The great Nier: Automata church mystery of 2022 has finally been solved, and it turns out it really was an intricate mod.
Over the last week or so, the Nier community has truly kicked into gear over a mystery surrounding a video clip shared by a member on the game's subreddit showing an area that had never been seen before. This clip surged in popularity when it was shared by video game hacker Lance McDonald, leading many to question how it was possible. The answer? It was all essentially a PR stunt from three modders unveiling some impressive new tools.
The reason why it was such a mystery is that Nier's modding community couldn't find any of the files in any version of the game. When Nier Automata producer Yosuke Saito and director Yoko Taro both tweeted about the mod, but didn't clear anything up, some believed it could be some kind of marketing move for the upcoming Switch port (which is probably going to be the best way to play the game's side quests).