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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Mar 10, 2018 17:50:21 GMT
Games that I love,which not many people have played.
To make the list more interesting,I'm not going to put well-known cult classics such as NIER,Yakuza etc. Ar Nosurge
An RPG,and one of the most memorable stories I experienced from the 7th gen,and a very creative one too.It's hard to explain what makes the story for this game great without spoilers,but I will say it has a creative take on the Aliens vs Humans thing,and I like how the game shows the journeys of 2 groups of characters at once,and the story allows you to create romance(have sex).The battle system and PS2 quality graphics left a bit to be desired,but it's atmosphere and music added to make it a great experience for me. Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
People who love ICO,Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian will probably enjoy Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom,since just like in those games,you have a companion on your adventure.Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is influenced by Chinese fantasy,and you control a young male,and a giant,but gentle creature named Majin as you attempt to travel through the world and solve puzzles. Otogi 1 and 2
Made by the developer of Demons/Dark Souls,Otogi is hack n slash action/adventure,but with an elegant style and beautiful dreary atmosphere.It's one of those games which is hard to explain why it's so enjoyable to play,but when you play it you will see why. Pandora's Tower
I have met many JRPG fans,but many of them have never heard of this game.It focuses on a love story,about a woman being inflicted with a curse that's turning her into a monster,so her lover and her travel to a giant tower,and her lover needs to travel up a series of towers to get flesh from a certain beast in each tower to feed his girlfriend to cure her of the curse.The battle system is unique,because you can use a chain to disable enemies,before you hack n slash them. You use the chain in intricate ways for puzzles,and the love story has some heart warming moments,but the game has multiple endings,and some of them are very heart breaking. Majin is an underrated gem. I have it still, but I need to go back and play it again. I would love to play Majin again, it's so charming,and gives me a peaceful feeling. The calibration of Majin's innocence and Chinese fantasy goes so well. And the giving an gameplay experience similar to Ico is great too.
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Mar 14, 2018 9:11:44 GMT
One thing Nintendo does better than Sony and Sega is porting/emulation. Right now I'm playing Jak and Daxter on Vita, and it's frame rate is very choppy and the camera angles are bad. Other sloppy Vita ports include Ratchet and Clank 2, Sly, God of War etc. SEGA's classic consoles have been of poor quality as far as console design and game emulation goes. On the other hand, Nintendo's classic console games are emulated quite well, and those consoles feel like you're actually playing a NES/SNES. The SNES games brought to GBA and N64 games brought to Gamecube/Wii played quite well. On the other hand, SEGA tried bringing the classic Sonic games to the GBA and they were some of the most sloppily emulated games ever.
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Apr 7, 2018 0:11:19 GMT
GreenDog
It was one of my favorite games for the SEGA MEGA DRIVE.It's music is so relaxing and I like the concept of playing as a surfer guy and traveling through lots of tropical-influenced environments while doing some platforming and a bit of combat(you throw a disc)and you do a bit of skating.The story might be simple(remember it's a 16-Bit platformer)but the story presentation is nice and the story is creative,the surfer guy named Greendog goes surfing one day and some some of necklace with a strange artifact attached to it ends up around his neck after waves caused it to go around his neck and the artifact causes any living thing near him to go crazy and start attacking him(animals and people).I also like the character design of Greendog because he dresses like a surfer(just wears long shorts and has long hair)and has a very mellowed-out personality.
Blades of Vengeance
I thought Blades of Vengeance was going to be a Golden Axe clone at first but it ended up being being much better any of the Golden Axe games I've played but the game also has quite a bit of platforming and a slight amount of RPG features(you can carry,use and buy various items,weapons and armor).It's fantasy world reminds me of 1980's style high fantasy such as Labyrinth in that the world and story has a darker feel to it,you'll see lots of blood in the game and the music for the game is great and reminds me 1980's style fantasy movies.I've beaten this game hundreds of times but loved doing so every time.
