In an interview with GamesRadar+, director Ryuichi Nishizawa expressed both surprise and flattery with the game's cult following in the Anglosphere, stating that the game was never designed with an international audience in mind and thus strongly bore characteristics which were "distinctly Japanese". Commenting on both the presence of fan translations and and the official English localization made for the game's 2025 re-release, he stated that the passion behind the game's following was "humbling" and reflected a growing worldwide interest in Japanese culture, which ran counter to the widespread industry assumption that Japanese developers would need to draw from Western media in order to see international appeal. Nishizawa noted that the latter preconception "risks losing the originality that Japanese games have cultivated," and expressed hope that the renewed interest in games like it would promote "a curriculum that teaches uniquely Japanese game creation."