Otoemetry

@FX29 what kind of story is it? I'm a fan of Xenoblade but I struggle with other JRPGs and I'm worried I wouldn't enjoy Persona 5...

@Brett I'm not a "rube" or a fool for believing someone who presented themselves as a victim and who was clearly posting in distress, that makes me a human being with empathy and I'll do it again because I'm not a sociopath.

It's not childish to believe workers deserve to be paid more, when the world's billionaires have increased their wealth by an obscene 70% that's a fair and natural reaction to the way we've allowed grotesque inequality to get so out of control. As I told you before the earth has enough resources for literally everyone to live a comfortable life but unfortunately the selfish nature of some has led to extreme resource hoarding by wealthy nations and well, here we are.

I'm not ashamed to have stood by Hellena in the beginning, VAs do indeed deserve better pay and conditions. I hope Hellena moved past this now as we all must, and I hope her manipulation of the facts doesn't harm the cause of other VAs in their quest for better treatment.

I'm putting you on the ignore list now because I simply don't want to hear any more in the subject.

@Brett I stand by what I said, I stopped looking at that comment section because I couldn't stand seeing the bile people had for someone trying to stand up for themselves and regardless of the truth of the matter now that still makes me baulk.

Calling other opinions dumb or childish because you don't agree with them is no way to win an argument. Have you looked out at the world lately? It's hardly dystopian to view corporations with disdain considering all they do to make life worse for us all, all in the pursuit of power, money, and influence. Have a look at how life is for those at the bottom and tell me that's fair, it's not and you can't deny it.
I chose to view Hellena's initial claims with empathy, something sadly amiss for most people commenting on this subject and I won't apologise for believing someone who presented themselves as a victim.

@VinylCreep also:
"Honestly, as much as I think Hellena isn’t telling the full truth, I really hope she doesn’t get the full force of Twitter coming down on her."

This has been my problem from the start, so many people were so quick to judge her with hardly any information. Saying $4k was plenty for a job of which they had zero knowledge and which could have been a gruelling 6 month's worth of work for all they knew. I have to wonder if the story had gone the other way whether those people would be backing down had she been proven right, obviously she framed her initial arguments to put her in the best possible light and that has totally backfired...

I still maintain there's a nugget of truth in her story, I think she tried to hardball Kamiya and it went how it usually goes when a man-child doesn't like something and that's why she refused. I reckon she was fuming when they asked her to do the cameo and then blindsided by the official statement claiming they couldn't get the schedules to align, which is why she's gone on this tirade of half truths and lies of omission to kick up a stink in advance of the game's release.

What she hoped to actually achieve with all this I don't know, but I do know that it has exposed some pretty gross opinions in these comment sections. People all too quick to side with a corporation desperate to play their game regardless of the casualties, which at the beginning could have been entirely true; people happy to see creatives paid a pittance because all it is is "speaking into a mic for 4 hours" like they know a single thing about how hard it is to get into that industry and make a success of it, and the admonishments coming thick and fast when people think her IMDb listing functions as her CV when she's predominantly a theatre actress and those credits aren't listed.
It all just confirms my belief that no-one ever checks their biases before wading into an internet argument, including myself.

@DoomPlague I'm guessing she meant $4k per session, though at this point it's hard to follow her arguments as they are somewhat incoherent

@VinylCreep it was screenshots of some of her tweets, and apologies I thought it was anti-vax but it was some guff about autism being a man made/made up disease. I found the actual tweet thread on Twitter and it appears that she "apologised" for it and deleted the offending tweet, though it was a bit half arsed. Sorry for the confusion though, autism denial usually goes hand in hand with anti-vax sentiment but my brain put 2 + 2 together there.

@VinylCreep uhh a friend shared something on Facebook, I'll see if I can verify.

@DashKappei Hale is a proud anti-vaxxer btw, anyone can have sh*tty opinions.
Edit: autism denier not anti-vax, usually go hand in hand but I'd misread the tweet I saw where she claimed it was a man made/made up disease.

Once again, some vile comments in this debate. Really wonder how our species has made it this far when people are so selfish and miserly.

