I've heard a good number of people dismiss the games story as basic, I personally think this is a major disservice to the game so allow me to recify my thoughts. Here goes.

Pros
- The richly crafted world, the Village, Aerie, Facade, Forest of Myth, every single one of these places and more have their own distinct atmosphere and way of life. Makes my brain happy knowing theres each place has its own distinct culture and way of living in games.
- The NPC's all have their own lives and issues evidenced in sidequests with some even translating into the story itself, really makes the world feel alive. They may be tedious but I quite enjoyed them nonetheless.
- The combat while not as in-depth as Automata is still deceptively fun at points, sure its really basic HnS type gameplay but it is the bosses where the game truly shines. You fight behemoths using all tools at your disposal, Weiss adds a whole other layer to how you approach combat and the bullet hell sections were extremely fun to dodge even if this might just me. Enjoyed my time with the combat overall. All this adds a grand sense of scale to the Shade bosses.
- The cast, holy shit the cast. While I prefer Automata overall the cast in this is a far cry better than whatever Automata had. Nier, Kaine and Emil are some of the most beautifully written and crafted characters I've had the pleasure of experiencing, all of them along with Weiss bounce of each other so well its unreal. The voice acting for them is excellent as well, I know I spoiler warned this but I highly recommened experiencing this cast on your own. Love them all, Emile the goat by the way.
- The music fucks, of course it does, its Nier. The sky is blue, moving on
- Route B, the extreme subversion of the story in Route B. While I would've preferred it to be from Kaine's POV and I still think its silly it isn't the whole realization that you've been killing what used to be the real humans is sure to shock most players thinking it was a basic Human VS Shade story only to realize the complete flip in sides. Its an experience and sure to make you question if what you're doing is truly just. It recontexualizes everything the player first believed to be mindless filler. The overall plot twists are executed perfectly.
- Kaine :)
- Route E, made me shed a tear, getting emotionally destroyed by media is my favorite pastime and a sign of a good game to me :)

Cons
- I won't lie, Route A was a slog to go through.
- I understand the replay part of the game are a core part of the Nier series but this one REALLY needed a chapter select. I will give it some leeway as you can finish it quite easily from Route B onwards due to starting from the second half of the game but it did annoy me at some points. Having a ferry instead of an actual quick travel option is up there too. The route not letting you play as the other characters to form a different perspective annoyed me too, not being able to play as Kaine in Route B was extremely questionable

All in all it is quite a simple story in its own small world, a story about how far one man is willing to go to save his sister and loved ones no matter the cost and if you've seen some of the games on my list you can tell I'm a sucker for these type of protagonists, most consider them cliche, I consider them much more realistic in their goals but thats just me. It's a game with the usual Yoko Taro quirks and while I was much more intruiged by Automata's story this one is beautiful in its own right and dare I say much more emotionally charged. Its a game that deserves to be experienced instead of being compared to Automata in every category. The good stuff.