decided to rewrite my review and do it a little off the cuff (i.e. not typing it in a word processor and drafting it before putting it in the text box here)

whatever i could say about either version, they're both beautiful games. i'm not sure if it's understated or just something i haven't personally seen, but kainé's backstory is legit one of the few things in media that make me cry uncontrollably. without hyperbole it makes the game for me, and it's crazy that such a beautiful and validating pro-intersex (and by anatomical adjacency, pro-trans) message came from a AAA publisher in the year 2010 (and without feeling patronizing, it's visceral and should be a punch in the gut to anybody with a shred of empathy)

since i've decided to spoiler this review i also wanna go ahead and defend ending e. it's a bit indulgent, especially in terms of being an adaptation of what i believe to be a decade old short story that taro wrote, but it's hard to imagine a better "secondary" "true" ending. i feel like ending d doesn't lend kaine her own agency, and ending e is her fighting to get both her agency and the only family she had left back. aesthetic or worldbuilding incongruencies aside, nier is an emotional work first and foremost, and ending e is a story about a stubborn woman who loved her friends fighting back against the unjust world that robbed her of them

it's also just refreshing to see a piece of media give a queer found family a relatively happy ending, but maybe it's just cuz i've had multiple queer "sisterhoods" that really resonate with kainé and emil's relationship, so it hits really close to home for me. it's already implicit by the existence of nier automata that said happiness will eventually end, so ending on a bittersweet note that's maybe a bit more sweet than bitter feels earned to say the least