Steam Deck Setup
Setup in the SteamDeck is lenghtly and requires your full attention, so it is recommended to set aside enough time to sit down and little by little set the game up in your deck with minimal distractions, we will begin preparations by downloading the client and necessary patches below (you can use your Deck's Firefox browser from here on):
Official PSO BB 1.25.11 Japanese Client (~500 MB)
Patches
Game Setup
Step 1. Preparing the Installation
After downloading the client and the Steam Deck special patch, we will prepare the installation but switching over to the Desktop View on your Steam Deck and proceed to open the classic Desktop Steam client.
On the left bottom corner choose the option "Add a non-steam game", a window will open with a list of all programs currently installed in your Deck, click on the "Browse..." button and add the client installer setup.exe you just downloaded, let's add this installer as a game and click on "Add Selected Programs"
Now that you just added the setup as a 'game' to your library it's time to activate some compatibility settings, click on the Gear Icon on the right side of the window as shown in the picture a properties window will open. We have to add some launch options parameters to launch the game, you have to copy the whole following line below and paste it into the "Launch Options" field:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="wsock32=n,b" LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8 PROTON_DXVK_D3D8=1 %command%
Now, on the left side select 'Compatibility' then check the checkbox and select 'Proton Experimental', you can close this window after you are done.
Step 2. Installation and Patching
Upon closing the compatibility window we will click on the big PLAY green button, so the game will start, however what will begin now is the installation of the game instead, for this step just make sure to select Next until you complete the setup (you might need to use your fingers or a external mouse to touch the setup buttons)
Open your File Manager and navigate to home > .steam > steam > steamapps > compatdata, you will see a bunch of folders with numbers, sort the contents by "Modified Date" and look for the newest one created just minutes ago, this folder is the one where PSOBB was installed.
Inside this folder navigate inside the drive_c folder and then to the "SEGA/PHANTASY STAR ONLINE Blue Burst" folder where the game is installed, delete the file Psobb.pat and drag and drop the patch files Psobb.exe, wsock32.dll and psobb.cfg into this folder replacing files if necessary.
Once you finished to place the required files, click on the top of the window where the route is located and it will turn into a huge text field, make sure to copy the whole route, we will need to paste this one in the game page on Steam.
On the Steam Client, click on the Gear Icon of the PSOBB page to open the compatibility menu once again, this time we need to paste the whole line of text you just copied from the File Manager into the "Start In" field (without quotes), then on the "Target" field above delete everything and just type "online.exe" (with quotes). Additionally change the name at the top from setup to PHANTASY STAR ONLINE Blue Burst so you can identify the game in your library with ease.
Now, click the big PLAY button again and the usual launcher should appear, select the options menu highlighted here and change a few settings so the game can run on the Deck without issues.
In the options menu change the resolution to 800x600 (1), check the Window Mode checkbox (2), select High End GFX setting (3), select the MS PGothic font, it is the very last one of the list (4), check the Remember ID/PWD checkbox (5) and lastly save your changes (6).
At this point, the game is ready to start, just make sure to return to the Steam Deck's Game Mode and launch the game from there (you have to press the launcher buttons with your fingers on the touch screen to start the game or by using the Steam Deck mouse cursor by pressing STEAM + Right Stick
Congratulations it was quite a trip!!! now you can return and continue updating the client and creating your account shown in the main install guide
※ If by any chance you are unable to type anything after opening the on-screen keyboard (STEAM + X) tap the screen with your fingers or with a external mouse while the game is running so the Steam Deck can focus on the PSOBB window properly, then try typing again.
※ Likewise, if you ever need or want to play in another server all you have to do is to change the server addresses in the psobb.cfg file to point to another server, that way dont have to install more than 1 client in your Steam Deck.