@VinylCreep that's if you believe Bloomberg's reporting of two "anonymous sources" close to production. Remind me how accurate their Switch Pro reports were again

I still don't believe we've heard the truth in this story yet, and I don't think we ever will. I'm not sorry I believed Hellena Taylor and to be perfectly honest I still think what she said was the truth as she saw it, I'm just not convinced it was the whole story but I can tell she was posting those videos coming from a place of hurt and was genuinely upset so there's no shame in believing someone on those grounds.

All the people arguing the toss over whether VAs deserve to be paid $4k for their work are the ones who should be shamed, every worker across the world deserves to be paid more than they get get now. Everyone. It's the people at the top who need less, not the people actually doing the work.

@YoshiF2 look, I know you Americans are indoctrinated against the big bad socialism, but socialism has nothing to do with any of this. This is capitalism at work, people are taught it's rude or taboo to discuss wages so the bosses can get away with paying people (usually women and poc) less than others, and when that doesn't work they're told to begrudge fast food workers unionizing because how very dare they think they deserve more for their dead end job... Socialism is at the very core of the Union movement where workers deserve to be paid significantly more for their work because they generate all the profit with their labour, it sounds from your comments like you agree with all this so I really don't get why socialism is the boogyman for you?

@Acein210 you cannot take information pertaining to previous titles and assume it was the same for this game, I've read that Hellena was expected to voice more characters in the 3rd game meaning the workload would have increased. Also she was the voice of the main character, does she not deserve to be paid well for that work?
To me it seems like nothing more than a tantrum from Kamiya and knowing the calibre of Jennifer Hale I doubt she took a lower offer than Hellena rejected.

@GameOtaku oh you're one of those kinds of people. The HOW DARE THAT PERSON EAT DECENT FOOD WHEN THEY HAVEN'T WORKED FOR IT kind of person 🙄
You made an assumption about that couple and their ability to work, you have no idea who they are or why they get government help yet you've made a value judgement on them and decided they're undeserving. Let me tell you, this kind of rhetoric is only ever used by corporations and politicians to turn you against your class and instead of moaning about the literal crumbs people get from governments to survive situations you know nothing about, how about looking up at the billionaires avoiding billions in tax or the politicians taking "donations" from oil companies to deny climate change and prevent renewable energy... Look up, not down. 🤦🏼‍♂️

@Nanoline52 like crabs in a bucket

@steely_pete did she not say Platinum as a company made that much? That's what I heard her say in the video anyway, might have been the way she worded it but I thought she said the company not the game series itself.
Other VAs have had a multitude of opinions on the matter, but neither you, they, or I know exactly how much work was expected of Hellena Taylor in the production of this game; in my opinion voicing an entire game with multiple characters sounds like it would require more than the 4 hours or whatever everyone keeps quoting here as a matter of fact even though it's an assumption based on how long previous games took to record, that plus the way she spoke in her video sounded like it's come from a place of hurt which -actress or no- I believe.

@Kryhme you don't know that for a fact, you cannot take information based on previous games and simply assume it was the same for this game.

@timp29 because we live in a globally connected world now and you can't (for the moment) police information in other countries, this is how I'm in the UK and I know about Prince William's affair that the UK press is blocked from discussing.

@timp29 wait till you learn about super injunctions!

I love how many people make wild assumptions about topics they have zero personal experience of and then decide to just side with the corporation anyway, saying "well if she only worked four days that's a lot of money" or saying Hale got paid more or less blah blah blah...

YOU DON'T KNOW THESE DETAILS!

It's ridiculous to take sides when there are so many unknowns and for that reason I choose to believe the person making the accusation, because even if 9 out of 10 people are lying it's still better than not believing the one person telling the truth.

Great article, but some vile opinions appearing in the comment section again I see.

Wow some people in this comment section really like licking that corporate boot, huh.

@Murta I just did a search on eBay and there are 65 UK buy-it-now listings ranging from £95-£400. I am apoplectic with rage.

So about this tracking info thing, what happens if they don't provide tracking?

Anyone know how easy it is to get your money back if you order from a scalper and the product never arrives?

@RupeeClock everyone needs to spam them with complaints and tweets so they know this is not acceptable, allowing situations like this to arise where scummy people sell your merch for 5 times the price is just totally unacceptable.
I already knew the store was trash, but this comes directly from Nintendo's decision making and they bear full responsibility. I can see this being an issue for the upcoming Pyra&Mythra amiibo too and I am just so not ready to do all this again 🤦🏼‍♂️

Edit: and they've just this minute sent an email hawking the expansion pass. They've got another thing coming if they think I'll be spending any money on them today.

