Phantom Blade Zero kicks off its launch with a day one patch that offers improvements to ray tracing and some bug fixes to boot

Phantom Blade Zero, a wuxia-themed action game, officially released today with a 145GB install size that temporarily expands to 300GB during installation. The game arrives alongside a day one patch, which adds an additional 5GB to the download. The update focuses on improving ray tracing and path tracing performance while addressing several bugs reported by players.

According to a Steam blog post, the development team has refined the game's rasterized visuals to maintain artistic consistency even when ray tracing is disabled. This adjustment aims to ensure the game remains playable on mid-range and lower-end PCs, as well as handheld devices. The post also highlights ongoing discussions about performance issues reported by some users.

The update includes a recommendation for players using NVIDIA drivers newer than version 617.42, advising them to roll back to 617.42 for optimal performance. The team noted instability with NVIDIA’s 621.01 driver and expects a future update to resolve the issue. Players are urged to stay on 617.42 until the next driver release arrives.

The patch notes lack clarity, with no explicit confirmation of the update’s arrival despite the Steam blog post’s claims. Players who pre-loaded the game are advised to download the update before launching, while those yet to download will receive the latest version automatically. The team’s focus remains on balancing visual fidelity with accessibility across different hardware configurations.