier. After long fiddling with the graphics settings, I managed to squeeze up to 4 hours of life out of the Steam Deck. It’s helpful to set the FPS cap to 30 and lower the effects, but whether it is worth it is something each person has to decide for themselves.
Since I have only used the Steam Deck at home for shorter sessions, I didn’t really care about battery life. Using it on the go is quite difficult to impossible for FFXIV, since a stable internet connection is needed, and that isn’t quite possible in Germany in 2022 (unless you establish a hotspot through your smartphone or similar).
I see “on-the-go use” only possible during longer visits. For example, the next time I spend my vacation with family, I will definitely pack the Steam Deck. While I won’t be able to collect the weekly raid drops, doing dailies before sleeping and farming stones for the week will be no problem.
Controller players will feel at home, I have suffered
The first thing that awaits you when you want to play FFXIV on the Steam Deck are the settings. Even before logging in, you should upload your character setups to SE’s server so that you don’t spend more time setting up your user interface than necessary.
Settings like UI, macros, gear sets, etc., are saved locally on your PCs and consoles in FFXIV. However, there is an option to upload them to SE’s server. To save myself some extra work, I backed up the data and downloaded it on the Steam Deck.
However, that did not mean that I could start gaming right away. There were two reasons for that.
On the one hand, I had to adjust the resolution and position of the individual UI elements. The screen of the Steam Deck has an unusual resolution of 1280×800, making it much smaller than my 2560×1440 PC screen.
I had to resize and move various UI elements first before I could see anything properly. Those of you playing on 4K TVs or larger screens should particularly prepare for this.
On the other hand, I had to spend a lot of time adjusting the controller controls and setting up the famous cross command menu of FFXIV. Since I had only played the MMORPG with mouse and keyboard until now, the controller was basically uncharted territory for me.
It also took a good while until I distributed the skills for all my combat jobs, crafters, and gatherers. Just to redistribute them again because I realized that my layout was absolutely terrible.
Actually, I was practically born with a controller in my hand. I got my first console when I was 6 years old and have since played almost exclusively on consoles. However, the controller controls of FFXIV are still a challenge for me, not because they are bad. On the contrary, among MMORPGs, they are considered one of the best. But because they are very unconventional and require a lot of muscle memory.
If you are PC players who have only played with mouse and keyboard until now, it’s best to pick a controller guide beforehand. There are many very useful key combinations and shortcuts not explained by the game. You can also search for layout suggestions for your job skills and adjust them as you wish. From experience, I can tell you that total finger salad results from the first attempt.
Controller players should quickly feel comfortable with the Steam Deck controls. The only adjustment will be the controller type. The Steam Deck uses the Xbox layout, while many FFXIV controller players will probably be playing on Sony consoles and will have to get used to it a bit.
Perfect for Relaxing on the Couch
While I also play a lot of other games on the Steam Deck, flexibility was the main reason I wanted to play FFXIV on it. The advantage of handhelds is that you can take them virtually anywhere.
While this flexibility is limited for an always-online MMORPG, it still has its uses. If I want to just lounge in bed and do a few dailies, I can do that now. The Steam Deck is perfect for more relaxed FFXIV content like:
- Leveling
- Farming
- Crafting
- Treasure maps
- Island paradise etc.
You can also easily run random content and the 24-player raids, provided you are accustomed to the controller controls. It took me a while and several rounds at the training dummy before I ventured into the content (and even afterwards, I still played total nonsense).
However, I will initially avoid the harder content like Ex-Trials or Savage. On the one hand, I don’t have the necessary muscle memory with the controller controls to deliver the same performance as on PC. On the other hand, the smaller screen of the Steam Deck can be quite a disadvantage in fights with many mechanics.
No matter how much I love my PC, when you work at the same spot every day in a home office where you also game in the evening, it eventually becomes too much. It is also not always possible to switch to the couch, since the TV and consoles have to be shared with a partner (or with children in families).
The Steam Deck is therefore a versatile alternative for me, offering FFXIV alongside other options. I wouldn’t buy the device just for the MMORPG, but it’s a significant advantage that I can play my main MMO on it.
PC Players Have a Problem
Before some of you whip out your credit cards to order a Steam Deck and play FFXIV on it, you should urgently check your account first. The account system of the MMORPG can become a problem.
The thing is: FFXIV accounts are managed centrally through the Mogry Station. This ensures, among other things, that you can use one account for multiple platforms.
So you can link your Square Enix account with your PlayStation account. If you acquire FFXIV for PC and PS5, you can play on both devices with the same character since there is unrestricted crossplay in the MMORPG. In that case, no additional monthly fees need to be paid.
The problem now is that this is not possible with Steam and PC, as strange as it may sound. The MMORPG has separate Steam and PC accounts that are not compatible with each other. Anyone who has FFXIV on Steam cannot link this account with the proprietary PC version of FFXIV.
In plain terms: If you don’t play FFXIV through Steam, you won’t be able to use the MMORPG on the Steam Deck with your existing account. At least not directly.
Even if you buy FFXIV on Steam, the Steam version cannot be linked to your account through the Mogry Station. You then have two options:
- You create a new account that runs through Steam. Of course, that’s annoying because you lose all your progress and theoretically have to pay monthly again. I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone.
- The second option involves roundabout methods. For example, there’s the solution of installing Windows on the Steam Deck and then installing the PC version of FFXIV. There are also more options, but they involve using third-party tools that are officially banned. The use is therefore at your own risk.
I can’t tell you the reason for this strict separation, but there is no user-friendly solution from Square Enix for it, which can be very frustrating for PC players.
So be careful if you’re looking forward to playing FFXIV on the Steam Deck. In my circle of acquaintances, there are various people who had to find a workaround because they have a PC account.
Have you tried FFXIV on the Steam Deck yourself? Let us know in the comments.
If you are interested in other MMORPGs on Valve’s handheld, you can check out our article:
I played 2 MMORPGs on the Steam Deck for you and was surprised
