My biggest problem with the story of Nier Automata is basically that there's only ever justification for the mundane and meaningless stuff in the game. The plot is effectively that there is no plot, just a lot of people who are misinformed. But then, all the stuff that immediately made my hair stand up, never got explained.
There's no good explanation for:
Why the androids seek to mimic humans? And why, perhaps more critically, only in facile ways?
How, with a bunch of now self-aware machines, did any of the machines survive if they are really that dedicated to war, and, if they weren't that dedicated to the war, why did it take such a ridiculously long time to figure out the lie? Like, with the power any given android had, self-awareness would basically dictate all of this would be over before the player (or 2B) even entered the equation.
And I'm sure someone somewhere is going to argue that, "that's the point!" but most of it comes off as lazy and hand wave-y in a way I've rarely seen in games (mostly because it's so dedicated to its silliness). Granted, Taro's previous Nier, Nier Gestalt, is equally silly, but it's silly in ways that are believable given how convoluted every single thing is right off the bat. Nier Automata takes a long time to get to that point, and seems like it wants us to treat characters like Adam and Eve seriously. Both of the games are pretty assuredly intended to create a response of mixed emotions, but Nier Gestalt does a much better job of stirring that pot. The combat in Automata is a lot better due to Platinum's involvement, but nothing else improved. The game feels almost like a monolith to stagnation, both in the story it tells and in what the game represents.
I find Yoko Taro's brand of insanity endearing, but so much of that is scraped away in Automata. And without that overly committed quirkiness, the game just never really clicks on anything, because it never commits to any of the extremes it presents.
