So after processing since last night I think I'm more impressed with Nier Automata's breaking of videogame convention than I am emotionally moved by the story.

I love 2B and quite like A2 even if she pretty much has the same arc as 2B. 9S I mostly just found annoying even if I did pity him.

The multiple endings gimmick seems a little forced since 21 of them are kind of just jokes about the player failing and ending A isn't even really an ending it's just halfway through the game.

Really there are two endings C and D, and then an epilogue. Both ending felt rushed to me while at the same time adding in a lot of lore complications with the tower/ark/moon server very quickly that I found hard to parse in the moment when I should have been emotionally invested.

Ending E is a nice coda to the whole thing and I'm glad it's there or the whole thing wouldn't be as emotionally satisfying.

But moment to moment Automata is one of the most creative games I've ever played. The diversity of genres, the metaness of the whole thing, that whole final boss battle where you're switching between A2 and 9S faster and faster. It's a kind of genius I feel like I've never seen in a game before.

So while it may not add up completely for me, I'd still rather play this than a million other generic games.