Clannad
Unless you're a big anime fan,you've probably never heard of the Clannad game(visual novel),in fact many of my anime fan friends who love anime didn't even know there is a Clannad game,despite the fact the game form of Clannad was released first.Clannad shows the story of a group of school students and their journey into adulthood and you'll experience romances and the tough periods of the the characters for when they're teenagers and adults and every character will grow on you and the game's message to me is we need to work together and help our loved ones through the tough times because if people work together for a common good they can achieve anything.Being a visual novel,you can make decisions which affect the story and affect which girlfriend you get or determine if you get a girlfriend or not and you can marry one of the characters and one of the characters can die and you can have children with one of the characters.The artstyle and music for the game are incredibly beautiful.
Dark Reign
Dark Reign is an RTS game,released back in 1997,that was published by Activision and when I was in school,this game was a hit with all my PC owner friends,being perhaps the best RTS game available for a short while before another RTS game named StarCraft was released a year later and made Dark Reign's popularity decline.What I like about Dark Reign is it has a very interesting story that's quite deep,to the extent a Dark Reign bible was included with the game that explains much of the game's story,which takes place over hundreds of years when Earth became over-populated and polluted and rich people live in giant,high security structures that they can grow their own food inside those structures and have filtered air and they don't come outside of those structures for years and the poor people live outside and have to breathe the polluted air(the air became so polluted,respiratory became common to the extent many people were dying from respiratory illness)and the over-population and shortage of food meant poorer people had to fight for survival and gangs ruled the streets.The prisons became so over-crowded,the government offered prisoners an option of going on a journey through space to look for other worlds but it was a risky journey as their spaceship had a limited supply of food and energy but some prisoners took that option and eventually they discovered new worlds with lots of fresh water and vegetation and clean air and formed societies on those worlds that flourished and even had law and order but the government that controlled Earth wanted to take possession of those planets for themselves and that's how the wars began.Skip a few hundreds years later and the wars are still continuing and time travel comes into the story.The gameplay itself was quite faster than other RTS games for it's time,units could be built quickly and even though the strategy for the game was quite simple(you needed to control the water supplies to build units faster than the CPU and overwhelm it with numbers)it was still lots of fun and the unit designs had great artistic designs and the worlds look beautiful with lovely rainforest and beautiful lakes and rivers.
Breath of Fire III and IV
I have many friends who love JRPGs and have constantly talked about Final Fantasy,Persona,Valkyria Chronicles,Tales series,Chrono series,Suikoden etc. but only one of them has talked about the Breath of Fire series.Breath of Fire III and IV are my favorite in the series because they took advantage of the Playstation's graphical capabilities to make the visuals looked polished while keeping the old-school charm in it's artstyle.The stories in both games show the most pure forms of evil(killing innocent people due to being power hungry)but the story presentation still manages to stay charming in a JRPG kind of way while deeping with dark and disturbing issues.Breath of Fire III does a nice job blending industrial age technology with fantasy and Breath of Fire IV does a nice job combining both Arabian and Asian influences into it's world and makes you care about the story by having a man searching for the woman he loves.Both of these games were among the most enjoyable games I played during he 5th generation.
Ecco Defender of the Future
During the 16-bit era,many of my friends enjoyed the Ecco the Dolphin games but during the 6th gen,not many people gave much attention to Ecco Defender of the Future even though IMO it's the best game by far in the series.It's a very spiritual journey,you play as a dolphin whom is trying to save earth from alien invaders and does it by swimming around in the ocean and doing certain things and the first time I played this game it was amazing and breathtaking,exploring fully 3D ocean environments and seeing realistic details in how the sand beds on the sea floor look and light penetrating parts of the water and the atmosphere and ambient feeling of exploring the ocean is amazing and you can interact or battle other ocean creatures and solve puzzles.This game gave me a sense of escapism and I loved exploring the sea and swimming around and seeing the other sealife and searching every nook and cranny such as caves and it was such a relaxing experience.
