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Not to mention there are several castles in the world of FFIX. "Back" to the castle just means "Back with me," not necessarily "Back to the castle you just left."
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Sep 23, 2015 00:33
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 11:41 |
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I caught up with this LP over the past couple of days, and I'm enjoying it tremendously.  Despite the number of updates, it feels like we've barely gotten started, which says something about how densely they packed the little details in this game. Most of the playable cast just has some of the best character development for anyone in a video game. Garnet and Zidane's chemistry already shows, and Vivi and Steiner are just so very endearing.
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Sep 23, 2015 04:46
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Mazed posted:Despite the number of updates, it feels like we've barely gotten started I know what you mean, but this is still the beginning of the game.
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Sep 23, 2015 05:11
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Oh yes, and I meant that in a very, very good way!
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Sep 23, 2015 06:36
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Glad everyone's enjoying the LP so far! I'm a lot busier these days and usually a lot more worn out after work so I haven't been able to update as much, but I'll try to update something this afternoon/evening. I'm hoping after another week or two things will slow down enough where I can start updating a bit more regularly, but we'll see.
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Sep 23, 2015 10:01
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:To be fair, Black Waltz #2 showed up and in no uncertain terms said "I'm here to take the Princess back to the castle." So? Steiner says that basically all the time at that point in the game. Sure, #2 tried to kill him, yes, but that's just workplace miscommunication.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:52
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Good point. And Steiner does the same thing to Zidane. Maybe taking people back to the castle and killing anyone who says otherwise is just Alexandria's policy.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:25
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Maybe they just care more than other powers do.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:41
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     Come on! Get up!  The black mages! Who are they!?  It's okay. You didn't do anything. Vivi, aren't they your- The king might be in danger! Come on!  Let's go. So, Gizamaluke's Grotto. It's a dungeon with a bit of a gimmick.   It won't even budge.We need a special way to unlock these doors.  For now, all we can do is go to the right.   ...Black mages... Couldn't do anything. We're here to help. We're on our way to Burmecia. Ugh... I'm done for. Take this bell, and...go to Burmecia... The black mages...took our bells...    So to get through this dungeon, we need the bells of Gizamaluke.  You see, back in Final Fantasy II there's a castle that only royal family members could enter, and the last living one was a coward who ran away in a tizzy, so instead you had to go to some random cave in a snowfield, grab a bell, watch your guide get crushed to death by a boulder orphaning his child, and then ring your way in only to see said coward like ten feet from the entrance. Yeah, thanks for that, Gordon. So this is like that except I don't hate everyone involved.  On the way back to the door, I run into some Hornets. These guys aren't very threatening. They can attack with their stingers, but the damage is pretty ho-hum.   That said, they can inflict Berserk on party members.  But the damage boost from Berserk tends to work out poorly for the bugs since we've got three powerful physical attackers.    Also, each bell breaks after opening a door. It's like if your key broke every time you unlocked your front door, except your keys are bells and thus probably more expensive. I cannot comprehend Burmecian economics.    But this? This, I can comprehend.  These black mages can talk. They can only say one word, but still, progress.  Also our favorite comic relief villains are here.   That, I don't know. I know I have seen him somewhere before. Somewhere before? I have not seen him. I know. I guess it is not important. Let's kill him.   We get into a forced battle with two black mages. Their names in-game are "Type A" so yeah, look forward to a lot of these guys in the future.   Anyway, they're black mages. They cast black magic. The mages of course can handle the damage better. Otherwise, they only cast L1 elemental spells which aren't very damaging at this point of the game. Coincidentally, Vivi really starts to lag behind in this dungeon because he hasn't had any new spells in forever.  Run away! There's another Type A wandering around that gives you an encounter with two. Still no issue.  It does lead to another bell, which we need to proceed, I belieed.  There are three doors that this can open. You want to open the left one first so you don't miss any treasure.  This time there's a Skeleton. It can cast Thunder and has an attack that can do around ~100 but otherwise is pretty fragile due to being undead and all.  Quina gets berserk but it's OK because  Trance time!  