NieR Replicant gives players the opportunity to change the appearance of their character by using its costumes feature, but many are having trouble figuring out how to do this. Certain costumes can be unlocked by playing the game, but many players' first experience with costumes likely comes from the free 4 YoRHa DLC. This bit of downloadable content is available to all players free of cost and adds weapons and costumes from the popular NieR Automata. For players just starting out wondering how to equip those costumes, the method for doing so may come as a surprise.
Most games allow players to change their appearance from within the game, but that isn't the case with NieR Replicant. Instead, players will need to quit out and head to the title screen in order to change costumes, or be sure to set the desired costume before loading the save file after starting the game.
Once at the title screen, navigate to the options menu. Underneath Game Settings and Difficulty, players should notice an option for Wardrobe. Click on this to open the Wardrobe menu that allows players to change their characters' appearance. There are options to change the "Boy" outfit, the "Adult" outfit, Kaine's outfit, and Emil's outfit. More likely than not, players will only have access to the YoRHa costumes from the DLC at the start of the game, but it helps to check back here any time the player acquires a new costume.
That's all there is to it. Once players reload their save file, the corresponding characters will have the appropriate outfits based on the player's selection. It seems as though these outfits are the same throughout all save files, meaning players won't be able to set specific outfits for certain files. They also have no bearing on anything mechanical within the game, as they are purely for cosmetic reasons and only alter the characters' appearances. That said, they also change the appearance of magic orbs and some other aspects of the game.
Two more costumes can be acquired for each character by completing the 15 Nightmares dungeon, and there may well be more costumes hidden throughout the game. As this updated version is still very new, it may be a while before players have found every secret that Square Enix has crammed in this time around. Changing costumes in NieR Replicant is easy, though it is strange that one has to exit out to the main title screen.
NieR Replicant is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.