So most of the current handheld pc systems don’t hit 1080p/60fps on more modern titles. Most of them do 720-800p and upscale to 1080 in order to achieve 60fps. The basic rule of thumb for say Steam Deck, if it was a 360 era title like Fallout 3, sure it’ll run max settings at 60fps, but if it was PS3 and beyond expect to start adjusting settings in order to achieve 60fps. Anything PS4/5 era expect low settings and 720-800p in order to hit anything between 30-60fps.

And currently most devs don’t target a 40fps mode (which is honestly usually a perfect frame target in most titles) because only handful of systems have it natively on their screen, the rest of the game systems rely on the player having a tv or monitor capable of it. And I’m willing to bet a large portion of us are gaming on TVs from 2015-2019 era still where 120hz wasn’t super common.

But back to Arise…. Native 1080 is gonna look nice sure, and personally I’m fine with 30 fps in most titles. But they could have done a performance mode, dropped res to 720-800, and upscaled to 1080 giving a decent frame boost. Maybe not 60fps, but at least 40fps. And on a small screen 720-800 native upscaled to 1080 doesn’t look much different honestly.

@PikaPhantom exactly what you said! 40fps on S2 with VRR is clean, same with 45fps on Steam Deck OLED (it’s native 90hz). They really do need to nudge devs into 40fps modes, which on most titles would be a “balanced” mode. Usually removing some foliage, shadows and Lightning, while dropping native res to the 720-800 mark. Images still look clean, animation is smooth, there’s just not as much stuff going on in the pictures, which is fine.