In March 2021, the Epic Games Store scored a goal by exclusively securing the arrival of the Kingdom Hearts series on PCuntil then exclusive to consoles (and with Kingdom Hearts III, the most recent installment at the time, it was the first to be released simultaneously on PS4 and Xbox One).
Since then, more than 3 years have passed and today, Square Enix ends Epic’s exclusivity on PC with the Steam release of Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2 HD Remix, Kingdom Hearts III + ReMind and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8that is, you can now play the entire saga even on Steam Deck.
And it’s good news, because Epic’s versions of Kingdom Hearts gave problems when trying to run them on Steam Deck through launchers like Heroic or Lutris, with errors such as freezes in the videos. They were not versions, in other words, games prepared for the laptop.
Otherwise, the Epic Games Store versions had no performance problems on a desktop PC and were well optimized although They had some pretty stupid requirements, like checking every so often to see if we had an Internet connection.and if not, he would kick us out of the game.
The Steam versions do not have controls of this type, nor does Denuvo, or at least it has been that way for the time I have tried them. And, like the Epic versions, they have no performance problems and are well optimized, although they are still very limited in terms of graphic options.
I I have tried all three Steam Kingdom Hearts on Steam Deckand although they still continue to appear as unverified, the truth is that they work without any problem, and they are well optimized for the laptop. Of course, with some nuances.
Here you will not find the problems that occurred when trying to run them from launchers like Heroic. You can skip the videos, there are no crashes (you can see it in the video in the article, although the quality is a little bad because I recorded it in low light). The loading times are not excessively long either. So for those two parts, good.
In terms of content, They are exactly the same games as in the console versionsand you will find from the Final Mix versions of many games to extras like the great Birth by Sleep for PSP to the Nintendo DS games converted into “movies” to understand the story… If you download all three games, you will practically have the series in full, in the absence of Melody of Memory.
In total, they are on sale separately, on the one hand Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, on the other Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8, and finally Kingdom Hearts III + ReMind. Everyone on a moderately powerful PC can move up to 120 fps, although the graphic options are a bit limited (and the one that offers the most settings is KHIII and even so it is limited compared to games like Ghost of Tsushima).
As for its performance on the Steam Deck, I have to say that the unit I played with is a launch one, not OLED, and out of the box, games were locked at 40fps or 30fps. But it is possible to create a profile per game and unlock it so they can move at 60 fps constantly.
In the Steam Deck OLED model, with a little more fiddling, and thanks to the 90 Hz screen, it is possible to exceed 60 fps. Logically, these settings mean that the battery will run out sooner, both in the first model and in OLED, but you can easily get about 2 hours out of the normal model.
I have also been playing with the frame limitation at 40 fps and the truth is that it also offers a very pleasant gaming experience, although logically, I prefer the smoothness that 60 fps offers.
The one who may suffer a little more is KHIII, which has some very occasional backfires, but as a general rule it is perfectly playable and, at 60 fps, it feels really good, especially in combat. I have played in low quality, medium level of detail at the native resolution (although it says 800p, it is really 720p hence the black bands).
Nevertheless, Regardless of the Steam Deck model, in many games the video sequences go at 30 fps (for example, in KH HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix) but by decision of the developer, although in KHIII they do not have this block and with mods it is something that can be eliminated.
For all this, Steam versions of Kingdom Hearts are perfectly optimized for the Steam Deck and in ROG Ally they should also go smoothly… because they were already going quite well with the Epic Game Store versions.
It is the solution that many were waiting for to be able to play them properly on a laptop. There are no problems with the controls (which by default are the same as console controls), nor are there any actions present that require a keyboard or mouse. They are perfectly playable from the moment they load. Yes indeedif you are a little blind like me, some texts may seem “small” to you.
Of course, even if it is not something unexpected, prepare your wallet. At launch, all games have a 31% discount, but starting June 27, the price of KH HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix will be 49.99 euros, KH HD 2.8 will be 59.99 euros and KHIII+ ReMind will be 59 euros. .99 euros.
So now you know, as soon as you were waiting the arrival of Kingdom Hearts on SteamDon’t miss the discount…
