Can This Game Be Played Offline?

[Vassiel]

I saw that this game makes use of Denuvo, but will this affect it's ability to be played in offline mode? I wanted to know if this game requires the user to connect to the internet after a certain number of days before locking you out from offline access. Or would I be free to play for an unlimited period of time after purchase and installation?

[Arifufu]

some say they can play offline but some say they having trouble play offline during flight

as far as i know denuvo will re-authenticate your license once per week, but idk how to check it manually, so my advice always connect your device to the internet whenever possible, if not hopefully you should able play the game offline for about a week or less

[Montross]

I had it block me launching the game in offline mode on the steamdeck. Given it was mid flight this was very annoying to find out.

Steam is the drm to validate I have the rights to play the game. There shouldn't be a reason for another drm solution to then come over and say "its been too long since you checked in with our servers so you cant play it via steam".

Make it make sense, pirates have more functionality than paying customers again...

FYI this also happened with Persona 5 Royal too since I was hoping that would at least launch in offline mode.

[MegaMan]

It can, but it requires reconnection every so often. Otherwise, you can't play the game you paid for. So if you're going to be unable to connect to the internet for a long period of time you'll get locked out eventually.

[Vassiel]

Dang, that sucks. Thank you for the answers though. It's a shame that a single player game essentially requires internet to play.

[Horror Pigeon]

Why would you want to? Playing offline is woke

[24yo neet loser :)]

Originally posted by Vassiel:

I saw that this game makes use of Denuvo, but will this affect it's ability to be played in offline mode? I wanted to know if this game requires the user to connect to the internet after a certain number of days before locking you out from offline access. Or would I be free to play for an unlimited period of time after purchase and installation?

cant

[hush]

you can play offline. tried it many times

[♋Phenex]

You launch it once and can play offline basically for however long until it forces you to reconnect to internet again. Ngl tho it's 2024 so what are you doing where you won't be getting an internet connection for weeks or months at a time?

[Falkentyne]

I don't own this game yet, but if it uses the exact same denuvo version as Persona 5 royal, there is a bug (I had a Valve ticket open) related to the Steam Deck and Denuvo, where the Steam Deck's unique machine identification changes randomly every single boot between up to six (from what I've been able to find) machine types. This affects normal online play also, but most people never even realize (or can find out) this, because the denuvo token just re-authorizes again when the machine ID changes. The only way anyone would find out would be someone who turns off their Steam Deck more than 5-6 times a day and runs the game more than 6 times in 24 hours (once per reboot), then suddenly they can't play the game anymore because they ran out of activations for a day.

I know that Street Fighter 6 was affected a long time ago by something similar (maybe in an older SteamOS version), but it seems fixed now (at least my SF6 token has remained valid no matter how many times I turn off the deck, at least for 1 week at a time), but since P5R is affected, perhaps your guys' game is also (which plays havoc with offline play).

To work around this, you need to find the denuvo token (it's a text file with a name showing a bunch of numbers, though these numbers will be the same whether it's on windows or linux) and set it to "read only". Then set the deck to offline mode (Important, to determine if the deck's ID changes on restart) and hard reboot it and try to run your game again. You can do this (finding the file itself) in desktop mode in the file browser. You will need to show hidden files, because the folder .home/.steam/steam may be in a hidden folder. (./steam/root is the exact same folder as .steam/steam).

The token is stored in steamapps/compatdata/(your_unique_steam_id_number)/(game's proton ID number)/pfx (i forgot if it's pfx or another word, sorry) / dosdevices/c:/

Then from there, it should be in Program files(x86)/Steam/userdata/(your_unique_steam_ID_number)/(game's proton ID number).

The denuvo token itself will be a bunch of numbers in a text file that has a a very huge number of hexadecimal and other random hash values inside the file.

May not be the exact location but you should find it close enough.
YOU MUST SET THIS FILE TO READ ONLY (linux="can only view") in file permissions.
YOU MUST NOT OMIT THIS STEP.

The reason you cannot omit this step is, if the authentication fails, denuvo will *DELETE* the existing file and try to get a new one. If you are offline, of course it can't get a new file, so the file will just be gone until you go back online--we don't want this.

Once you set it to read only, go back to desktop mode and set the deck to offline mode and disable the wifi. (you can do this to save a step, in desktop mode, by setting the client to offline mode and disabilng the wifi there too). Then hard reboot the deck (power off).

Now run the game.
If you get "Steam is in offline mode...", it means the ID changed. It is VERY Important to set the steam deck to offline mode. This is to prevent denuvo from getting a new token until we are sure it needs one. If the game LAUNCHES successfully, turn off the deck and reboot it again (this is essential). You want to keep turning off the deck and on, and relaunching the game UNTIL you get "The deck must be online for first time run"--this means the ID has changed, so now we need to get a new ID.

So now, go back online and run the game again. It will re-authenticate BUT the token will be saved in a NEW --second folder, because the access to the first file (write permissions) is blocked.

This time, instead of program files(x86), it will be saved in users/steam/Appdata/Local/steam/userdata/your user ID/game identifier id.

Now, go back to offline mode (important) set *THIS* to read only also. (in linux, this is "View only" in permissions).

Now, create two temporary folders somewhere, like on the desktop, and copy each denuvo file to a separate folder, e.g. you can call it Metaphor/1 and metaphor/2 (folder names "1" and "2") and copy the file from program files(x86) into (1) and from users into (2).

Now, shut off the steam deck and reboot it again.
Now it's time to get 2 more tokens.

The deck should still be in offline mode. DO NOT TURN IT ONLINE YET. It's probably fastest to go into desktop mode at this point.

First run the game. If it runs successfully, it means the machine ID is matching one of the two denuvo files. You need to reboot the deck *AGAIN*. IF THE GAME EXITS OUT with NO ERROR, it means both files are invalid.

If the game did not launch, since you backed up both files, and are offline, go back online, and try to run the game. You will see that the game will again fail to launch. That's because both files are read only, and denuvo can't delete the files, therefore it can't get a new token, so it just exits the game. So you only used two activations (so far).

So now, if the game just crashed without an error, WITHOUT REBOOTING THE DECK, delete both denuvo files in the main game folders (in users and program files(x86), do NOT delete the ones you put into your two backup folders, and run the game again.

It will authenticate and store the new token in the default location which is program files(x86). The other location (users) should be empty in the final gameID folder (since you manually deleted the file there). Exit out the game, make this file 'view only' and set the deck into offline mode, and cold reboot it.

Then run the game (in offline mode) again. If it works (game launches fine), turn off the deck and do it again until it doesn't work. Once it doesn't work, go back online, run the game and it will reauthenticate. Then go offline and check the /users folder. You will see the token there. Now make it read only and now back up your two new tokens into folders (3 and 4), that you can create in your main "backup" folder. You should now have "1", "2", "3" and "4", all of them set to "can only view".

You may run out of activations possibly around here, if you get "oops something happened..." then you have to wait 24 hours before getting any more tokens.

But you can still play.

On the next boot, just try to run the game in desktop mode. If it exits out, delete the 2 files and copy the two backups from the "unused" folder numbers. For example,if you were using #3 and #4, then copy the denuvo file from #1 and #2 into the game ID folder and launch the game. It should work unless you're unlucky (if all 4 fail, you need to reboot and try again).

A total of 6 files should be enough to cover all cases, although this will obviously require two days of annoying work. Now with them all read only, you should be covered for at least a week (if not 2 weeks) as long as you remember to copy the two files, one of which should match the steam deck's ID on that particular boot.