I’ll be the first to admit I was skeptical about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth being playable on Steam Deck, despite an earlier statement that Square Enix was “working hard to optimize the game.” The minimum PC specs — requiring an Nvidia RTX 2060 to even achieve 30FPS at 1080p — seemed a bit too steep for Valve’s handheld. But hey, credit where credit is due: Square Enix confirmed today that the latest in the Final Fantasy Remake trilogy is officially Steam Deck verified.
The Steam Store page for FF7 Rebirth confirms it the game’s Verified status.
Games need to check four boxes to be Deck Verified by Valve. One of the most important requirements is that the game must support the Steam Deck’s native resolution (1280×800 or 1280×720), and the default graphics configuration needs to performs well on the system.
Crucially, Valve doesn’t list any requirements for average framerates. And that’s where I’ve always had a small grievance with Valve’s program. This dates all the way back to when Vampire Survivors first launched on the system. Despite getting Verified status, the sheer magnitude of onscreen enemies combined with particle effects during the last 10 minutes of a run slowed the framerate to a slideshow. (The developer dramatically improved performance, by the way, but it remains a good example of the program’s flaws).
Fortunately, Square Enix showed us proof that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is running smoothly on Steam Deck, via this Instagram reel. Unfortunately, the footage is from very early in the combat tutorial section of the game, which always raises some concerns.
In spite of the Steam Deck’s recent struggles to comfortably run several demanding new releases, this is a welcome announcement from Square Enix. I just hope that we see a steady 30FPS maintained throughout the entire playthrough, with a minimum of framerate drops.
I’ll be testing the game on release day and plan to give some detailed impressions of performance.
The PC version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth releases January 23, 2025. On capable systems, you’ll enjoy a peak framerate of 120FPS, refined lighting, improved environmental details, sharper textures, and DLSS image upscaling for Nvidia RTX owners. VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) is also part of the package, so I think I’ll be checking this one out on the ROG Ally as well.
