For several days, a mysterious video of NieR Automata has been driving the fan community crazy, and the mystery is gradually thickening. What if it’s marketing?
NieR is a license known for its mysteries and multiple readings. Yoko Taro, creator of the license, is used to strangeness and his vision of video games and communication is, let’s say, original.
This is one of the reasons why fans have been racking their brains for several days whena mysterious video appeared on the net.
A mysterious gameplay sequence
It all started on Reddit when a user, Sadfutago, posted an unpublished gameplay sequence. It shows the player walking towards a wall and opening a back door before entering a long spiral corridor that leads to a church.
Hi here is the video for the door clip for the church hall that I recorded on my ps4 and put on my usb, then uploaded to the discord server. I got a space error because I recorded too long I think.
From that moment on, players from all over the world rushed to the video and their game to try to unlock this famous door too, but nothing did. A real hunt for clues was then launched.
Video intrigues as NieR Automata should contain no more secretsThe last one was found by Lance Mcdonald a while ago (and it was confirmed by the creator of the game himself). At first, some people thought it was just a hoax, very advanced, but totally fake.
Other users have also noticed some strange things. On the forums where the first gameplay video was posted, Sadfutago himself responds to his words, as if to imitate a conversation.
Users noticed the deceptionbut also that the English used was strange, as if the person understood or spoke the language badly. Extrapolating a bit and theorizing, they came to think that the person (or persons) behind the deception would be Japanese, and that it would all be a big marketing trick. And they may well be right.
New secrets and another cliffhanger
A few hours ago, Sadfutago returned to Reddit to post a longer version of his secret gameplay saying that his gameplay (captured on PS4) would apparently be “buggy”. The latter would arrive in the famous secret church, beat a boss there, then his game would start having graphical problems in addition to constantly sending him back to the beginning of the secret level, as if he was stuck in a time loop.
I think my game has a bug since I keep going back to the beginning, I don’t know how to fix it and the vase has random or Korean letters. Maybe I need to restart the game or try the boss again or maybe I took too long to beat it.
Once again, the community has combed through the sequence and it looks like fans have found some answers.
During the video, we can indeed see that the player goes to a vase where there are two birds. A multiple-choice dialogue then begins, in a foreign language that Sadfutago calls “random letter or Korean”. Sadfutago having obviously no skill in this language, we can see him choosing answers at random and being teleported to the beginning of the secret area.
On Reddit on the other hand, fans quickly found the solution. The vase in question is a perfect copy of the one that can be found in NieR Replicant 1.22, and the puzzle is identical. In fact, the question would have to be answered several times by selecting targeted answers. Fans then asked Sadfutago to answer the questions in a specific order, and send back a video to see what comes of it. For now, the interested party did not answer, but it should not take too long…
What if it was all marketing?
Besides that, a large fringe of the community tries to find the identity of this mysterious Sadfutagoand what is behind the recent events. And they may well have some clues…
Some users have indeed noted that Sadfutago’s last message would coincide with the announcement of the opening of a lottery to participate in an event dedicated to the 5 years of NieR Automata scheduled for the end of the year.
The event, the NieR:Automata FAN FESTIVAL 12022, was supposed to open its lottery on July 25, but had to postpone the date to make “adjustments”and when it finally opened, Sadfutago posted his video on social networks. Coincidence? It’s strange.
The email said we will be getting our announcements for the lottery ticket results on July 28th at 3pm instead.
Lo and behold, at 2:26pm Japan Time, user sadfutago posts his full 8 minute video of the church area, boss, and interesting Replicant bird dialogue… pic.twitter.com/ua8ZQcC0vI
-??????Audrey? (@aitaikimochi) July 28, 2022
But what is even more important is that Sadfutago’s very first post on Reddit was in mid-June. In it, the user questioned Reddit fans asking if they knew what the church of NieR Automata was hiding, that he would be interested to know what was there, and that he was looking for a way to get in.
A message that went unnoticed at the time, but which strangely coincides with the announcement of NieR Automata on Nintendo Switch.
this thread was just me finding it interesting the posting times of user “sadfutago” coincided with the lottery email about the Nier Automata event.
The user’s first ever post about the church was around the middle of June, a few weeks before Switch + event news was announced. pic.twitter.com/DmdUzkpxXk
-??????Audrey? (@aitaikimochi) July 28, 2022
Could it be that Yoko Taro and her team are trolling the community by preparing them for an announcement? The projects around the NieR license are still very mysterious although we know that an anime is in preparation. Will we get a new game, or a spin-off? Theories are open.
After that, there is also a last option, the one of the incredibly well designed fake that will have kept the whole community in suspense. The future will tell us, the mystery is not yet solved and we will remain on the alert.
