Which one to play first

Have both Replicant and Automata (on Steam). I always go with release order but this confuses me when the latter one (Replicant) is a prequel and not a sequel. Searched the Internet and there are two types of answer.

I don’t really care about which gameplay is the best, all I want is the lore to be aligned and make sense the best. I never really committed to watching someone play Nier game and my knowledge about this game is only little (I know 2B).

Thanks 🙏🏻