The mystery of the church and secret door in Nier: Automata continues.

Yesterday we reported how reddit user sadfutago posted a video entering a previously unfound door that led to an unseen church area, leaving dataminers scratching their heads. Is this truly a new secret in the game, or an elaborate modded hoax?

Even the team behind the game has shared the videos on Twitter, including the game’s creator Yoko Taro.

Admittedly his insight is that he can’t provide insight. He then followed with “I am not what you expected. Normally, I don’t tweet in the English language. Because I am so foolish. And I love sausage and beer.” So that’s that.

Producer Yosuke Saito also shared footage stating “eternal mystery”, before stating “this is something that Yoko Taro could do”.

Of course, this isn’t confirmation the secret room is real, but its acknowledgement by the development team proves how widespread this rumour has become.

Lance McDonald, meanwhile, appears to have truly fallen down the rabbit hole. “I’m dying here,” he said.

The prominent dataminer has been sharing footage and screenshots of the video trying to get to the bottom of it all.

A recent tweet from McDonald shows a screenshot of sadfutago commenting on reddit with “It is either cut content or it is a mod”. Is this an admission by the original poster? Was it meant for an alternative account? Or – as this tweet suggests – is sadfutago simply repeating other comments and not fully understanding what’s being said?

So what exactly is going on here? Some fans believe this is all an elaborate hoax by the original poster, though this would require considerable mod work that has yet to be achieved by the wider community.

Or is this a marketing ploy by Platinum Games to stir up interest in the forthcoming Switch port? Are Taro and Saito sharing footage to simply play along or because they know of the secrets?

Eurogamer has contacted publisher Square Enix for some clarification.

Whatever the outcome, it’s inevitably resulted in memes as the mystery goes viral across the internet.