Couldn't get a good screen of Quina's trance form but you can kind of see Quina's hat become some weird helmet. Quina becomes a literal iron chef.  When Quina goes into Trance, "Eat" becomes "Cook." This eases the requirement to eat an enemy from being at 25% of max HP to 50%. That's it. It's by far the worst Trance effect in the game. You're pretty much stuck with the damage boost and the admittedly-sweet threads Quina sports.  Also, if an enemy doesn't teach a blue magic spell, or it teaches one Quina already knows, then suddenly Quina becomes picky. The non-mage enemies teach blue magic but they're all stuff we already picked up earlier.   Going up here nets another Bronze Vest and another bell. Please...protect Burmecia... Next, this door.  This lovely creature is a Lamia, another series staple enemy. Though most aren't quite as ugly as this game's version.   Somehow, this hideous beast thinks it deserves love and can confuse people.  Confused people bounce around in a circle because it looks hilarious and that's the most important aspect that should go into battle animations.     It can also boost its offense a good bit so you may want to rush this thing down quickly.  The door leads to this long passage that results in a Magus Hat if you're paying attention.  The Magus Hat teaches Slow, and even in this game where status effects wear off, Slow is very, very useful to have. So yeah, it's a nice get.  At the end is a giant bell.   Can you hear me!? Darling!!! Please say something!  He's trapped! Kupo!!! You poor thing... We just held our wedding here. Then some scary clowns attacked us! I was so scared! Kupooo!!! This bell's huge. I don't know if we can lift it. Hmm...   Uhhhh   UHHHHHHH   Y-Yeah... I got one in Lindblum. Really!? Really!? Really!? Really!? C-Can I have it? Obviously you want to give the grieving widow bride a Kupo Nut.  Kupooo!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!     Welp. Alright, then.   Anyway there was a bell in that bell.   The right door leads to the newlywed couple.   Sure, why not. I like you. Now we can go on our honeymoon! Mogmi will now act as a save moogle. We can also do Mognet stuff to get a letter. There's a letter from Moodon! It's probably a letter of congratulations on our marriage! Let's read it! Kupo! It wasn't a congratulation letter, but it was fun to read! Kupo!There's also a vine we can climb outside.   Yeah yeah, what's the worst that-    Oh.  Oh.   ...Alright, then.   So, this is a Grand Dragon. They're actually easy to cheese and serve as an easy way to grind early on, though we can't take advantage of that quite yet.    It can also vomit poison and death on Vivi, but fortunately Vivi has poison immunity.   Sadly, he's not immune to being clawed to death.    On the bright side, I finally have an excuse to link the "Game Over" music, so yeah. Let's get back to the dungeon now.   Take this, kupo! We need this bell to unlock the door to the final room of this place.  This is a side quest that we'll worry about later, but basically we can stuff this guy with more Kupo Nuts.  How moving.   Seriously why does this door have a different bell lock. Who designed this loving security system?  Next up, another empty room with another dying guard.  Freya... Please be careful... Master Gizamaluke has gone mad. He's being controlled by some strange clowns.Peaceful creature driven mad? First thing that comes to mind is the Antlion in FF4, but that's probably something that happens in a lot of games.      Meet Gizamaluke. He's actually pretty challenging if you don't know how to cheese him. His attacks are brutal and he can easily nullify Vivi's offense completely.  It's hard to see, but that Crash attack did 169 damage to Freya, more than a single Potion will recover. Then keep in mind he has a semi-rare steal that you really want and this becomes a major pain. Well, unless you know this one neat trick to inflict status ailments.  Unlike every other FF game, you can actually use Tents in battle.  They'll even restore the HP and MP of its target.  However, they do inflict some nasty status effects in exchange. But, wouldn't you know it, you can use Tents to inflict said status effects on bosses, and Gizamaluke is susceptible to Darkness and Silence! This is, of course, huge since it nullifies Gizzy's magic attacks and gives a lot more breathing room for its physicals.  The strategy is to have Vivi Focus with Quina and Freya either defending or healing while Zidane fishes for steals.  I try to stick Slow on Gizzy. It doesn't work, but it does trigger a counter.    Gizzy will counter magic with silence. Vivi can still Focus, but he can't cast magic now.  Got a second Magus Hat, no biggie.  But this. This is huge. This teaches Vivi Blizzara, giving him a much-needed offensive boost. He wouldn't get this until Disc 2 otherwise. It takes awhile to get this at a 1/16 shot, but after grabbing it we can now begin our offense.  First, use one of the twenty or so Echo Screens to get Vivi to casting form again. Oddly, Gizzy doesn't counter Vivi's spells with silence anymore.   500 is alright, but this is after a few Focus's and is hitting a weakness. Vivi really wants Blizzara now.  Meanwhile my physical characters have no issue burning through Gizzy's HP until it's split into a Giza, a Ma, and a Luke.  Rest in pieces.  You rarely see Freya's eyes but man does she look tired.  The rat man already said the mini-Kefkas brainwashed the giant floating stingray.  So next time we're going to ignore all that in favor of Steiner becoming a hobo.