Jet Set Radio
Whether you've heard of this game or not will probably depend if you owned a Dreamcast(I know a Jet Set Radio game came to Xbox but it's popularity came from it's Dreamcast release)unless you happened to read about it on a game site.This game is so fun to play,I don't even like skating and I don't like the Tony Hawk games,but there was something about this game that made me love it,the rail grinding while trying to do various tricks is so fun.Basically the objective of the game is to spray paint your gang's logo in certain areas of the city within a time limit and while avoiding police and to get to certain areas you'll need to grind rails and jump to get to those areas.The visuals have a great cel-shaded,colorful artstyle and I like the modern style Tokyo feel.It's one of those games I can keep coming back to time and time again because it's gameplay has high fun-factor and my love for Sunset Overdrive is largely due to Jet Set Radio.
Snow Sakura
Snow Sakura is a visual novel that has some eroge in it,it's not full of sex but does have a few eroge scenes in it.It's story captivating me because of it's likable characters that I can relate to and enjoyable story presentation.The story is about a male character who moves to a new town because his parents have gone to Hawaii for a business trip,he meets a bunch of friends(including some cute girls)and your friends are typical highschool students whom are worried about exams,helping each other out with projects,some of the girls have a snoody attitude towards other girls and some of your male friends are perverts or over-confident and it's hilarious.The story has love triangles,spiritual myths relating to a tree known as the 'Snow Sakura' and supposedly is a guy confesses his love to a girl under the Snow Sakura,the love will last forever.It's hard to explain why I love the story for Snow Sakura so much,I guess it's a blend of how the characters are down to earth characters who go though problems that we can relate to and the build-up of having a crush on a girl and trying to find a way to express your feelings to her.Combine that with some characters who are very funny and add a touch of spirituality,you'll have a nice story.I did laugh quite often when I played Snow Sakura.It made me laugh when I saw how much of a jerk Yuuji's father is because Yuuji's father would send occasional videos to Yuuji letting Yuuji know how things are in Hawaii and Yuuji's father gave obvious hints that him and Yuuji's mother were cheating on each other and they didn't care because they were happy in tropical Hawaii and not stuck in cold Japan and Yuuki's father would be lazily laying on outdoor furniture at the beach and acted as if he didn't care he was far away from Yuuji and told Yuuji that him and Yuuji's mother planned to stay in Hawaii for another 3 years! One of the characters is actually your beautiful but clumsy history teacher named 'Miss Misato' and she's also a romance/sexual possibility.I think it's funny how she's so clutsy and constantly breaks things and mentions how much money the things she breaks will cost to replace.The artstyle and music for the game are very beautiful.I love the way the town looks covered in snow.
Ever 17
Ever 17 is a visual novel that has a very complex and interesting Sci Fi story.It's about people who get trapped in an under-water theme park and they have no way with communicating with the surface or escaping and even worse,pressure around the structure is building and they have 119 hours to escape.They story focuses on the stories for numerous characters and they start to think about their past more and about physics and morals more and wonder why has this happened to them and why have certain things happened in their past and the story is an interesting mystery and seeing the story from numerous character perspective makes you empathize with other characters and also makes the story more complex,deep but interesting.The story does have romance possibilities and decisions you make affect the story.The story I guess reminds me of Gantz and to an extent Metal Gear Solid(due to the Sci Fi influenced mysteries and corporations using people like guinea pigs).
Kingdom of Paradise AKA Key of Heaven
I like this game because of it's fluid real-time combat system,it's stunning scenery such as beautiful waterfalls and beautiful mountains and cliffs that give beautiful view of the landscape and rice farms and traditional Asian style villages and the story also has a love story which I like as well as Asian mythology.Learning how to do combos is a matter of finding scrolls rather than complex button combinations.The game is 2D but it's gameplay is fast and fun and it's my second favorite 7th gen portable system game(after Crisis Core).
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Apr 7, 2018 23:17:30 GMT
Romance plays a big part in making many movies,TV series and anime popular.I'm sure most people have experienced a story in which they wanted to see a certain guy and a certain girl end up together despite major obstacles in their way.
Here are some video games in which a character/s fought for for chance to be with the person they love.
Final Fantasy Crisis Core
PLEASE NOTE:BELOW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR FINAL FANTASY CRISIS CORE
I really could feel the chemistry between Zack and Aerith.It felt like they really did enjoy being together when Zack wasn't away on missions.There is a part in the story in which Aerith wants to sell flowers,not just for money but because she believes they will cheer people up because the people in Midgar live in a horrible,dark and polluted city.
