Octopath Traveler 2 Steam Deck and PC Demo Impressions
With a little under two weeks until its release. The demo for Octopath Traveler 2 is currently out on PlayStation, Nintendo, and PC platforms. Allowing fans of the previous title to get a taste of the game’s improvements over the original. As well as new players to the series being able to see if the game is for them. We at Lords of Gaming currently have impressions for the Nintendo Switch version. Where we also break down some of the improvements of the game’s systems. As well as how the new stories play out.
You can read that here if you would like a more in-depth breakdown of the demo in general. This article will be going over how this game plays on both the PC platform with a custom-built rig. As well as Valve’s newly released Steam Deck. Here are my findings.
Smoother, Prettier, Quicker
In the Nintendo Switch version of the demo of Octopath Traveler 2. Despite its art style not necessarily needing the resolution or framerate of a modern system. The improvements in visual clarity and framerate are a noticeable difference, however. On my custom-built PC comprised of a Ryzen 5 2400, RX6600, 16GB of RAM, and an Intel M.2 NVME SSD. I can more than easily get 1080p 120fps, which appears to be the highest framerate the game can get to. Since my monitor can go up to 165fps overall.
That being said, there is only a slightly noticeable difference in framerate between 60fps and 120fps considering the game’s art style. On the Steam Deck using the Dock, I was able to get 1080p 60fps as well.
The game looks a lot prettier and I was able to notice more detail in the game’s environment. Particle effects, moving foliage, the draw distance and so forth is more noticeable in comparison. The higher framerates, obviously, create a smoother experience for animations and combat effects. Like the attack skills, damage numbers, and the boost aura.
These still images can not do the differences any justice. As it is more noticeable in motion. But when it comes to playing the game on PC and the Steam Deck, I had a much better experience overall both visually and the way it feels when you move around as there may be some input lag on the Nintendo Switch version. But as this is a direct improvement, the PC settings are very strange.
What’s up with the Octopath Traveler 2 Settings?
The settings on the PC version of Octopath Traveler 2 are interesting. As you have the standard resolution and framerate targets and the different detail settings. But where it gets interesting is the framerate. As mentioned before you can do up to 120fps, but if you enable v-sync, you cannot pick your framerate target which is strange.
Another thing that’s interesting is there are normal resolution options. But you can somehow choose the clarity of the overall environment detail up to 4k resolution even if you can only do 1080p. I did not notice much difference between the 4k version of the textures and the 1080p version.
As for performance, the game runs beautifully on both PC and Steam Deck. With a few noticeable stutters that occur on the PC version when you break an enemy in combat. As well as on the Steam Deck when you exit out of combat it stutters a little bit but fixes itself after a second or two. It is not deck verified as of right now so there may be some optimizations needed to be made before the games launch.
But overall, I will be preferring to play Octopath Traveler 2 on PC and Steam Deck instead of the Nintendo Switch version. The loading times are faster, the framerates make the game better and the resolution difference is noticeable. I finished the stories for Hikari, Ochette, Castti, Temenos, and Throné across the demo on both Steam Deck and PC and had a much better time with it in comparison. Do check out the demo on Steam when you can before launch. As your progress can transfer over to the full game when it launches on February 24th.
