I debated whether to weigh in on it because my feelings on the matter are complex, but it's bugging me, so what the hell. There's been a lot of chatter about how Nier Replicant's reception is indicative we're fully past the, let's say, Phil Fish phase of Japanese games criticism.

Trust me, as a localizer, I get where that excitement comes from. It's the rare instance of a game widely misunderstood in its time not only getting a second chance to make a case for itself, but to do so in an environment where its director has since gained much acclaim.

More people "get" the original Nier now and that's great. It has a lot of important things to say about games, their stories, and how they're told. But I think it's premature to say it suggests foreign discourse has become fully or even much more comfortable with Japanese games.

Daunting as it may appear, I think Nier's reputational rehabilitation, in a lot of ways, was the easy part in righting that ship. And I say that because for all it does differently and opaquely, at the end of the day, its mechanical design language is one that's largely familiar.

Yes, Nier games are known for shifting perspective, mechanics, and even storytelling style at times with their occasional textual interludes. Their execution is unique, but they take place within an action RPG framework, a style of game that's sold well globally since the 1980s.

Which is to say, Nier, even in its roughest form, always benefited from being a familiar-feeling game in terms of its core interactions. That in itself already goes a long way to making the experience feel approachable and it only becomes more so with additional refinements.

It's easy to probe people's ideas of games when it's done in a language they know and said language is articulated well. That's the difference Automata made, offering experiential polish that made it so people didn't feel like they had to compromise to see the point being made.

So when I see a second take on the original game not only plays better, but is better received, I'm glad, but I'm not surprised. Automata successfully argued Nier games have things to say in their mechanics and structure, leaving the door open for Replicant to be reevaluated.

Does it in indicate a greater willingness in foreign circles to critically engage with Japanese games than was the case in 2010? Maybe. But has that generosity truly extended to games in less familiar genres, perhaps with fewer localization sales successes? That I'm not so sure.

I've been thinking a lot about the foreign reception of games like 13 Sentinels and Gnosia. Games that, like Nier, have unique goals and structural executions, but speak very familiar design languages to Japanese players. Emphasis on that last part: familiar to Japanese players.

Instead of action RPGs, these are games that are in a similarly intimate conversation with Japanese adventure games, albeit arguably different schools of them. They sold, at least in the case of the former, well enough and certainly attracted passionate foreign followings.

But I think it's fair to say their overall impact overseas has been comparatively muted and I think a large part of that is because the conversation those games are having and the way players engage in it is largely less familiar. Genre arguments online certainly indicate that.

What of the games in genres with even smaller western footholds? If Uma Musume was released in English, would its gameplay strengths come across enough to explain its Japanese success despite most western players and critics lacking the vocabulary and context for raising games?

If a genuine localized version of Amagami came out, would it be appreciated for its own intricate dialogue with dating sim history? Or would it be understood only through the lens of its writing, its intentions possibly even misinterpreted given the lack of localized dating sims?

I don't have the answers to these questions. I'd like to be optimistic, but the well-intended reception I often get to my own posts and essays exploring such genres tells me that, at the very least, there are remain profound gaps left to bridged moving forward.

None of this, of course, is intended to dismiss Replicant's own accomplishments or imply that making games like it is by any means literally easy. Far from it. But it's always had enough going for it that, in a different environment, it doesn't surprise me it lands better now.

The real challenge continues to be in allowing critical space to be given to games in those less globally familiar genres that, often due to market dynamics and genre history, are rarely afforded the same benefit of the doubt in justifying their systems and underlying messages.