BenkeiKuruma
Published
Despite a few issues, the actual game runs flawlessly.
Title screen won't render, nor will movies.
Alt-Tab locked up my entire system. Had to reboot from tty.
Here's what you'll need to do to play:
When you start the game, two windows will appear on your desktop. One is some kind of "movie window", the other is the game itself. The intro movie won't show, but you can watch those on YouTube if you really want. Regardless, if it wasn't done automatically by your DE, open the game window and wait.
Eventually you'll see the game's mouse cursor appear, along with the usual Steam-related popups about your controller, etc. Wait a bit longer.
Finally, the game's main menu will appear, though you won't be able to see any graphics in the background, just the menu. The good news is this is the last "problem" related to the game. You can load your game, begin a new game, etc from the screen and proceed to play the game as if you were on Windows.
Just be sure you don't alt-tab. When I did it, my entire system locked up and I could only move my mouse. Had to reboot from tty. I'm just happy that the game finally works at all, after all these years. No issues with framerate, graphics, audio, or crashing on my end (besides the alt-tab issue).
Works perfectly out of the box.
This is an earlier Kemco-to-PC port, so it doesn't natively support controllers. You can use Steam Input to map keyboard and mouse functions to your controller, though, allowing for a seamless experience. Someone has even uploaded a custom configuration for everyone to use, which you can find in the Controller Configuration menu for the game.
Playable if you can tolerate slowdowns during combat.
During combat, combat animations (spells, attacks, etc) slow to a crawl, particularly if there are several enemies on screen. I especially noticed this during overworld map battles.
It's certainly playable, but the single issue of combat animation slowdowns might be a showstopper for some. Also note that this issue applies to the other three "remake" titles (Avernum 1, 2, and 3) released by Spiderweb.
Works just as well as the Windows version.
The analog input that moves your cursor around the map is inverted. This is mentioned in the Steam forums by several players of the native Windows version, so it's not a Linux/Proton-specific issue. From what I understand, you have to manually lock the game at 60fps to make the analog stick act properly, but there is no way to do this in the game itself as far as I know.
Any issues you experience running this on Linux are likely issues that have already been brought up for Windows on Steam. Namely, the controller issue, along with the game freezing when opening the Graphics menu for the first time (at least, it only happened once for me so far). Here's to hoping the developers can fix these issues, because Brigandine deserves red carpet treatment. Otherwise the game is perfectly playable.
Game immediately crashes on boot.
I'm running the Flatpak version of Steam, which might be the cause.
Just adding some extra detail to previous report
Running Steam Flatpak from terminal, I suspect this could be the error, or maybe just noise:
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/GL/default/share/libdrm/amdgpu.ids: No such file or directory
The first game, Class of Heroes Anniversary Edition, works perfectly on my system. If anyone else out there uses Steam Flatpak, any assitance would be appreciated: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2195790/discussions/0/4360124364782021617/
Works perfectly out of the box.
Note that the sequel, Class of Heroes 2G: Remaster Edition, oddly crashes on boot on my system. I'm thinking it has something to do with sandboxing since I'm running Steam Flatpak. Would very much appreciate any help:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2195790/discussions/0/4360124364782021617/
Game freezes when entering first dungeon.
Game freezes (black screen) when entering the first dungeon "Red City" at the beginning of the game.
Tried Proton GE, same result. Tried older versions of Proton; either the game didn't run at all, or same problem mentioned here.
Game runs perfectly with a simple symlink fix.
The game crashes to a black screen upon entering "Red City" from the world map. Launching the game from the terminal and reading the errors reveals that the game is looking for assets in an invalid directory.
Namely, the game is looking for StreamingAssets within the main directory, but it's actually within the DEMON GAZE EXTRA_data directory.
To fix the issue, create a symbolic link ("symlink") to the correct directory:
- Open a terminal and cd to
/steamapps/common/DEMON GAZE EXTRA
- Paste and run this command:
ln -s 'The Last Campfire_Data/StreamingAssets' .
The game crashes to a black screen upon entering "Red City" from the world map. Launching the game from the terminal and reading the errors reveals that the game is looking for assets in an invalid directory.
Namely, the game is looking for StreamingAssets within the main directory, but it's actually within the DEMON GAZE EXTRA_data directory.
To fix the issue, create a symbolic link ("symlink") to the correct directory:
- Open a terminal and cd to
/steamapps/common/DEMON GAZE EXTRA
- Paste and run this command:
ln -s 'DEMON GAZE EXTRA_Data/StreamingAssets' .
Works with Steam Flatpak after creating a symlink to StreamingAssets.
