wait, nier?? really?? (i haven't played it)

One of the main characters in NieR is a trans woman and her story is expertly handled (in the game itself, that is. I think a lot of the external materials surrounding her are... pretty fraught.)

does that character feature in the remake as well?

She is one of the main characters, so yes. There's an additional section where you play as her as well.

buys

i hate to be nitpicky, but the character in nier is intersex. not that she can't also be trans, obviously, but it's important to make that clarification imo.

All women with penises are trans women. Those are not categories that can exist exclusively.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone bring up ff7 in trans discussions before. I'm curious as to what you believe it does to explore it

I think FFVII is an interesting case, because a lot of it is textually transmisogynist by nature: the crossdressing sequence in Wall Market is pretty standard transmisogynistic propaganda, the strawman argument of "crossdressing man entering women's spaces" type stuff. However, I believe Cloud is an interesting vector for this discussion in ways the text didn't intend --Cloud's entire story is centered around coming to terms with and understanding identity. This, in combination with her experiences existing as a trans woman in Wall Market, lead me to believe it is a transfeminine work. Cloud comes to understand that only is she not the machismo Zack Fair she pretended to be, but in addition, she is a woman and that is a major facet in why the roles and archetypes she has attempted to fill have never felt quite right to her.

Thanks for explaining it! Quite an interesting way to see it.