Recently, a Reddit user known as sadfutago posted a video on Reddit that showed a door, a hallway, and a location that no other Nier: Automata player had ever seen before. It sent the community into a frenzy. How did that door appear? What is the meaning behind the church location behind the door?
In June, sadfutago posted a simple thread asking the community for some help in opening a mysterious door in the Copied City. Some users were immediately skeptical and nothing much really came of that initial thread. A short time later sadfutago posted again, this time with a couple of screenshots. It was again met with some skepticism, with several requests made for some sort of video proof of this door and new location. Day later, sadfutago posted a video of the door they were having issues with. Then came a second video, then a third and much longer video was posted.
The mystery deepened as more gameplay footage was shared by sadfutago. Not one, but two new videos were posted on July 28th.
Theories were crafted. Assumptions were made. It couldn't possibly be the work of modders, right? Modding Nier: Automata is impossible! Maybe it's an ARG. Was it cut content? An Easter egg? Maybe it's the start of a promotional campaign for a new Drakengard game! Maybe it was nothing more than some very clever video editing work.
Stories about this mysterious location were spread far and wide across all sorts of media outlets, gaming communities, and especially amongst the diehard Nier fanatics. Even Nier's director Yoko Taro went along with the mystery in a very Yoko Taro fashion.
As it turns out, the screenshots, the videos, and subsequent mystery were the work of some talented modders. Modifying Nier: Automata was previously believed to be impossible. While the reveal may be rather anticlimactic to some, the revelation that the game is moddable is a huge boon for those eager to create new content for a game they love.
The big reveal came last night by way of a Twitch stream. The team revealed that the everything shared was of their creation and that modding Nier: Automata was indeed quite possible. The content was the work of three people: DevolasRevenge, Woeful_Wolf, and RaiderB. A text slide at the end of the stream thanked the community for the wild ride.
Subsequent slides at the end of the Twitch stream also apologized to the community for misleading them. They say they wanted to give the impression of what they were showing to be cut content and not a big ARG. They also apologized for an "anticlimactic" ending to the big mystery. They say that they were running out of time due to a variety of personal reasons such as an upcoming trip and wisdom teeth getting pulled. Still, the overall response to the entire saga seems to have been a positive one throughout the community.
Sure, some fans were disappointed to hear this wasn't something related to more official Nier or even Drakengard content coming, others were elated that mods were now possible. The team behind it all say that they will release new, open source addons and scripting tools for Blender that will allow others to create and add in their own content to Nier.
The trio also say that they will also freely release the little church segment that they've been teasing fans with for over a month now. Beyond that, they say that they have a completed mod from RaiderB that will be released soon.
If you missed last night's stream reveal, you can watch the entire thing in full below. Just be mindful that some of the ASCII art in the chat is NSFW.
