The Strange Case of Nier Automata’s Recently Discovered Church
Reddit user sadfutago, who goes by the name of sadfutago, accidentally destroyed the Neer: Automata community on July 25.
Sadfutago posted a thread on the subreddit r/nier. It was an update to other attempts to bring attention to an unusuality he found in Ninja: Automata. This 2017 Square Enix action RPG is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding games of its generation. The thread contained a video of the game on the PlayStation 4. A2 was running through Copied City in black and white when he came across a church that no one from the Nuer community had ever seen.
Sadfutago, who refused to respond to a request for comment, citing their “overwhelmedness” by pings, posted the video after trying intermittently to draw attention to it for two months. It was not a discovery. They were curious why they could access the church while a friend was playing the game couldn’t. The first post was made in a fanart forum and copied in the subreddit. It read, “Hello, I’m brand new to Reddit.” I was looking for a way to open the church in Nuer Automata.
Sadfutago gave some visual evidence that they discussed the subject when asked for more details. The post was removed from the subreddit’s timeline for low engagement, and the image was deleted. However, it was reuploaded onto a different image hosting site.
The image shows A2 in Copied City. It is inside a building that has pews and archways. Nier Automata fans know the game well, having played it five years ago and every port and variation since. This was the first time anyone had ever seen anything like it. The original post was not getting much attention, and the photo was removed, so no one could see what they had never seen before. For those not familiar with the internet, there was always the possibility that the image was photoshopped or altered in some way. Sadfutago uploaded another entry to this mystery on July 25, a video taken off-screen of A2 entering a church from Copied City. Things suddenly seemed more real.
A2 travels through hallways and known areas to find a door that does not exist for all other players who have reached it. The video was recreated by community members who tried hard to replicate the conditions, including variables such as version number, platform, and hyper-specific regions like the use of a Canadian copy. The situation got even more complicated when sadfutago uploaded a video of actual interaction with the church, which they claim was straight from their PS4.