So because I was up until stupid o'clock last night in desperation trying to refresh the page, I missed the window of opportunity again.

Curse you Nintendo, I deeply resent you for this whole sorry affair.

If anyone has a spare please sell it to me for a reasonable price? 😫

@Mach_Rider that's really interesting, thanks

@Mach_Rider hmmm why not try another product to see if that's just the default for anything out of stock? Some of the older amiibo ought to be good candidates, the Boo and Daisy ones from the Mario series have been OOS since the shop opened.

@Mach_Rider thanks for clarifying.
@IamReAllyFeelinF5 no worries!

@IamReAllyFeelinF5 you mean you're not getting the 404 error page? Does the stock show as sold out?

@IamReAllyFeelinF5 can't refresh the 404 error page for some reason so I'm occasionally loading the page and searching the relevant areas, definitely not spamming f5 tho haha

@GrailUK the store is run directly by NOE since their partnership with the Hut Group came to an end, all these issues are a continuation of the fact that they do not have experience in large scale logistics for consumer merchandise but they're doing it anyway presumably because they didn't want to pay the hut group to do it anymore.

So as midnight has turned the store is back up again but the Xenoblade CE is nowhere to be found, wonder what's gone on? Perhaps there will be a statement about it released on Twitter at some point

@Flatlinerking I can't get back on the store 😫🤬

I'm making a formal complaint on their website, I suggest everyone else do the same and then tweet them about it. If America could bully them into doing another release them so can we.

I'm so angry, it makes me want to stop supporting Nintendo in future if this is how they treat their fans.

@Jack_Goetz oh good I was worried you'd managed to get onto the site this evening and place an order, I doubt there's anyone able to place orders at this point so I'm keeping hope that the store will come back to life and I'll be able to place an order

@Jack_Goetz when did you place your order?

It is genuinely baffling to me that Nintendo have created a situation where their entire European operation has been brought down by fans of a series which compared to their other franchises isn't even that popular, just... how is it so bad? Why?!

@SteamEngenius NFCs for amiibo are likely to be very low priority, when you've got the banking and auto industries jostling for supply I doubt little old Nintendo needing a few thousand or so is going to want to pay the high price of getting priority access. Chips for electronics are a different story though, from what I've read the supply demand there is easing off somewhat.

@RadioHedgeFund my theory is that when the malice grabbed the Master Sword (plus Link's hand) the green swirling magic hand holding Ganondorf back (which had earlier rescued link from the falling platform) had to possess Link's arm to prevent him being overcome by malice. That's what makes most sense in my mind considering the green colour of the magic and the fact that Nintendo tends to colour code their heroes and villains.
I could of course be interpreting the jumbled up trailers in the wrong order though

Edit to add: I watched some trailer analysis videos back when the previous trailers released and the reason I think falling happens first is because the green magic hand grabs falling Link by the left hand and it's his right hand which is possessed, which is the one being attacked by the malice. Doesn't make sense to me for the falling to happen after those events.

@WallyWest *in your opinion*the visuals are fine, stop acting like yours is the be all and end all. I won't be buying these games, trust me. Gamefreak won't fool me twice.

@BenAV yeah this month is bonkers for releases if you're a fan of JRPGs and JRPG adjacent genres 😅

@WallyWest you know gamefreak won't see you going hard for them in this comment section, right? Baffles me why anyone would attack people so harshly just for criticizing a game they like.

@sisodinr agreed, that stuttering windmill is abysmal! How this got into a trailer I'll never know, it looked like it was running on clockwork until they got closer and it started turning smoothly. Gamefreak seriously need to get help.

These guides aren't actually that helpful since the grave location is often away from where the creature spawns and the way you've highlighted them in your images makes finding them quite hard with zero other identifying information, I know you're trying to avoid spoilers but this is going a bit far

Ought to mention Triton can't learn arts/skills himself, you need a party member using the class for that

@Ralizah the track attached to this article is very reminiscent of some of the ones you hear around New LA in XCX, sort of a mix of the Blade Barracks and the dreaded yeah yeah yeah one whose name I forget 😅