Debate Intensifies Over Whether The Much-memed 'Secret Church' In 'Nier: Automata' Is Real

July 28th, 2022 - 11:55 AM EDT by Adam Downer

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An image of the nier automata secret church and tweets of the debate.

It has been three days since Redditor sadfutago posted a now viral video of themselves opening a never-before-accessed "secret church" area in the five-year-old video game Nier: Automata, kicking off a bloody online war that has only left pain and destruction in its wake.

Okay, we're exaggerating a bit here, but not by much. In reality, the Nier fandom has been up in arms over the supposed easter egg for days as people have argued whether sadfutago's clip is legitimate and, if faked, debated whether it was posted for an ulterior motive.

First, a quick recap: In June, Redditor sadfutago posted a picture of himself in a hitherto unseen area during A2's section of the game. The mystery was buried until Monday when they were able to capture themselves entering this unseen area on video.


Normally, this would be an extremely cool discovery celebrated by all in the Nier fandom. People generally love uncovering new discoveries in beloved video games, so you would think the discovery of a secret area in Nier: Automata, which includes a hitherto unseen cutscene, would be cause for joy and updoots.

The only issue is that no one else has been able to figure out how to get inside the area. Redditor xxk_, a member of the Nier: Automata modding community, recently made a post outlining the modding community's quest to understand sadfutago's discovery, and basically, they're left dumbfounded. Nothing they've tried on the 1.0, un-updated version of the French-Canadian release of the game (which sadfutago is said to have played when they made their discovery) has uncovered the mystery area.

With that in mind, one might naturally assume that sadfutago had faked the secret room as a prank on the zealous Nier fandom. That theory hits a potential roadblock when considering that some of the assets in sadfutago's "secret church" don't appear elsewhere in the game.

"The tower includes many similar assets such as the library, the chandelier, but NOT the church pews, and the first copied city door," xxk_ wrote. xxk_ further elaborated that it is unlikely sadfutago had somehow modded their copy of Nier: Automata to include the secret church. "If this is a mod this would be the first time anyone has done something like this, and NOBODY else knows how to make custom doors like seen in the video -- it would be a relatively IMMENSE undertaking for a single individual to accomplish with various modding breakthroughs."

Still, some were convinced sadfutago was lying. Noted game archaeologist Lance McDonald caught a comment from sadfutago that he believed amounted to the Redditor "breaking character."


However, another Twitter user went through sadfutago's account and determined that the above comment may amount to sadfutago repeating what others are saying about his video, suggesting English is not sadfutago's first language.


The mystery made its way up to Nier: Automata's enigmatic director Yoko Taro, who was characteristically extremely unhelpful about the whole thing.


This opens up the possibility that the "secret church" is part of an elaborate viral marketing campaign spearheaded by Yoko Taro to promote Nier Automata's upcoming October release on the Nintendo Switch. If Yoko Taro is behind the sadfutago account, it could explain why the Redditor seems to struggle with English.

Furthermore, anyone who has played Nier: Automata or seen Yoko Taro can likely imagine the director going to such incredibly elaborate lengths to promote the game.

At the moment, the community seems to be leaning towards the "secret church" being some sort of hoax, or at least not cut content from the game. Members have compiled a 14-page Google Doc pointing out inconsistencies in sadfutago's evidence. But, until there is undeniable proof one way or the other, no one can be certain about just what is going on with the Nier: Automata secret church.



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