The Steam Deck Adds One Of The Most Beloved RPGs
The Steam Deck is continually adding games to its extensive library, and now one of the most beloved RPGs ever mad joins that growing list.
Valve’s handheld PC gaming console, Steam Deck, received a software update that added one of the most beloved RPG games to the console’s “Verified” list, making the game playable on the portable console. As a result, steam Deck owners can now finally enjoy Persona 4 Golden without any issues — the game will run smoothly, bringing its gameplay to a portable gaming experience once again.
Persona 4 Golden, Altus’ seminal replaying game, was released on Steam in 2020 but landed on the shortlist of gaming titles that most certainly aren’t compatible with Valve’s Steam Deck handheld console. The list has pushed Valve into an overdrive, which resulted in a sudden expansion of the Verified and Playable list of games. Admittedly, Persona 4 Golden was previously collecting dust on the Unsupported games list before it finally got its “Deck verified” badge, as reported by Destructoid.
Until now, the Persona 4 Golden’s absence from Deck was a source of massive disappointment for the fans of the Persona series and handheld gaming fans in general. The game could technically run on Valve’s handheld, but there were potential game-breaking problems with the game, which users couldn’t, or wouldn’t, be able to resolve on their own. So, Sega and Altus took matters into their own hands and patched the game’s cutscene codec, enabling the game to run on Deck without any issues.
It’s worth noting that there wasn’t any official information about either of the previously mentioned companies, Valve included, working on the patch to bring Persona 4 Golden to Deck. This made the game’s switch from “Unsupported” to “Verified” status a very pleasant surprise for Steam Deck owners, which should now enjoy the beloved RPG without any issues or hassle present in their gameplay experience.
The game’s initial release on Steam, and by extension, Deck, wasn’t all that surprising. But what struck the gamers was the fact that the game, specifically designed for handhelds, didn’t work on a handheld console. Persona 4 Golden was a 2012 PlayStation Vita version of Persona 4 that was released in 2008 on the then-aging hardware of the iconic PlayStation 2 console. Still, it managed to build a strong reputation among fans of the series, and its fame began to grow, especially in Western countries.
The improvement implemented in Persona 4 Golden were substantial, to say the least, and worked particularly well on handhelds. Unfortunately, despite the fact, that it was the last handheld Persona 4 experience ever since, considering that the game’s sequels were released as PlayStation home console exclusives. The Steam release of Persona 4 Golden was an unexpected hit, and it sold millions on Valve’s digital storefront, but its incompatibility with Steam Deck was disappointing, to say the least.
What was even more disappointing about the incompatibility issues was the fact that the game was already optimized for handhelds and wasn’t all that demanding in the hardware department. It turns out that Persona 4 Golden only needed a software update to make it compatible with the Steam Deck handheld console, which launched on February 25th this year. Unfortunately, the rumored Nintendo Switch version of the game still remains elusive.
