Patch V. 1.2.0 has released for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
As reported by NintendoEverything, Nintendo released these patch notes:
“General Updates
By starting the game from within certain articles released on a specific Switch News channel (accessed via the HOME Menu) players can receive a number of in-game items.
Depending on the state of gameplay progression or the location in which the data is reopened, there may be cases in which the items cannot be received.
Additional Fixes
Fixed an issue where players could not progress beyond a certain point in the main quests “A Mystery in the Depths” and “Secret of the Ring Ruins”, the side adventures “Hateno Village Research Lab” and “Lurelin Village Restoration Project”, the shrine quest “Dyeing to Find It”, and the side quests “Village Attacked by Pirates”, “The Incomplete Stable”, and “Seeking the Pirate Hideout”. Downloading the update will allow players to proceed past that point.
Fixed an issue preventing fairies from appearing under certain conditions when they originally should have appeared.
Fixed an issue preventing the meals provided by Kiana of Lurelin Village from changing under certain conditions.
Several issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience.”
Obviously, the most intriguing change to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom relates to its new interaction with the Nintendo Switch News channel. For people who don’t own a Nintendo Switch, or didn’t really pay attention all that much, this is a completely separate app on the Nintendo Switch dashboard.
It seems that there is an issue with game’s design that made it necessary for the developers to release this update. We don’t know the exact details here, but it sounds like it is something that cannot be programmed away. However, it is also something that has to be addressed because the way the game has been designed or programmed can make it impossible for players to find these items.
That could possibly mean that these items are integral to finishing the game, or completing every single thing you can do in the game, for the sake of completists.
As some observers and dataminers figured out, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom really does push the Nintendo Switch to its performance limits. Sometimes, we can even see it, in scenes where the framerates unavoidably drop.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a stable experience for sure, but it certainly sounds like there are things under the hood that could be breaking to keep that experience.