Zach helps find the parts to build a mini cart so they can transport the flowers and Zack helps Aerith sell the flowers by using his polite and gentlemanly mannerisms to ask people walking by ''would they like to buy a flower''? I really like this part of the story because it shows Zach and Aerith working together like a real couple.
Near the end of the game,Zack is forced to go away on a mission,and the mission took years to complete and it meant he couldn't see Aerith for years.After the mission was finished,all Zack wanted to do was see Aerith again and when he was on his way to see her again,he got ambushed by some soldiers and he managed to fight them off but he got fatally wounded.
Before he died,he used every last bit of strength in his body hoping to somehow travel the distance to see Aerith again,and while he was doing that he thought about the times they had together.He never gave up trying to be with Aerith again and never stopped thinking about her,even despite being away from her for years and even as he was dying with not much strength left in his body.
Even though some other video game stories have made me cry,Crisis Core's ending literally gave me heartache.It took me years because I could watch Crisis Core's ending again because of the heartache.
To The Moon
PLEASE NOTE:BELOW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR TO THE MOON
Johnny fell in love with a girl named River.River has aspergers but Johnny loves her because she is sweet and innocent and different.They both actually first met when they were kids at a carnival and they liked each other,so Johnny gave River a toy Platypus and they planned to meet each other at the carnival next year.
However,not long afterwards,Johnny's younger brother named Joey died in a tragic accident so Johnny was given memory blockers to make him forget about Joey dying but it also made him forget about the time he first met River.
Later on in highschool they met each other again but Johnny cannot remember meeting River but she still remembers him and and she still likes him.She even kept the platypus he gave her all those years ago and she tries to indirectly make him remember the first time they met at the carnival by letting him cut her hair and making paper bunnies to represent constellations they made up together when they looked at the stars at the carnival together all those years ago.
Johnny and River get married and their dream was to build a big house together near the sea.Eventually River gets a terminal illness and Johnny wants to use the money they have to treat her illness but River tells him not to because she wants him to finish building the house because that was their dream and she believes she has little chance of recovering.
Eventually,when Johnny is an old man and on his deathbed,he asks people who can create artificial memories to allow Johnny to travel to the moon and he doesn't know why he wants to go to the moon,but it's really because the first night he met River at the carnival,they told each other if they couldn't find each other at the carnival the next year,they will see each other on the moon,but Johnny can't remember this because that memory was erased.
The game actually begins with Johnny as an old man but works through various time periods in a certain order so you can see and understand everything Johnny and River have been through together.
Final Fantasy X and X-2
PLEASE NOTE:BELOW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR FINAL FANTASY X
Yuna believes she has to sacrifice herself to save the world and because of this and because of the massive destruction occuring in their world,Yuna is often sad.Tidus is able to make Yuna laugh and makes Yuna happy.Tidus is a goofy guy,he is not tough guy and has noticeable imperfections like all of us,but he can make her laugh and is able to help Yuna emotionally.
Tidus asked Yuna to run away with him back to his time period which is 1000 years in the past and forget about all the heartache and pain of the time period Yuna lives in and at first Yuna agrees but then later she says she cannot abandon those who rely on her,even if it means she will die.Final Fantasy X has a famous lake scene in which Tidus and Yuna kiss and hold each other and just try to enjoy the time they have left together.
Near the end of the game,they realize Yuna doesn't need to sacrifice herself but if they destroy Yu Yevon it will mean Tidus will disappear because he actually comes from a dream world.But Tidus and the group know they must defeat Yu Yevon to save their world(to stop Sin being reborn)and afterwards Tidus starts fading but he tries to put his arms around Yuna even though he can no longer physically touch her.
In Final Fantasy X-2,Yuna looks for a way to bring Tidus back.Final Fantasy X-2 offers multiple endings,2 of them involve Yuna managing to bring Tidus back and be with him again if she pleases the fayth(spirits)enough.But if she doesn't,she can get a bad ending in which she can't bring Tidus back permanently but sees his image again and farewells him and acknowledges she has to move on.
