For the past 5 years, PlatinumGames’ 2017 hit NieR: Automata has shown the gaming community a grand (and weird) time, boasting an action RPG filled to the brim with wild secrets and hidden endings, most of which the community seemed to have found. That is, until a month ago, when Reddit user u/sadfutago joined the main NieR subreddit to ask how to access “the church,” further elaborated on to mean “the place in the underground copied city where you fight the boss adam.” Additionally, while Sadfutago can access this area, their friend can not. After their Reddit post, this sentiment appears to ring true for every other NieR: Automata player in the world at this point:  no one is able to access “the church” aside from this single player. 

Now, this isn’t exactly foreign to the world of NieR: Automata, a game that contains countless loopholes to access various endings, from simply eating an “exquisite” Mackerel that paralyzes and kills the player to a decision to go “on a walk” at key plot points, effectively ending the game. Yet, when a popular data-miner and modder named Lance McDonald found a loophole to the game’s “real” ending last year, even director Yoko Taro confirmed this as the “final” secret. However, after Sadfutago’s post, this may not be the case. 

While Sadfutago’s initial posts went unanswered, many disregarding this so-called “church,” the Reddit user escalated the stakes, posting a video captured on a cell phone showing only the entrance to the antechamber at the end of the church. The primary video, which follows character A2 as they access a secret passage and enter a long spiraling hallway leading down to a massive church door, seems legitimate, from voice lines to cutscenes, but much of the community is still suspect. Though modding tools are hard to come by for this game, many fans on the NieR subreddit find that the possibility of it being fake is much higher than the alternative; as a result, the entire community is scouring evidence for either side. 

In support of the legitimacy of the discovery, many fans make the case that this is merely cut content, as the community has been aware of an alternate pre-Beta version of the Copied City and a similar church in a similar location since the game’s launch. Additionally, it is now confirmed that Sadfutago is using a PS4 and working with the 1.00 version of the game, so much of the original content could still be there, having not been updated in 5 years. However, that other church was quite different visually from the one Sadfutago has discovered. To see whether the church’s addition is even plausible through modding, people like Discord user Meowsandstuff have been mocking up similar churches with their NieR modding capabilities, indicating that is somewhat possible but missing a variety of textures and assets. People are even dissecting u/sadfutago’s name to connect it with the game lore, though the user in question has denied many of the connections skeptics have made. 

Nevertheless, so many more fans stand against rather than for, taking a variety of conclusions from the user’s social media interactions: at this post, most believe them to be a child with a Naruto-inspired username who seems just to echo comments rather than respond to them, indicating a lower grasp of English. Further, Sadfutago has made a few accidental comments supporting the find from their main account, leading many to believe they have an alternate account used for comment support that they simply forgot to switch to. While there are a variety of arguments against Sadfutago’s discovery, interested readers can find a comprehensive account of these in the Meowsandstuff-led Google Doc exposé, which was described as a “group effort” by members of the community. For now, however, the secret persists; no one has been able to explicitly debunk or support the random Reddit user’s questionable discovery. As goes the Internet, the conversation will continue until an explanation can be formed, some more cynical members of the community believing it to be a simple marketing tactic for the Nier: Automata port coming to Nintendo Switch this October. So, keep your eyes peeled, as there may even be a $500 bounty for the first person to put forth any true evidence.