Introduction
So you probably just finished this game and want more. Or were reffered here. Or maybe you stumbled by chance. Who knows, you are on the web wasting your time.
Well I have good news and bad news, son. I'm going to tell you how to play Yoko Taro's games on PC. Bad news is there is a reason this psychopath was a cult director for a long time.
This guide will try to help set up as seemless and easy as possible the games, and hopefully adress common problems or doubts. Feel free to comment if you need any further help.
Common Questions
Wait where's the side media?
This guide only covers the games, no other side content. There are way better resources for that elsewhere if you look around. The intent of this guide is strictly on the games.
OK, only two of the games are on PC. You’re not really suggesting...?
Yes. You will have to dabble into that terrain. They have not been re-released digitally, and aside, they are significantly better games on “recreational” play.
If that’s something you are not comfortable with, then I don’t know what to tell you. Copies of the games go for ridiculous prices and they are objectively a horrible experience in the “intended” hardware. If you really want to do that, or feel bad about not giving a massive publisher some extra pennies, I can’t do much else for you.
To comply with Steam’s TOS, I will not link to the sites save for community and fan patches, just rely on my specific wording to find what you need.
Isn’t this illegal?
First, no it's not illegal. But to comply with the TOS, I have to force myself into a corner by doing the following.
No mentions of the activity in question will ever be made explicit. Just look around for what you need in the usual places. You should be able to do math, right?
Any set-up and information regarding "recreation" will be simply not linked to. PC Patches are properly linked to the original authors when done so. This aside, for the rest you have to sadly rely on my “very specific words” to comply with the TOS of this platform. I know this specific point might be a hassle, but it is to not get this guide instantly erased. The sooner you can learn to help yourself find things you want on the internet, the better.
Ok I heard Drakengard 1 and 3 have vague connections, what gives?
1’s finale directly kick-starts the world and story of NieR. 3 is a prequel of sorts to 1. That said it’s so loosely connected you can consider it a tale of its own.
What’s with Drakengard 2?
Elephant in the room. A completely disregarded game by everyone, especially due to lacking Taro as a director. It’s why I will include it with hardly much information.
It works on PCSX2 so I guess do whatever you want.
I want to play the original NieR. Do I go for Gestalt, or Replicant?
Now, it’s easier than ever to play the Replicant release if you don’t know how to read kanji thanks to fan-made patches using the english script. Save for some spots, the translation is practically serviceable and allows you to experience a close version of the “original” game as it was in Japan. However it’s not a perfect method and more of a cheap workaround.
Playing the game in english has some perks. The voice acting is above bar, with James being a particularly memorable standout, and it’s good as a reference to tackle the 1.2 release to see how it improved and adjusted things. That and at least you have the creed of playing it.
The real differences are Nier's design and his relation to Yonah, and very few line adjustments. It's a fairly faithful localization.
Now the part of what's better, brother or father, it's not a debate for me.
I’d argue it’s basically up to you to decide what version you want, because in the end they are still the same game. Don’t let anyone discourage you.
What does Replicant 1.2 have that’s new? Do I play that or the original?
Re-recorded the whole story (with new dialogue), improved combat, changes in visuals to bring it closer to the original concept art and Automata’s style, re-recorded music and two new story related content I am not spoiling. There is also slight changes to the script to “uncensor” the spoiler of above and other lines of dialogue. The only thing I would call improvement with no hesitation is the combat. Everything else is subjective, and the game plays out the same way almost all the time so that's not something to concern.
In my honest opinion: Do both if you can, 1.2 if you can’t.
It does not invalidate the original game, and it’s worth experiencing as a title of it's own too.
Can I skip entries?
It’s possible, but not something I would encourage. Every story is self contained with lingering threads and continuity nods. If you truly can’t bother, then I highly suggest giving it another go later on. Ruining the surprises is something you will absolutely regret in the long run. These games are all about the experience and the wild ride.
Drakengard
Murder.
I’m going to level it with you.
This game is something else.
An erratic mishmash of development hell spawned one of the most bizarre, painful and downright mentally taxing games to exist. It's an experience that will completely destroy your senses. It's not a good game. It's an anomaly of a title that defies description. It's unbearable to play yet strangely fascinating, like watching a car crash in slow motion. Was it the point? Was it just an accident? Am I reading too deep into this crap?
All I can ensure you nothing you know compares to this nightmare of a game. Make of that what you will.
You can play the game using PCSX2. The game is playable from start to finish, so you should be good by just booting. Below are fixes for potential known issues.
Do not upscale more than 1080p unless your PC is a good horse. The game becomes exceedingly demanding the more you try to push it.
If you seem to have invisible enemies and player models, or the AI behaving weirdly, set the clamping to full in advanced options.
Special attacks can trigger ugly vertical lines in hardware mode, enable HW hacks and turn on the Merge Sprite hack to resolve it.
