Turns out the Nier: Automata secret church was a mod all along

We have a conclusion! The secret church in Nier: Automata that's been puzzling players all week has been confirmed to be a mod.

Earlier today, reddit user sadfutago - behind all the videos so far - posted a link to a Twitch stream that revealed all behind the previously unseen secret church area and its use of Nier: Replicant assets.

The stream showed various assets from the game and the secret church area, before admitting all was done through an in-game mod, which will be made available publicly. The VOD wasn't saved but you can still watch clips of the broadcast.

NieR:Automata The End of YoRHa Edition [Nintendo Direct mini ソフトメーカーラインナップ 2022.6.28]

"We have been loving all the discussions and theories - it has been an amazing journey," reads a statement from the three person team. "It has been inspiring to see the community come together after so many years, it has made all the hard work well worth it."

The team also offered individual statements.

"Thanks everyone for sticking along for the ride, whether you expected this outcome or not, I hope you enjoyed the impact. It was never meant to blow up this big, but just to confuse a few people on Twitter lol," said map designer DevolasRevenge.

"It has been quite a few years now. When I started this I never thought we would ever get this far; I simply wanted to fix the lunar tear model! Thank you everyone, everything has been so motivational," said Blender tool developer Woeful_Wolf.

Added scripting tool developer RaiderB: "It's been an honour working on this and to be part of this crew. I've had lots of fun and am excited to see where this goes in the future."

The new Blender addons and scripting tools will be released "over the following days" completely open source.

So, the secret church wasn't a marketing ploy after all but a mod as some expected from the start. Still, this mod work is hugely impressive and hadn't been possible before now.

And while the outcome may not be what some fans were hoping for, surely we can all agree with Nextlander's Alex Navarro: "It's been so long since we had a good old fashioned carny mystery in games that it's just nice to see people going apeshit for something fun for once."