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Sep 23, 2015 23:31
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I forget so many of these charming little details. A bell in the bell? "Yo dawg..." I think the security system makes more sense if you assume that Gizamaluke's Grotto isn't supposed to be used on the regular, or that Gizamaluke himself normally lets people through.
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Sep 23, 2015 23:48
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Mega64 posted:So this is like that except I don't hate everyone involved. You can't hate Kungfu Shakespeare. Also, can't remember where I read it, but I think the bell lock is related to some mythology. Either Norse or Arabic?
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Sep 23, 2015 23:55
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As a fun fact, the first guard gives you an extra bell if you use up all of the ones you have. To prevent you from getting stuck.  Quina's Trance is really terrible. Everyone else can become powerful enough to not need to rely on their Trances (though some effects like Double Black are still handy) while Quina's effect is out and out worthless after you learn all of his/her Blue Magic. Unless you just REALLY want to eat an enemy to get the fight over with quicker. The Lamia in this game is that it has a deeply, manly laugh when it shows up. So, I guess it's a crossdressing male instead of the usual female version? If you answer "Not really" to this, he says "I hate you." Moogles.  The earliest memory I have of this game is playing this in elementary school, and being violently murdered by one of these. It's also not the only "painful to fight" enemy up there, though Garuda isn't nearly AS bad. THIS FUCKER  This guy is easily the most annoying boss to fight on Disc 1. I actually didn't know about the Tent trick until my fifth or so run through the game, so this was usually the point where I'd get my poo poo kicked in hard while trying to steal.
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Sep 23, 2015 23:55
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It should be noted that Vivi stops doing his victory dance when you enter this dungeon.
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Sep 23, 2015 23:55
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Fister Roboto posted:It should be noted that Vivi stops doing his victory dance when you enter this dungeon. One thing this game does really well is demonstrate emotional distress during battle. Though, you'd think that Freya would have a mandatory Trance segment at some point during this dungeon given what's happening to Burmecia. 
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Sep 24, 2015 00:00
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Fister Roboto posted:It should be noted that Vivi stops doing his victory dance when you enter this dungeon. Yeah, this will happen to a few other characters too. Characters that are depressed or deeply worried about something will be too bummed out to do their usually-peppy victory dances, and obviously Vivi is too freaked out about what's going on with the black mages to do his happy dance. One other thing I'd like to point out is that the Magus Hat gives a boost to ice-elemental damage, which works out HILARIOUSLY well with his newly-gained Ice Staff's Blizzara. EDIT: Also, the whole Tent trick? It's mentioned very early in the much-lambasted official guide, so I knew about the trick right off. Yes, the guide actually told a player something USEFUL. In retrospect, I'm as stunned as you are. Bufuman fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 00:20
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Though, you'd think that Freya would have a mandatory Trance segment at some point during this dungeon given what's happening to Burmecia. 
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Sep 24, 2015 00:27
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So how did the black mages get trough here, did they have bells or kupo nuts?
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Sep 24, 2015 01:06
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My love for this game.  So glad to see it being Letsplayed, really hope it gets a re-release one day. You don't even need to touch up the graphics, they are pretty wonderful once you get away from the PS1's hardware limitations.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:07
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David Corbett posted:A bell in the bell? "Yo dawg..." Bellception
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Sep 24, 2015 01:15
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Fabulousvillain posted:So how did the black mages get trough here, did they have bells or kupo nuts? Plot magic That or the doors reseal themselves after a bit and they robbed that one guy at the start of his stock of bells after they beat him up.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:27
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Mega64 posted:
Presumably the guards were carrying more than one apiece originally, since they break on use.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:32
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idonotlikepeas posted:Presumably the guards were carrying more than one apiece originally, since they break on use. That's probably the case. If you use up all of the bells without getting to the end of the dungeon, you can get a spare bell from his body.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:35
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Bad guys never have to unlock doors, it's just a thing.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:35
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Did we already get Might earlier? I'm pretty sure you can get it from the Lamias here.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:40
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Nidoking posted:Did we already get Might earlier? I'm pretty sure you can get it from the Lamias here. Might isn't blue magic.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:49
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EponymousMrYar posted:Might isn't blue magic. This. Plus you get Lv3 Def-Less from the Lamia.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:52
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More like Lv3 Useless.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:57
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I do kind of wish we could get Might earlier. One of our characters can indeed learn it, but by the time you get access to it, you're generally better off just attacking since both the caster and any potential targets are already capable of smacking the damage cap.
