This game has an overall amazing story that is on par with or even better than Automata's to a degree. The gameplay is also very fun, and I love the grungy ps2-like aesthetic with the UI it has that reminds me a lot of games like Shadow of the Colossus in a way. The main problems though, as many know, come with how tedious and repetitive it gets, especially in the ladder half of the game if you want to get all the endings. Collecting all the weapons to do so isn't even the frustrating part, it's having to replay most of the post-timeskip three times when there really should be no reason to, ESPECIALLY in this remake. it really pissed me off to find out once I reached Route E that THEY ALREADY PROGRAMMED AN ENTIRE PLAYABLE KAINE FOR THE REMAKE AND DIDNT USE IT FOR ROUTE B??????? It would have made SO MUCH MORE SENSE than to play as Nier again, as the entire point is to retread the same story essentially through Kaine's perspective anyways (Much like Automata's Route B). Route E was never a thing in the original version, so it makes total sense for Route B to be as it is in that version, but there is simply no excuse to have not done this and automatically make the remake a better experience. Route C itself is also almost completely unecessary, as it once again retreads the SAME STORY from THE SAME STARTING POINT AS ROUTES A AND B until the end. Sure, it changes a few aspects of the story, but barely any and could have just been done in Route B anyways or added as a cutscene you watch in between routes. What's more, to get ending D, at least, you can kind of just make a save near the end of the game but you will have to repeat the entire final area (which also should not be the case but it's far better than having to repeat the entire section again, which the game almost expects you to do funny enough). Getting to Route E is awful in it of itself as this time you don't replay 90% of the post timeskip, but instead you get to unnecessarily replay 50% of the pre-timeskip for some reason! And the game not letting you use the same name for Nier WOULD be cool, but it doesn't really do much and you end up forgetting about it anyways.
At least Route E is extremely worth going through all the trouble for, as it is exclusive to the remake and was not in the original, and is extremely good story-wise and gameplay-wise.

In general, it is a fun game and I would recommend it only if you have the patience for it, but I can't recommend it over Automata nor can I say it's better than Automata over all. I would suggest playing Automata first so your first experience with Nier isn't absolutely painful, and people who say Automata spoils Replicant are probably remembering wrong because I played Automata first and was not spoiled for anything in this game. If anything, this remake feels like its meant to be played after Automata, especially for those planning on playing through Route E.