I wouldn't really defend the outfits in NierA (they're definitely fetish-y), but on the whole I leaned toward liking them too. I guess it's just a Rule of Cool thing? I mean, the characters are wearing blindfolds too, which is technically silly but imo looks cool and also ~metaphors~. It really really helps that 2B isn't disempowered in a gross way by the narrative and you have to work a little to get the camera up in her business. So my playtime was mostly spent with her being a badass — again, without that being undercut by the game — and me thinking that if anyone can pull of thigh-high leather boots, she could. I wasn't bothered by A2 either, and she's wearing even less.
So yeah... like I said, I wouldn't defend it really. I'm sure the devs could've achieved a similar character feel with a different or toned down designs. And I don't think the narrative needed the majority of androids to be incredibly attractive women. But compared to other fanservicey designs, these bothered me much less.
It helps that 2B isn't embarrassed by her clothes (I didn't play every sidequest, so there's a possibility this is hidden in there somewhere), which I haaaaate and is in so many Japanese games. I also didn't have to participate in gross objectification to continue the game (hello, Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls. I'm still not over it.) or watch a scene that squicked me out and didn't mesh with the characters or tone of the game. I even found the contrast between the YoRHa agents and the rest of the androids interesting visually and found these leather-clad "people" running around the desert appropriately jarring. It really reminded me that they were unusual even within their world and inhuman in many physical ways. But again they didn't NEED to be dressed exactly as they were, and there's clear fanservice motivations in the design. I was just mostly cool with it.
Definitely makes sense, thanks for the response. So within your own particular/individual/subjective experience/encounter with the game, 2B's outfit felt like it could easily have been a conscious, confident choice on the part of the character, and given the fact that neither the camera nor other characters attempted to humiliate her for that choice within the game, 2B was in effect able to be 'sexy' (in
the narrow sense of that term, but more importantly also in
the full sense that includes cool/badass/empowered and so on) on her own terms, instead of being 'sexualized' on the terms of others.
With regard to the points you made that I highlighted in bold, though, it also sounds like for you, 2B being sexy in the 'narrow sense' of the word wasn't actually
necessary for her to be cool/badass/empowered (sexy in the 'full sense'), though it didn't necessarily
hurt (or perhaps even
helped, to some extent, or in some instances?), but only as long as the aforementioned conditions (outfit was legitimately cool, camera in check, character legitimately allowed to be 'sexy' without being 'sexualized', and so on) were satisfied.
Also, sounds like you certainly wouldn't
object to the removal of some/all of the more 'narrowly sexy' elements from 2B's design (and maybe even would
prefer to have them removed?), and ultimately, 2B is very much a unique case for you, since fanservicey designs in general are still highly bothersome.
Hope I got most of that right! As I mentioned elsewhere (before the game was released) the design does make me a bit uncomfortable, but it's definitely interesting/reassuring to consider different perspectives.