You can disregard my previous reports, as this should be easier to read, and after experimenting with other games, I understand the problem better now.
This game, along with at least a handful of other Unity-made games, have an issue on Flatpak where it's looking for files in the wrong directory. This causes these games to "lock up" at various loading screens. In this game, the first place this happens (to my knowledge) is Red City at the beginning of the game.
To fix this, you'll need to go to the game's main directory and create a symbolic link to the StreamingAssets folder.
Run the following two commands in a terminal:
cd "/var/home/$USER/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/DEMON GAZE EXTRA"
ln -s "DEMON GAZE EXTRA_Data/StreamingAssets" .
Set "Play Movie" option to "off" in configuration settings and it runs flawlessly.
Slow downs on AMD hardware, but can be fixed with a launch option.
Game slows down when entering outdoor zones.
If you're using AMD hardware and the game slows down, try using this launch command:
radeonsi_disable_sam=true AMD_DEBUG=nowc %command%
That command completely eliminated slowdowns. Oddly enough, I have to thank Hyperdimension Neptunia gamers for the tip: https://www.protondb.com/app/282900#0hYOw5nYKU
Performance issues when entering outdoor areas.
Slows when entering outdoor areas.
Sorry guys. Scratch previous report, I wrote it too soon. Game eventually started to slowdown in outdoor areas. I'll have to do more testing, perhaps try a different version of proton. =(
Just had to lower settings to "High". Game runs perfectly.
Sorry about the other reports. Wish there was a way to delete them. In any case, the game runs beautifully on "High" overall settings. Maybe there are a few individual settings I can bump back up to Ultra, but I'll keep it this way for now. I can't honestly tell the difference between the two settings in terms of quality anyway.
The Kemco RPGs on Steam all seem to run on the same or similar graphical engine. If any of them don't start for you, try this launch option:
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Besides PS4 controller issue, it runs flawlessly out of the box.
Very minor, but if you want to play the game with a PS4 controller via Bluetooth (or perhaps otherwise), this may cause it to crash on startup. The developer is aware of this and is working on a fix: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1065880/discussions/2/2574319296483806269/
I say "very minor" since you'll likely just want to play with a mouse anyway. The game feels designed with mice/touchscreens in mind.
Except one tiny thing (videos on the TV screens in-game), runs flawlessly.
In the main hub area (city), there are TVs on some buildings that display videos. You can probably use proton-ge-custom to get the videos working, as I suspect they are .wmv files or what have you... but they are such a minuscule detail that you probably won't even notice.
Other than the inability to alt-tab, and the opening cinematics being a tad choppy, the game runs flawlessly.
Proton-5.9-GE-5-ST GloriousEggroll
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/5.9-GE-5-ST
Alt-Tab doesn't work.
Opening cinematics slightly choppy, but skippable and do not affect gameplay.
Besides the intro story video not displaying, the game runs flawlessly out of the box.
The game has a short intro story video that plays when you begin a new game. You can watch the video on YouTube, or on your computer by opening it from the game's install directory:
/home/[username]/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Elminage Gothic/Intro.wmv
Or, if you want to see the video in-game, use proton-ge-custom:
Works perfectly out of the box. Finally.
Works perfectly out of the box, with one minor correction.
Just wanted to correct my previous report with a minor point.
The videos at the beginning of the game, before the main menu, won't play. Just close the little video player popups that appear, and the game proceeds as normal.
You can watch the videos on YouTube, they don't spoil anything, just provide a little backstory you could otherwise read elsewhere.
Here's a link to someone doing a Let's Play. The videos that you're missing are right at the start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAjT7UTZnLE&list=PLCeTWO4k4c82Er-4Zzi99FTlhJ3hrssHu
Very poor performance. Virtually unplayable.
Game slows to <=15fps during 3D rendered gameplay segments (adventuring/combat).
I dual boot Fedora Silverblue and Windows 11 on my desktop. Same exact hardware, just different OS. Game runs flawlessly on Windows. Used to run very well on every Linux distro I've used (including Fedora Silverblue) when I had an NVIDIA card (with proprietary driver), so it could just be an issue with AMD Radeon's open source Linux driver and this game.
With default Proton, the game wouldn't start after the initial loading screen. However, it's fully playable with Proton GE.
Only issue is the opening movie won't play. You'll hear a crackle sound, but just wait for a minute and you'll see the title screen. Game plays just as well as it does on Windows from there.
