Breath of Fire IV and Original Resident Evil Trilogy Arrive on Steam, Thanks to GOG

We recently celebrated the arrival of Breath of Fire IV on GOG, as part of their Preservation Program, which certifies that even old and potentially abandoned games are ready to run on modern systems. Today, we're celebrating that this Capcom classic has also landed on Steam, alongside three other essential 90s classics: the original Resident Evil trilogy.

Notably, GOG is listed as a co-developer for all four titles. This indicates that the work the Polish company put into re-releasing these games on their own platform has been utilized for these new Steam editions. This collaboration should ensure modern system compatibility, including, with some caveats, the Steam Deck.

These caveats are significant. The primary distinction from the GOG versions lies, of course, in the Digital Rights Management (DRM). The Steam releases come with multiple layers of DRM, starting with Steam's inherent protection and extending to Capcom's frequently criticized Enigma Protector. This protection system is notorious for its notable negative impact on game performance; while likely more severe in modern releases with less performance overhead (Capcom even had to remove this extra DRM from Resident Evil 4 Remake), it remains an unnecessary nuisance. The upside? GOG versions, as always, remain entirely DRM-free.

Breath of Fire IV carries additional specific caveats: some inconveniences with control mapping and the necessity for extra tweaking (a tip shared by a member of our Discord community) to disable the bilinear filter. By default, this filter blurs the game's extraordinary pixel art sprites into a murky, unappealing mess.

Despite these issues, all four games have been met with a generally enthusiastic reception on Steam. While negative reviews and comments are easy to find, they haven't prevented user ratings from remaining "Very Positive." I must confess, despite everything, I couldn't resist picking up Breath of Fire IV myself. Some games are just too tempting.