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Jul 9, 2018 23:50:46 GMT
I'm hoping to see more JRPGs that have a dark and mature theme, hence I'm really looking forward to Code Vein. I'm a big fan of NIER, and I'm currently playing through and love NIER Automat a. NIER was a refreshing experience for me, a JRPG that has blood, and while it's premise is a father is trying to find a cure to the virus his daughter has contracted, it shows how life can be full of despair and hopelessness. One aspect of NIER's story that stands out in my mind is when Nier goes searching for a boy's mother whom has gone missing, only to discover she had abandoned him and his siblings in order to run off with another man. While this is depressing, it is a reality in the real world, and I appreciate how NIER tries to show it. Another such example is how a King's wife was viciously mauled my wolves. It happened unexpectedly, and the king faced the prospect of living his life without the woman he loves, and it made him go on a suicidal mission to kill the wolves. The story then dared to show another side to these events which is the people from that kingdom had driven the wolves off their lands and slaughtered them, and the wolves wanted revenge. NIER also produced one of the most heart breaking scenes I've experienced when a young boy named Emil was willing to sacrifice himself to save the lives of his friends, because there was no other way for the group to survive. Even though Emil survived, just the thought of a young boy having to sacrifice himself for adults is heart breaking, and the story of Emil was already heart breaking enough,which is he was created to be a weapon, while also being cursed, which means he originally had the body of a young boy who turned everyone he looked at into stone, thus he transformed into another form, by merging with another person and ended up with the body of a skeleton, with a big head, and he felt like a freak. but he did it so he wouldn't turn any more people into stone. The Drakengard series is another mature-themed JRPG. I especially remember Drakengard 3, which has a story that focuses on sisters that are at war with each other, and the sisters use men as sex slaves and mock men for giving unsatisfactory sexual performances. Shadow Hearts is a great series, which came to the PS2, and had a quite a following.The first 2 Shadow Hearts games felt different, by taking place during the early 1900's, and used themes such as World War 1 and early 20th century European culture in a darker and more sinister way. Before Shadow Hearts, it's developers made Koudelka, which I've never played, but it's set in the same timeline as Shadow Hearts, and predates the events in the first SH, and was known for having a horror-like atmosphere. Whilst I don't know if it counts as being dark, but The Last Story (created by Final Fantasy's creator) definitely has a mature feel to it, focusing on mature love stories, as well as using things such as genocide and showing the lives of mercenaries living day to day, whom don't know if they will have money for tomorrow, or whether they will die doing their next job, and they feel joy in drinking at the pub with their friends, and enjoying each day they have, I still need to get around to Tales of Berseria , but from what I've read, many people find it's dark tone as refreshing. I'm well aware the SMT series exists, but the SMT games are very similar to one another, even though I like the series. Personally, I'm not too happy about seeing so many kawaii JRPGs being pumped out, which cater to otakus who will buy anything that has an anime theme, even if it has little substance. I like anime, and I like both the mature and serious styles of 80's anime as well as more colorful modern style anime, but I like a good, and meaningful story too.
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Jul 30, 2018 9:49:42 GMT
Since I love tropical locations, here are my favorite tropical environments in video games Besaid in Final Fantasy X Lingshan in Crysis Everywhere in Subnautica
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Aug 17, 2018 12:26:33 GMT
My backlog
Priority List
Tales of Berseria
I'm playing it now , and done blogs as to why it's amazing.
Ys VIII
Up to chapter 3? It's a relaxing experience, I like the tropical survivor island theme. I just become distracted by other things, and never got in the mood to come back to it.
Final Fantasy 12
I've played through it already, and I enjoyed it's combat and detailed open world, but despite me usually playing through Final Fantasy games more than once, FF12 came out near the start of the 7th gen, I got lured by all the 7th gen games, and never gave it another play through.
Persona 5
Despite Persona 5 being one of the most addictive games I've ever played, it's emotionally draining, and it being so addictive is another problem because it makes you care so much about the characters, I spent too much time playing the game, and neglecting other things. Maybe it's in my best interest I don't try to finish it?
