One franchise that has become a breakout success is Nier, further enhanced by the release of 2017's Nier Automata. The game became well known for its emotional and thought-provoking narrative, along with its experimental design. The Nintendo Switch is even getting a Nier Automata port later this year, complete with some new content added. However, a new wrinkle regarding Automata has recently come to light, which is leaving the community scrambling to find an answer.
Recently, one player known as sadfutago posted onto the Nier community subreddit something that no player had ever found before: A secret door in Nier Automata that blew the entire fanbase away. This was found in the Copied City, whereupon entering, they discovered a ladder that went further down. Since then, the fanbase went wild with how this was possible, with recent images and videos that were posted on the subreddit muddying things even more.
Another video from sadfutago was posted to the subreddit, showing off an almost 8-minute video of Nier Automata's 9S now entering the same location, along with what was at the bottom of the ladder. After a completely trippy sequence of geography, 9S appears to be entering what seems to be a church. Things get further complicated when 9S fights a boss in the church, that seem to be modeled after the Shadowlord shade from the first Nier.
After all of that however, the video shows the game suddenly changing languages, going from English to Japanese. It then shows an asset that was originally from Nier Replicant, which features the exact same question when interacted with. However, the player ends up answering wrong three times in a row, which is what the video ends on. The fans were then thrown an even further loop, when several images from sadfutago were posted to the community subreddit, which all but seemed to confirm this whole set up being a marketing ARG.
These images seemed to in some way or another be teasing for a future release, with many fans trying to put as many pieces of the puzzle together as possible. The most prominent theories that have sprung up are either DLC or even a sequel to Nier Automata, with it being tied to the first game. This is supported by the fact that the Nier Replicant remake had dialogue that tied the events of both games together. The other prevailing theory is based on the images, which all are references or statues from Drakengard 3. Many fans are speculating that this can lead to a remake or remaster of said title, though this is all speculation at this time.
Nier: Automata is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and will be released for Nintendo Switch on October 6.