Players eager to dive into the highly anticipated wuxia action RPG Phantom Blade Zero have received a peculiar piece of advice from developer S-Game Studio: avoid the latest Nvidia graphics driver. In a post on the game's Steam page, the studio recommended that Nvidia GPU users roll back to driver version 617.42 for the best experience.
This advice comes as a surprise, especially since the latest Game Ready Driver, version 621.01, was released on October 21st and is intended to provide better support for features like DLSS and RTX in new titles, including Phantom Blade Zero. S-Game Studio did not elaborate on the specific issues caused by the new driver, but the recommendation implies a significant negative impact on gameplay.
"Based on our testing, version 617.42 currently offers the best experience in Phantom Blade Zero," the developers stated. "If you’ve installed a driver newer than 617.42, we recommend rolling back to 617.42 and choosing the clean installation option. Please stay on this version until Nvidia releases its next driver update, which we expect to arrive soon."
The studio also shared updates regarding a 5 GB day-one patch and encouraged players to try the game on handhelds and less powerful PCs. The recommendation to avoid the latest driver, however, is the most striking pre-launch guidance.
Fortunately, reverting to an older driver is a straightforward process. Users can achieve this through the Nvidia App by navigating to the drivers section, selecting a previous version, and choosing the clean installation option. Alternatively, the driver can be rolled back via the Windows Device Manager by accessing the GPU properties, going to the Driver tab, and selecting the rollback option.
While S-Game Studio anticipates a new Nvidia driver release in the near future, players opting for the latest version may want to consider this downgrade until further updates are available from Nvidia.