NieR

NieR
Developer(s)	Cavia
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Series	Drakengard
Release date(s)	JP/AU April 22, 2010 EU April 23, 2010 NA April 27, 2010
Release type	Console exclusive
Genre(s)	Action, Role-playing, Hack and slash
Mode(s)	Single-player
GameID(s)	NieR BLUS30481 (IRD), BLES00826 (IRD) NieR RepliCant BLJM60223
Quick links	Check Compatibility Open Issues Search Google Wikipedia Page

NieR is a spin-off from the Drakengard series, and follows the fifth ending of the first game, the events of which have left the planet Earth in a state of decay. Set over one thousand years after this, the game puts the player in control of the titular protagonist Nier, as he attempts to find a cure for an illness, known as the Black Scrawl, to which his daughter Yonah has succumbed. Partnering with a talking book known as Grimoire Weiss, he journeys with two other characters, Kainé and Emil, as he attempts to find a remedy and understand the nature of the creatures known as Shades that stalk the world. The gameplay borrows elements from various video game genres, occasionally switching between them and the main role-playing-based gameplay.

In Japan, the game was released as Nier Gestalt (Japanese: ニーア ゲシュタルト Hepburn: Nīa Geshutaruto) for the Xbox 360, while an alternate version entitled Nier Replicant (Japanese: ニーア レプリカント Hepburn: Nīa Repurikanto) was released for PlayStation 3 with a younger main character. The game was developed to appeal both to older players and to players outside Japan, where the developer was based. The music was composed by Keiichi Okabe, head of Monaca, a music composition studio, and has sparked the release of several albums.

Nier was released to mixed reception; reviewers praised the story, characters and soundtrack and were mixed in their opinions of how well the disparate gameplay elements were connected. The execution of some gameplay elements was criticized, notably the side quests, and especially the graphics (which were regarded as substandard). Despite this, the game acquired acclaim among players over time, becoming a cult classic. A more successful sequel developed by PlatinumGames, titled Nier: Automata, was released in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows and in 2018 for Xbox One.

Configuration

Options that deviate from RPCS3's default settings and provide the best experience with this title are listed below.

GPU configuration

Setting	Option	Notes
Renderer	Vulkan	Recommended to get the best performance.
Framelimit	30	Without framelimiter, audio will de-sync in cutscenes and menu navigation will move too quickly. If using the 60 FPS patch, leave this setting at Auto.
Anisotropic filter	Auto	Changing to anything other than Automatic causes graphical issues.
Write color buffers	On	Fixes missing in-game visuals

Known Issues

There are no reported issues with this title.

Vulkan hang during final cutscenes - Fixed

After the point-of-no-return at the final dungeon of the game, the game will freeze and crash during the cutscenes when using the Vulkan renderer. In order to bypass this, users are required to either skip the cutscenes or play the final sequence with the OpenGL renderer. This issue is tracked as part of Issue 6468 (Warning, contains major spoilers regarding the final boss battle).

Special Notes

Japanese text name

The Japanese version of NieR, Nier Replicant (BLJM60223), requires the character name to be entered in Japanese. However, the on-screen keyboard present in RPCS3's native UI is currently restricted to only English. Therefore, to input a name, users must first disable the native UI and then input any name in Japanese (such as ニーア) through the Qt dialog box. Note that you'll need to enter the name again at a later point in the game, so do not enable native UI immediately after the first dialog prompt.

60 FPS patch

Thanks to Whatcookie, a 60 FPS Patch is available for this title. Be sure to revert the Framelimit setting to Auto (the default value).

Fix Bloom at higher resolutions

NieR has pixelated bloom at higher resolutions than native, (especially noticeable at +200%). To work around this, set your "Resolution Scale Threshold" to 512x512. This does cause Depth of Field to become more pixelated.