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Sep 24, 2015 02:04
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So I'm debating getting this for my Vita. It's such a charming game and easy to play, so I think it would do well in small doses. My only concern is the graphics, can anyone else recommend it on the small screen?
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Sep 24, 2015 02:05
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Bregor posted:So I'm debating getting this for my Vita. It's such a charming game and easy to play, so I think it would do well in small doses. My only concern is the graphics, can anyone else recommend it on the small screen? There's some slowdown issues, primarily in forests and other texture-heavy battle screens, but disc-speed up options generally mean it'll be a quicker overall playing experience than playing on the PS3 or something. But then again, FF9 doesn't exactly play quickly no matter what platform it's on, so I prefer playing on a big screen so as to not strain my old man eyes. But if you can deal with the small screen and slowdown, you're good.
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Sep 24, 2015 02:15
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"I'm Kupo for Kupo Nuts!" That line always cracked me up. You can get horrific revenge against those dragons later. Once Quina gets a certain ability, he will become their living nightmare.
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Sep 24, 2015 02:26
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I forgot about the antlion but thought of Garula instead.
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Sep 24, 2015 02:43
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David Corbett posted:I think the security system makes more sense if you assume that Gizamaluke's Grotto isn't supposed to be used on the regular, or that Gizamaluke himself normally lets people through. Don't forget to check out the Gizamaluke's Grotto gift shop on your way out. Don't climb the ivy!
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Sep 24, 2015 02:58
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Fister Roboto posted:More like Lv3 Useless. Level spells have the hilarious tradition of having one of two outcomes: 1) Level-5 Death is broken and works on way more enemies than it should be able to (or you can alter enemy levels and then use Level-5 Death on them). All other Level-X spells are terrible. OR 2) Level-4 Holy is the one non-awful Level-X spell; Level-5 Death works on almost nothing.
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Sep 24, 2015 03:44
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I didn't know about that Tent trick at all. I don't think I would've ever tried using a Tent in-battle on my own either considering they're never useful. I've learned something new.
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Sep 24, 2015 03:48
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It should be noted that the tent snake isn't a guaranteed thing, though; it's something like a 25% chance to happen. So you could end up blowing a fair number of tents and turns trying to get it to work. Still, very handy for this fight, since you can just save-scum if you're really worried about it.
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Sep 24, 2015 04:03
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TravelLog posted:Level spells have the hilarious tradition of having one of two outcomes: I wish I could say for certain which of these held true for FF9, but I never really touched the level abilities in this game because Level 3 Defenseless didn't really wow me. I mean setting both defenses to 0 sounds good, but somehow it manages to be so underwhelming.
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Sep 24, 2015 04:12
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L5 Death is the broken of the two abilities. Because Grand Dragons are in L5 death range, making them the best way to grind in the game barring ANOTHER encounter late game. 
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Sep 24, 2015 04:21
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:I wish I could say for certain which of these held true for FF9, but I never really touched the level abilities in this game because Level 3 Defenseless didn't really wow me. Actually it doesn't even do that. It sets defense to a random number between 0 and the target's current defense (inclusive). Even if it hits, there's a chance it won't do anything at all! Hence, L3 Useless.
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Sep 24, 2015 04:48
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 11:41 |
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Another minor thing to note: You were attacking the black mages/clowns from the rear of their positions. Alexandria had already taken over the area and Zorn/Thorn were charged with keeping Burmecians from reaching Lindblum. Obviously they'd already failed this task, but I think its cool that theres 1. A reason the boss is at the end. 2. A reason the black mages are in the area at all (the game doesn't explain it, and from looking at the map it doesn't make obvious sense)
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Sep 24, 2015 05:28
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