S-Game rolled out the first post-release patch for Phantom Blade Zero on November 3rd. The patch responds to initial player concerns about game performance and difficulty levels. This patch is important as it brings quality of life improvements that impact player engagement with the game world. The patch aims to resolve several technical concerns to enhance the player's early experience.
S-Game releases November 3 update for Phantom Blade Zero with audio and input tweaks
The patch includes features aimed at enhancing both PC and controller gameplay experiences. New audio options and input customization are part of the patch. Players can now modify Hit SFX Intensity and Hit Impact SFX Intensity for personalized auditory experience. The patch enables the remapping of the Interact button for greater control over input setups.
Technical improvements address loading speed and graphical resource handling. S-Game has improved shader compilation optimization, resulting in drastic reduction of game startup times. The patch introduces the compilation of ray-tracing shaders post-game restart. This approach avoids lengthy delays during game startup.
The patch specifically addresses difficulty adjustments for Hua, Deadly Betrothed enemy in Wayfarer and Pathbreaker difficulties. The patch lowers the rate of her grab attacks, making these difficult encounters less challenging. The difficulty adjustments aim to decrease the occurrence of certain enemy attacks for balanced gameplay.
For players interested in more visually enhanced gameplay, a community mod known as Ultra+ provides significant graphical upgrades. According to the mod description, the mod corrects base game graphics issues, particularly path tracing, to minimize noise and boiling. The mod also incorporates ray-traced ambient occlusion and provides optional 4K texture support via HDNatureTextures add-on.
The quick response to player concerns comes after Phantom Blade Zero's impressive 4 million sales within 72 hours. The patch was released through WeGame in China, with a future global release on Steam and PlayStation 5 planned. The patch brings stability improvements prior to the upcoming global launch.
Another forced update to fix what was broken at launch. Classic.
Does the separate compilation of ray tracing shaders mean I need to restart twice to get full path tracing support?
Usually yes. The driver loads the base shaders first, then triggers a secondary compile pass for the RT assets after the restart to avoid the initial hitch. It trades one long wait for two shorter ones.
glad they fixed the grab attacks on wayfarer. Hua was punishing me hard 😅
The article mentions the patch is on WeGame now but says global release is planned. The shader fix applies to the Steam build too once it drops.
tbh i am just waiting to see if the 4k textures in the mod cause my 8gb vram card to cry
Interact button remapping is a nice quality of life tweak. It should have been standard but it is good to see it added.
4 million sales already? I still cannot afford a decent GPU for these new ray tracing games 💀