A frustrating work of art that might go too far in the pursuit of ludonarrative resonance at the cost of being a fun game to actually play. Having to replay the game 5 times is a lot. The changes per route are minor yet are worth it for the added bits of story alone. Though I don't see the point of replaying the entire opening of the game as young Nier in route E. It probably could've started with us playing as Kainé immediately after route D. It's likely just padding because Kainé's section of the story, whilst the peak of the game narratively, is only like 2 hours long.

The idea behind the route system is genius but as I mentioned, not exactly fun. As we keep seeing these scenes over and over again it creates a synergy between the player and Nier in how cold and uncaring to extraneous nonsense we become. Increasingly only focused on the end goal of rescuing Yonah/beating the game. Showing less and less sympathy to the sob stories around us despite their voices Increasingly getting louder. Coming to a head with the access of the final ending being behind sacrificing all that makes you, you. And of course, Kainé ultimately reclaiming you because she can't shake the impact that the player had on her in progressing her story. It's undeniably a genius marriage of game design and narrative theming mixed with some very near 4th wall breaks. The issue is that it's simply unfortunately a slog to get through the game itself and I wouldn't blame people who drop the game even before finishing route A.

A huge percentage of the game is tedious 2000s era fetch quests consisting of running back and forth across empty, uninteresting maps. The combat being brain dead button mashing in addition makes matters worse. That goes without even mentioning the fact that to gain access to endings C/D/E you have to grind to high heaven in all manner of monotonous at best, straight up bad at worst, side quests in order to collect all 33 weapons. I don't even understand why that was even needed unless I missed something. I kept persevering though, just as the game wanted me to.

I will never forget the story it told and the characters it centered around. Kainé means so much to me personally. Her personal struggles, her dysphoria, her journey as a whole... it just moved me. As did the other characters like Emil and brother Nier, Weiss, Devola and Popola and even shades like Louise. And of course the Gestalt Nier and Yonah. Individually these all tell parables of what it means to have or lose a will to live, holistically they come together to form an interconnected web that commands you to pay attention and truly highlight the sanctity of having control over the direction your own life takes.
The twin sisters, Gestalt siblings and Louise are tragedies in that they wanted to take control of their destinies but whether through programming or nature or sheer misfortune they failed and had to stay the course that was laid out for them to it's bitter end. They served as warnings. Kainé in particular is special to me partly because of how close she was to being a walker of that path yet just as the player overcame monotony to see her new future, so did she.
She and Emil were reborn from the ashes of the ghosts of their pasts thanks to us/Nier and it's so beautiful that their actions led to our identity being reclaimed and Nier being reborn. These three (and Weiss) are instantly one of my most cherished parties in gaming. A real and true found family.

This game is certainly flawed. It's certainly dated. But I would without question say that it was all worth it in the end. I can't give it 5 stars off the bat because it really is that much of a slog. But as time moves on, I'll only have the memories of the story in my mind so it'll probably go higher the more I weigh on it.