Phantom Blade Zero has officially launched, and like many contemporary releases, it comes with a day one patch. This update is primarily focused on enhancing ray tracing and path tracing performance, alongside addressing several bug fixes. The patch reportedly adds approximately 5GB to the game's installation.
According to a Steam blog post, players who have already pre-loaded the game are advised to download and install the update before launching. For those yet to download, the update will be automatically included in the initial game download. The development team emphasized their extensive work in refining the game's rasterized visuals to maintain the intended art direction, even when ray tracing is disabled. They also stated the game should be playable on mid-range and lower-end PCs, as well as handheld devices.
The developers have also noted performance instability issues with NVIDIA's driver version 621.01. Based on their testing, driver version 617.42 is recommended for the optimal experience in Phantom Blade Zero. Players experiencing problems are advised to roll back to this version and select the clean installation option, awaiting a future NVIDIA driver update. The game itself has a notable 145GB install size, which the developers previously clarified could temporarily require up to 300GB during the installation process.