Dragami Games seems to be making a special version of Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP for the Steam Deck.
Dragami CEO Yoshimi Yasuda shared this message with a clip of the game running on Valve’s portable hardware:
“This is a video of the “LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP Steam Deck edition” that is currently being finalized. You can already play the Steam Deck in performance mode, but we will make an announcement when the adjustments are complete, so stay tuned.”
This follows some other updates where Yasuda promised updates coming to fix issues for the game on Steam, as well as other platforms. The most recent Steam update included a performance mode that seems to be preparation for making this Steam Deck Edition.
That’s good news for Steam Deck owners, as Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP sits in a unique position where it could benefit from a Steam Deck version the most. Since it is a remaster and not a full remake on cutting edge technology, there’s a lot of potential to optimize the game for Steam Deck.
We don’t know what budget or tech Dragami is employing, but we have to at least assume that they will push resolution to as best as the Steam Deck can display, perhaps 1080p, and maybe work at a minimum 30 FPS, possibly pushing that to 45 FPS if that’s possible. But the real merit to optimization would be getting the game as power efficient as it can on the platform.
Subsequently, the update comes with new graphics options, balance adjustments, and bug fixes, that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S users can also expect to arrive for their platforms.
The Nintendo Switch is, of course, a special case, and Yasuda explained in a separate tweet that they will tackle the GPU issue on that platform head-on, instead of just focusing on the CPU. So it seems Dragami is committed to getting the game running as best as it can on the platform, and they aren’t just going to wait for the Switch 2 to confirm backwards compatibility and just fix it for the next console.
While Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP didn’t quite land as well as Dragami would have hoped, this is all a positive sign that they are committed to getting the game right. Remember, Dragami is one of those few fully independent game companies in Japan. That was already uncommon, but they may go endangered in the future, as the market for outsourcing work from the AAA Japanese game companies has been dwindling.
Companies like Dragami and Unseen being able to publish the titles they own, such as Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP and the upcoming Kemuri, are vital to making their industry healthy. Japanese games’ struggles may seem invisible in contrast to the wave of layoffs happening in the West, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe either. This is why we should be cheering for Xbox to increase their business in the region, and for all these game companies to rally the industry back over there, too.