Tried both Proton Experimental (which I use for all other games) and Proton-GE (since a few other reports here recommended it). The game ran well with these, but would inexplicably crawl to a halt while exploring various parts of dungeons. For example, in the first underground dungeon (when it's just Otsuu by herself), the game pretty much locks up when you come to the first door. Not sure what changes caused this happen in current Proton builds, or if I should be using launch flags, etc. Could also be my video card, no idea. At any rate, with Proton 6.3-8, I don't experience any slowdowns whatsoever. Videos don't play, but you can watch those in the game files at /Mary Skelter 2/masterWindows/
Rename all movie folders in the game's masterWindows directory.
The best version of Proton to run this game seems to be 6.3-8. I only get stuttering with Experimental, even several versions later.
The game also takes a while to get past the black screens at the beginning, probably because it's trying to play movies. It seems to take at least a minute to get through all that. If you want it to start a LOT faster, you can try disabling the intro movies by renaming all the movie folders in the game's masterWindows directory (e.g., MOVIE_EN_OLD). That seems to work well for me, and it's something I also found useful with Moero Chronicle.
I just purchased Mary Skelter Finale, but haven't installed it yet since I'm still getting through this one. Ugh, so many games to play, so little time. But I suspect if Finale has issues like this game has, using Proton 6.3-8 might fix them, along with renaming movie folders. Well, besides some of the sudden crash to desktop issues, which I remember plagued this game on Windows as well.
As others have mentioned, the game runs if you rename the MOVIES folder. However, you'll still get occasional crashes while playing. If you get lucky you'll get maybe 15-20 minutes of playtime before it happens. I've launched Steam through the terminal, run the game until it crashed, and nothing was reported (also no crash file in tmp/dumps). So I have no idea what causes the crashing, the program simply exits randomly for no apparent reason.
No longer requires PROTON_USE_WINE3D3=1 %command%, but there are two major issues you need to deal with.
DXVK_FRAME_RATE=60 %command%
Some particle effects slow the game down to a crawl. Namely, the effects from magical skills (e.g., fire spells).
Text is no longer garbled with latest version of Proton. However, there are two major issues:
The game runs super fast at anything above monitor refresh rate of 60 hz. To fix this, you can manually limit the refresh rate with the launch option above.
Certain particle effects cause the game's framerate to crawl. I don't know of any fixes, but you can turn off particle effects in the game's battle options menu.
Garbled fonts.
To fix garbled fonts, simply add this to your launch options:
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Try this common launch option to fix crackling audio:
PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 %command%
Would not load a cloud save I had from a previous Windows install, though this could just be the game itself and not Proton. Simply says "Load failed" with no explanation.
Game crashes silently (i.e., black screen with no input, mouse cursor still present) immediately after tutorial battle.
DXVK_FRAME_RATE=30 %command%
Use the launch option above to run the game at 30fps. You can crank it up higher, but it'll run super ultra turbo fast at those rates. These older Exe-Create games are just supposed to run at 30 FPS, basically.
6.16-GE-1 GloriousEggroll
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/6.16-GE-1
I'm using the latest GE fork of Proton to get videos to work, but the game launched and would probably run just fine with Proton Experimental. The only other issue is that the game seems to "hang" when starting a new game or loading a previous save, but only the first time the game is run after a fresh install. I haven't played the game on Windows yet so I can't say if this is just how the game is, or if it's a Linux-specific issue. Overall, not a big deal given how well the game runs.
Besides not being able to Alt-Tab while in full screen, the game runs flawlessly out of the box.
Alt-Tab doesn't appear to work while fullscreen.
Besides quicksaves not working, the game runs perfectly out of the box.
Quicksave doesn't appear to work, though this may be true for the Windows version as well.
Scratch previous report. Game works perfectly, including quicksaves. See notes.
I was confused because quicksaves don't appear in the "Load" menu. You have to press the quickload key (default is F9), or click "Continue" on the main menu, to load a quicksave.
Proton-5.21-GE-1 GloriousEggroll
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/5.21-GE-1
proton-ge-custom GloriousEggroll
proton-ge-custom
If using a controller, disable Steam Input for this game, or you'll get some "double inputs" (i.e., sometimes pressing a button once will trigger it twice).
You can play this perfectly fine with Proton Experimental as well, but the movies won't play (including the short video that plays when you begin a battle). Note that Proton-GE currently causes "double input" if used with Steam Input, so be sure to turn that off.
Essentially, you have two options, then.
- Play with Proton Experimental, but you can't see videos.
- Play with Proton-GE, but you need to disable Steam Input to avoid controller bug.
Can't zoom in and out with scroll wheel, but game works otherwise.
Zooming in and out with the scroll wheel doesn't work.