The game’s audio can crackle under pressure, so I suggest lowering it a bit. The music being a ear breaking nightmare is a feature.
Drakengard 2
Protect this smile.
Someone thought that a game that was infamous for it's beyond mental story and characters and oppressive, violent world, needed to go T rated level and be some generic anime game devoid of personality. Little glimmers of what once was and some interesting ideas with the characters hardly save a game that is clearly under budgeted and devoid of the genuine spite that formed the experience people grew to love/hate.
PCSX2 is your friend again, and the game is at least playable with almost no issues. Since it lacks the direction we want and is 100% disconnected from the rest of the series, on top of just being boring and lacking, this is the one game you miss very little with skipping, but can at least be a an interesting thing to look at regardless. Again, your choice.
Set a custom resolution with 1240x1240 pixels max to avoid black vertical lines.
Set EE and Clamp modes to Extra, Preserve Sign/Normal to fix the correct colors on character models and environmental objects.
Drakengard 3
She cute.
A suprisingly fun action game married to a cast of degenerates that hides a truly tragic tale of sheer pain.
This game was nigh unplayable on PlayStation 3. It was pretty much a nightmare of performance. Since then, a miracle happened.
It has been patched within RPCS3 to run with a ridiculously improved performance and stability, meaning it will hold up perfectly fine. So grab it and enjoy an actually usable version of this game.
Here's the how to plus a few things you might have to tinker with.
Open RPCS3, click the "Manage", then "Game Patches".
Download the latest patches then find Drakengard 3 under your GameID (easiest to tick "only show owned games").
Enable the FPS Unlock patch and save.
Right-click Drakengard 3 and create a custom configuration for the game.
Go to the advanced tab, set Vblank to 120hz for 60 FPS or 240hz for 120 FPS. Going any higher breaks jumping.
Have anisotropic filter at auto to avoid graphical issues.
Keep resolution scale threshold at 512x512 if your resolution scale is set above 100%.
Don’t mess with anything else. Save and apply the custom configuration.
NieR Gestalt & Replicant
Façade. Home.
A clearly shoestring production that can tempter the enjoyment of a story that defies the norm and a world and soundtrack too good for this earth.
Seriously the definition of a great 7/10. What's annoying in this game is tremendously tiresome, but the shining aspects are the highest of highs, and as a full experience it only gets better with time in retrospect.
We can play both versions in RPCS3. Now which version? That's up to you as I said earlier.
To keep bloom from going insane, set resolution scale threshold to 512x512.
Limit the framerate to 30 FPS to ensure most stable performance.
To play at 60fps or above, open RPCS3, click the "Manage", then "Game Patches". Either look the game or tick "only show owned games" to find the title's patch. Enable the FPS Unlock patch and save. It works for both versions.
Enable “write color buffers” to avoid graphical issues.
Playing Gestalt should require no further tweaking.
To play Replicant using English Text, refer to “Project RepliCAN[turnbasedturnip.wordpress.com] ” who have written a perfectly easy to follow guide to use their patch.
If you are playing Replicant you must input in JP text a name at the start. Temporarily disable native UI and then input any name in. After that, undo it until late game where you will be asked to input it again. I heavily suggest you take note of it.
NieR Replicant Ver.1.22474487139...
Muh sister.
This is shocking. A working port! Okay not really, there is the problem of the game running above 60 FPS would break stuff. But that was recently fixed in a patch. However if you want to undo it, Square Enix's update post has in the bottom a little guide on doing a semi-rollback.
If for whatever reason it still doesn’t lock for you, use your video card’s control panel or Turner Statistics to address it.
To play above 60fps or tinker stuff, Special K once again is your friend. You can have a direct download here[cdn.discordapp.com] of his tool, unzip in the game folder.
To fix potential issues with Steam input using a controller, rename dxgi.dll to dinput8.dll.
Oh yeah it has Denuvo so if you hate that, sail your copy. No one really cares.
NieR: Automata
Cavia on making good gameplay.
The hopeful journey of souls with no purpose in a dying earth with nothing to fight for left..
A truly beautiful game that I owe for introducing me to this world, with the compromise of a horrendous PC port that borders into “I don’t know, works in my machine” levels of busted.
A special case where Square Enix noticed the port was busted years late. An update is supposedly incoming (hahah), and I will update this guide when it does. For now, first try the game to see if it works, if not refer to Special K’s FAR mod which significantly improved everything.
Update was released two days after I posted the guide so never mind. It just works now.
And RIP FAR support because Special K is a secret Denuvo shill.
Using FAR or a third party tool like Borderless Window, you can have the borderless setting in fullscreen. This mod should likely fix any issues you have.
For minor problems refer to PCGaming wiki's [www.pcgamingwiki.com] comprehensive list of fixed issues.
And That's A Wrap.
Feel free to comment or reach out if there is anything you want to suggest or if you have any questions you can’t immediately find answers for and I will try to reply as soon as possible.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2545213649
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