Maybe I'll get around to/or will come back to these games
World of Final Fantasy
I was enjoying this game, I love the depth of it's ATB system, and it's charm. However, some of it's puzzles annoyed me, then after getting stuck on another puzzle, I didn't want to have to look at a guide again, and never came back to it.
Ray Gigant
I've heard many good things about this JRPG for the Vita, but I haven't had the chance to start it.
Norn 9
I don't mind otome games, as long as they have a good story, and if the visual novel has nice artwork, that's even better.
CSI Fatal Conspiracy
This is a strange one to have on my list. The only 2 reasons I bought this game are it has an easy platinum and I actually like the CSI show. Bought this years ago with the intention of platinuming quickly, but never did.
Tales of Vesperia
I was loving this game, until my Xbox360 RRoDed. If this game ever does get rereleased for PC or for one of the consoles I own, I'll definitely get it.
Unfinished games I'll never come back to
Demon Gaze 2
Quite a dull JPRG. Only hardcore otakus would find it appealing, as it's quirky humor is really lame, same goes for it's story and battle system.
Jade Cocoon 2
Bought it around 10 years ago, as I heard it was a decent JRPG, but since I had moved onto 7th gen consoles, I never played it and now my PS2 is broken.
Sakura Wars
So many other games caught my attention, I never got around to this one, and I can't even find all the components to my Wii to play it.
Rune Factory Frontier
I like Harvest Moon, and I heard this game is ok, but I don't even know where my Wii is...
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Post by endorbr on Aug 17, 2018 13:07:48 GMT
My backlogPriority ListTales of BerseriaI'm playing it now , and done blogs as to why it's amazing. Ys VIII
Up to chapter 3? It's a relaxing experience, I like the tropical survivor island theme. I just become distracted by other things, and never got in the mood to come back to it. Final Fantasy 12
I've played through it already, and I enjoyed it's combat and detailed open world, but despite me usually playing through Final Fantasy games more than once, FF12 came out near the start of the 7th gen, I got lured by all the 7th gen games, and never gave it another play through. Persona 5Despite Persona 5 being one of the most addictive games I've ever played, it's emotionally draining, and it being so addictive is another problem because it makes you care so much about the characters, I spent too much time playing the game, and neglecting other things. Maybe it's in my best interest I don't try to finish it? Maybe I'll get around to/or will come back to these gamesWorld of Final FantasyI was enjoying this game, I love the depth of it's ATB system, and it's charm. However, some of it's puzzles annoyed me, then after getting stuck on another puzzle, I didn't want to have to look at a guide again, and never came back to it. Ray Gigant
I've heard many good things about this JRPG for the Vita, but I haven't had the chance to start it. Norn 9I don't mind otome games, as long as they have a good story, and if the visual novel has nice artwork, that's even better. CSI Fatal ConspiracyThis is a strange one to have on my list. The only 2 reasons I bought this game are it has an easy platinum and I actually like the CSI show. Bought this years ago with the intention of platinuming quickly, but never did. Unfinished games I'll never come back toDemon Gaze 2Quite a dull JPRG. Only hardcore otakus would find it appealing, as it's quirky humor is really lame, same goes for it's story and battle system. Jade Cocoon 2Bought it around 10 years ago, as I heard it was a decent JRPG, but since I had moved onto 7th gen consoles, I never played it and now my PS2 is broken. Sakura WarsSo many other games caught my attention, I never got around to this one, and I can't even find all the components to my Wii to play it. Rune Factory FrontierI like Harvest Moon, and I heard this game is ok, but I don't even know where my Wii is... I had the same experience with World of Final Fantasy. The game was more frustrating than it should be. I actually made it to the final boss, the real one but decided to just give up on it after getting BS killed by the usual Square JRPG trope of giving the boss a bunch of super ridiculous hyper mega attacks, 3 to your 1, that deals instant death to your party. I don’t have the want to spend my play time waiting on the luck of an invisible die coming up on the right combination to decide if I’m going to be able to actually even have a chance of finishing a boss encounter.
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