A sizeable portion of GAF isn't from an English-speaking country and/or can speak other languages, yet most of the podcasts (not to mention websites, magazines and video channels) mentioned here are American or British. That comes with a specific type of perspective and tone on gaming, but there are so many more perspectives and interesting personalities in the overall gaming landscape.
So let's fix this together. What foreign gaming podcasts would you recommend, and why?
Make sure to tell us what language they're in.
Here's mine: Gaijin Dash (French)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy0F8pu7oTqMgL1OYkj3K1BDdWjFdtd_c
Gaijin Dash is a monthly French video/audio podcast made by Gamekult, one of the top French gaming websites. It's all about gaming in Japan. Here's what's great about it:
- its two permanent guests, Daniel Andreyev (aka Kamui) and especially Gregoire Hellot (aka GoldenGreg or just Greg) were at the forefront of the "Japan-mania" in the 80s and 90s in France.
- they're both bilingual French/Japanese speakers, huge Japanese pop culture nerds and veritable living encyclopedias on the subject. 20 years ago they even made their own sentai/tokusatsu show called France Five, a pastiche of Power Rangers and other such shows. It reached cult status in France and even in Japan where you could find articles and magazines. Greg in particular used to be a journalist for one of the oldest French gaming magazines, Joypad, and even works (used to work?) for Famitsu. He started when he was frickin' 16 years old! He is now the director of a big manga publishing house in France and a friend/coworker of many Japanese developers like Yoshinori Ono. He regularly acts as an interpretor for developers (whereas Daniel Andreyev is more of a writer/translator).
- the show is available for free in video (via YouTube and DailyMotion) or audio form.
- it's made possible by the patronage of Gamekult Premium members only, so the tone and structure of the show are... unrestricted, to say the least, with incredible camaraderie and chemistry between the two guests and the host Nicolas Verlet (aka Puyo). Lots of joking around, swearing, hot takes and honest opinions. They love playfully riffing on Final Fantasy XV for instance (and its development history especially), even though they love FF and J-RPGs. Dragon Quest is their everything.
- So much insight and knowledge into the Japanese mentality and what Japanese developers say behind the scenes.
- at the same time, they're not elitists. If they find, say, a mobile game they're addicted to, they'll talk about it.
- for Sales-GAF, they'll always talk sales and do Japanese sales predictions at the end of the show.
If there's one flaw, it's the mostly unscripted nature of it. The hosts will often go back to the same anecdotes and stories between episodes because they don't always remember what they've already talked about. Also, if you're learning French, it's probably hard to follow since the language is so colloquial. On the flipside, it's great practice. No subtitles though.
But it's incredible overall. As a native French speaker, I never watch or listen to French shows. I never read French gaming websites, and French gaming forums are so much worse than GAF that there's no point. I only consume English media when it comes to gaming. Gaijin Dash is the one exception. I honestly have never found any show or gaming personality in the English-speaking landscapes who knew what they were talking about as much as these guys. I feel like I learn new things every episode, instead of hearing the same stuff I've already seen a hundred times on GAF and YouTube. As far as knowledgeable/experienced English-speaking gaming journalists go, the closest I can think of are maybe Jeremy Parish and Chris Kohler. I'm sure there are others, but I don't know them.
Gaijin Dash is the reason I made this thread in the first place. Yeah I'm a huge fan and a total shill for it, so sue me.
So, GAF, what are you recommendations?
So let's fix this together. What foreign gaming podcasts would you recommend, and why?
Make sure to tell us what language they're in.
Here's mine: Gaijin Dash (French)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy0F8pu7oTqMgL1OYkj3K1BDdWjFdtd_c
Gaijin Dash is a monthly French video/audio podcast made by Gamekult, one of the top French gaming websites. It's all about gaming in Japan. Here's what's great about it:
- its two permanent guests, Daniel Andreyev (aka Kamui) and especially Gregoire Hellot (aka GoldenGreg or just Greg) were at the forefront of the "Japan-mania" in the 80s and 90s in France.
- they're both bilingual French/Japanese speakers, huge Japanese pop culture nerds and veritable living encyclopedias on the subject. 20 years ago they even made their own sentai/tokusatsu show called France Five, a pastiche of Power Rangers and other such shows. It reached cult status in France and even in Japan where you could find articles and magazines. Greg in particular used to be a journalist for one of the oldest French gaming magazines, Joypad, and even works (used to work?) for Famitsu. He started when he was frickin' 16 years old! He is now the director of a big manga publishing house in France and a friend/coworker of many Japanese developers like Yoshinori Ono. He regularly acts as an interpretor for developers (whereas Daniel Andreyev is more of a writer/translator).
- the show is available for free in video (via YouTube and DailyMotion) or audio form.
- it's made possible by the patronage of Gamekult Premium members only, so the tone and structure of the show are... unrestricted, to say the least, with incredible camaraderie and chemistry between the two guests and the host Nicolas Verlet (aka Puyo). Lots of joking around, swearing, hot takes and honest opinions. They love playfully riffing on Final Fantasy XV for instance (and its development history especially), even though they love FF and J-RPGs. Dragon Quest is their everything.
- So much insight and knowledge into the Japanese mentality and what Japanese developers say behind the scenes.
- at the same time, they're not elitists. If they find, say, a mobile game they're addicted to, they'll talk about it.
- for Sales-GAF, they'll always talk sales and do Japanese sales predictions at the end of the show.
If there's one flaw, it's the mostly unscripted nature of it. The hosts will often go back to the same anecdotes and stories between episodes because they don't always remember what they've already talked about. Also, if you're learning French, it's probably hard to follow since the language is so colloquial. On the flipside, it's great practice. No subtitles though.
But it's incredible overall. As a native French speaker, I never watch or listen to French shows. I never read French gaming websites, and French gaming forums are so much worse than GAF that there's no point. I only consume English media when it comes to gaming. Gaijin Dash is the one exception. I honestly have never found any show or gaming personality in the English-speaking landscapes who knew what they were talking about as much as these guys. I feel like I learn new things every episode, instead of hearing the same stuff I've already seen a hundred times on GAF and YouTube. As far as knowledgeable/experienced English-speaking gaming journalists go, the closest I can think of are maybe Jeremy Parish and Chris Kohler. I'm sure there are others, but I don't know them.
Gaijin Dash is the reason I made this thread in the first place. Yeah I'm a huge fan and a total shill for it, so sue me.
So, GAF, what are you recommendations?
