Botw Update 160 2021 Guide

Before 1.6.0, if you bought BOTW in certain regions (especially Japan), you were restricted to Japanese audio only.
After 1.6.0, all regions could freely select any voice language (JP/EN/FR/DE/ES/IT/RU).
This was huge for international players who wanted the original Japanese voices but had a non-JP cartridge.

The most controversial find: unused voice lines in the game’s files referring to a "floating castle" and "malice tendrils from the sky." These were later confirmed to be early versions of cutscenes from Tears of the Kingdom. Update 1.6.0 overwrote some legacy audio files with compressed, lower-quality versions to free up space for these data mines.

Published: May 2021
Patch Version: 1.6.0 / Ver. 1.6.0
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite (also affects Cemu emulation scene) botw update 160 2021

In the spring of 2021, nearly four years after the original launch of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo surprised the community by rolling out Update Ver. 1.6.0. For most players, this patch arrived silently, tucked behind a smaller system update for the Switch console itself. But for those hunting for specific patch notes—or trying to understand why their game version jumped from 1.5.0 to 1.6.0—this update became a minor legend.

Below, we break down everything you need to know about BOTW Update 1.6.0 (2021), from its cryptic release notes to its actual impact on gameplay, modding, and emulation. Before 1

If you’re just now returning to Hyrule and your game still says “Ver. 1.5.0” or lower, here’s how to get the 2021 patch.

Thanks to dataminers like OatmealDome and the r/cemu community, we now know what lay beneath the surface of BOTW update 160 2021. If you’re just now returning to Hyrule and

If you’re playing Breath of the Wild today, should you bother with this three-year-old update? Absolutely. Here’s why:

When the update landed on June 21, 2021, the response was polarized.