[GameSpot] - Nier Automata Secret Area Mystery Deepens As Producer Sends Out Cryptic Tweet

[343iBot]

It looks like Nier Automata might still be harboring some secrets, as producer Yosuke Saito acknowledged a video showing off a hidden area.

Over a month ago, Reddit user sadfutago posted on the Nier subreddit asking the community how to open the door for a church in Nier Automata, as they could access it but a friend couldn't. This particular area was in the Copied City section of the game, specifically. The post was joined by a pair of images showing off the church. The only problem is that prior to this post, this church had never been discovered, and subsequently the community has exploded over this mystery.

Then, on July 25, sadfutago shared a video showing them entering the door that eventually brings them to the church. Entering the door brings them to a long ladder, at the bottom of which is a doorway that leads into a long, spiraling corridor. Eventually reaching the church loads is an unused cutscene, with voiceover used from another portion of the game.

Inside the church is some kind of weird, digital blob that's constantly evaporating, and a body laying down with a lunar tear, an important symbol in the Nier universe, coming out of its chest. All in, it's an incredibly weird thing to have gone completely unnoticed.

According to a post from a member of the Nier modding Discord, the modding community is very confident that this isn't some kind of elaborate prank. As currently it isn't possible to make mods like this, and it would be "a relatively immense undertaking for a single individual to accomplish with various modding breakthroughs."

The version that sadfutago is using is apparently a Canadian version 1.0 of the game, with their PS4 having been disconnected since starting the game, and in turn having received no updates. So it could be that it's something that was patched out before players reached it.

Of course, no matter what the modding community says, this could all easily be a hoax. Then entered the game's producer, Yosuke Saito, quote tweeting a tweet of the video footage from known Nier and Dark Souls hacker Lance McDonald saying "Eternal mystery…"

Yoko Taro, director of the game and frequent tweeter, hasn't yet acknowledged the mystery. But with someone so high up in the development chain drawing attention to it, it's much less likely to be fake, though it obviously isn't any less confusing.

Nier Automata is also coming to Nintendo Switch this fall complete with all of the game's additional content, as well as some brand new costumes.

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