Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga feels great on both Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2
Ahead of its launch tomorrow from refint/games, I've had a chance to play the full version of Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga for Steam and Nintendo Switch. I was able to test the game online and offline, and it has been great seeing how much work has gone into making this remaster feel good on both portable devices and modern displays. I'll be covering my Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga Steam Deck recommended settings, PC port impressions, Nintendo Switch port impressions, and more.
One thing to note is that while the game plays fine via backward compatibility already, a patch is coming soon with improved resolution and visuals for the Switch version when played on Switch 2. We will have more details on that soon.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga PC port impressions
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga on PC lets you adjust not only the voice language (English or Japanese) like on consoles, but also the text language from the game options. Beyond that, you can also enable Rich Presence support (for third party applications to display gameplay information), toggle off the startup movies to save time while loading, choose button icons (auto, keyboard & mouse, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and even horizontal Joy-Cons), remap buttons, and adjust various graphics options. The sound options let you toggle on the "Show BGM information" that when a track is played for the first time or always when a track changes. You can also disable this.
On the graphics side, Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga lets you select monitor, adjust resolution (320 x 200 up to 4K with 21:9 and 16:10 support), select monitor refresh rate, toggle v-sync, adjust anti-aliasing (none, FXAA, 2x MSAA, 4x MSAA, 8x MSAA), and adjust anisotropic filtering (off, 4x, and 16x). As for ultrawide support, while the gameplay renders properly at 21:9 with the UI taking into account the wider screen real estate (including in story mode), the game's menus are still rendered at 16:9 with black bars on each side. I didn't expect this to change given how a lot of the game uses 2D assets that were designed for 16:9 screens, but it is worth noting. I've included some 21:9 screenshots below.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga Steam Deck recommended settings
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga plays flawlessly on Steam Deck out of the box if you play on a Steam Deck LCD. On the Steam Deck OLED, you just need to cap the screen to 60hz using the quick access menu since this is a game capped at 60fps. If you play it without making this change on Steam Deck OLED, it will not feel as smooth as it should. Barring that, Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is perfect on Steam Deck with full 16:10 gameplay (there will be black bars for the main menu and other 2D scenes, but the 3D gameplay is all 16:10), I even used my arcade controllers with no issue. One more thing I want to note is that the online multiplayer has been fully functional for Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga on Steam Deck pre-release. I was even able to play across the Switch and Steam versions in the same lobby. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga Steam Deck Verified very soon if it hasn't already been rated when you read this.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga for Switch on Switch 2
As I said in the beginning of this feature, a patch is coming soon for improved resolution and visuals for Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga when played on Switch 2. Even without that patch, it looks and runs well on Switch 2 via backward compatibility. The only real issue I have is how the 2D art can look a bit low resolution when played on the Switch 2 screen. I hope the patch can address this since the art looks good at native resolution on the PC version. Beyond that, the patch is also supposed to bring in the "Show BGM option" that displays the song name from the soundtrack or what Falcom game the song is playing from while in-game, HD Rumble, fixes for some subtitles, and more. I mainly played the Switch version in the arcade and free mode and everything ran as it should. I tested story mode for two hours and the only issue I had was some hitching during story mode scenes which apparently is being addressed in the game's patch coming soon.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga cross play online multiplayer impressions
I was only able to test this with devices in my own house, but Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga has cross platform online on Switch and Steam at least based on my testing. I was able to join the same lobby from my Steam Deck and Switch 2 and play online to test. The online mode itself lets you adjust network delay, display network information, and more. It is quite featured compared to what I expected. In addition to LAN mode on Switch and Steam, Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga also has a local mode on Switch to play via wireless. I wasn't able to test this, but I wanted to make a note of it being present in addition to the LAN and Online modes included. I will be including more online impressions once I've played it with people following the game's release.
I will be updating this when the Nintendo Switch version gets patched to bring in improved visuals on Nintendo Switch 2. Until then, I hope this helped if you were planning to buy Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga on Steam to play on Steam Deck, PC, or even the Switch version to play on Switch 2 online through cross platform multiplayer.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga launches on October 10 digitally for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam, GOG, Epic) in the West.