Special Interview - Andy Kitkowski

In the first of our special interviews, our guest is Andy Kitkowski. I don't know any non-Japanese gamers who know more about, or have more experience with, Japanese RPGs than Andy.

Andy is also big in the indie games scene, having started up the Indie RPG Awards a couple of years ago, and he pretty much turned me and Cam on to games like The Mountain Witch and Sorcerer.

He's also just a really cool guy and whenever he's in Tokyo, it's always nice to get together and have a few beers.

Here are some links to websites and games mentioned in the show. Most of them are in Japanese, so unless you have a Japanese capable browser, I'm afraird all you're going to be able to do is look at the pictures. Of course, if you can't read Japanese it really doesn't matter does it?

F.E.A.R. (Far East Amusement Research) is one of Japan's premier RPG design studios. On this site you can find links to the popular Al-Shard and legendary Tokyo Nova games mentioned in the podcast.

To follow the development of Tenra Bansho Zero, you need only bookmark Andy's Tenra Bansho Zero website. And here's a link to the official Japanese TBZ page as well.

The Japanese TRPG Research Center, Andy's page dedicated to Japanese RPGs hasn't been updated for a while but contains some pretty good info. Actually, now that people will probably be looking at it, I think he'll probably start updating it again. ;-)

Yellow Submarine is Japan's largest chain of specialty hobby stores, with 38 branches nationwide. I can remember when they only had one shop in Shinjuku and didn't want to import more Magic: the Gathering cards because they didn't think they would sell...now they have branches all over Japan (financed by CCG sales of course).

Something I found out recently about Yellow Submarine is that the branch stores are franchises, which explains the uneveness in stock and sometimes pricing.

Despite the proliferation of Yellow Submarine stores, these days I find the best selection of games is to be had at Shosen Bookmart in Ochanomizu. Prices are similar to Yellow Sub but they have a lot more variety in their RPG stock, including even indie games like Burning Wheel and Sorcerer. I don't know who does their buying but whoever it is is pretty clued in.

Japanese gamers are interested in playing games in English. Here's a FAQ about Japanese RPGs, in English, created by a Japanese fan. The parent site, RPG Portal from Japan also has a pile of links to Japanese RPG sites. This site is pretty informative and gives a good rundown of the RPG scene here in J-Land.

And of course, if you are coming to Japan, you will suffer in gaming hell alone if you do not contact JIGG, the Japan International Gamers Guild!

Oh, you want to buy some Japanese RPGs? Well, you can try Amazon.co.jp, which does have some English menus. Hobby Games Boardwalk also sells J-games overseas (and has English menus). And if you want to go domestic Sasuga Japanese Bookstore in Boston can hook you up.

Hope you enjoyed the interview!