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Still thinking about some kind of Octo/SaGa mashup
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Jul 21, 2023 07:45
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Is there an 80-year old granny I can rough up somewhere to get an all-hit staff attack for Hikari?
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Jul 21, 2023 11:48
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Neddy Seagoon posted:It's less about a "gimmick" of Crossed Paths (Though to be clear I thought those were great and thoroughly enjoyed them) and more you could feed the other characters into the main Paths outright. The individual main chapters by design ALL have to completely relegate the other seven into dialogue vignettes because there is no method to know you will absolutely have, (for a random example), Temenos in your party, or even unlocked, during Osvald's third chapter. Eh, some people just want to completely focus on a party of 4 and then do the other half, and that's a valid way to play. Part of the Octopath thing is that you can do whatever you want in what order.
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Jul 21, 2023 12:04
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exquisite tea posted:Is there an 80-year old granny I can rough up somewhere to get an all-hit staff attack for Hikari? There’s a certain judge in Timberain who you can learn one from and it’s one of the strongest skills. That’s the only one I know of off the top of my head.
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Jul 21, 2023 13:32
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ApplesandOranges posted:Eh, some people just want to completely focus on a party of 4 and then do the other half, and that's a valid way to play. Part of the Octopath thing is that you can do whatever you want in what order. I understand that and get where you're coming from, the problem is from a writing perspective it, ironically, severely limits what you can realistically achieve for your game about eight people going on adventures together instead of diversifying. If you could definitively state that the player has found all eight early on, it makes the game's writing options much more open because you can write and design scenarios with absolutely certainty of having the characters you want involved be present rather than relegate it to travel banter and hope the player brought the right people to hear it (which is  at best).And, yes, you can view missed banter later, but it's a bandaid solution for a problem that could be fixed better.
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Jul 21, 2023 14:24
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Collecting all 8 to learn who they are (and thus freeing the writer to use them), then relegating 4 to the B-team if you want, seems like the best way. I think it would work fine since the characters don't really change throughout their journey. A just-out-of-prologue Ochette or Partitio is not markedly different from their End Chapter version, and they'd respond to the antics of the others the same way. Maybe have to tweak some of them, but not very much, or just write around it. If they were all going through the full hero's journey thing then yeah it'd be a huge burden but Octo doesn't do that
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Jul 21, 2023 16:08
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All right, I am up to or have completed Chapter 3 for all of the travelers. My gang of criminals, charlatans and thieves is really coming together and making a name for themselves terrorizing the local populace for their own personal gain. Did you know I got 35 hours into this game and only just realized that everybody's initials spell OCTOPATH? I am very intelligent. Here is my running ranking of their stories so far: Throne - By far the darkest and most tragic of the tales. "Goes there" in ways you wouldn't expect from a cutesy pixel art JRPG. I feel like I definitely chose my first hero correctly since her chapters are always the ones I most look forward to seeing. Partitio - The second character I came across, so I'm two-for-two here. I find Partitio's methods of defeating capitalism with nicer capitalism to be insufficiently revolutionary, but what can I say, when he says it in that polite Southern drawl I almost believe him. Osvald - The strongest opening sequence, they even stretch it out to two so you know they mean business. I like fantasy worlds where dudes create fireballs with like, math and poo poo. Also the appropriately scholarly revenge tale mashup of Les Miserables and the Count of Monte Cristo they've got going on. Castti- I don't normally like amnesia as a plot device but I was dumb enough to genuinely be surprised by some of the twists in this one, so somehow it has the capacity to surprise me. The second-darkest storyline after Throne's, I guess that on balance I tend to like the more serious arcs in this game. Temenos - I feel like the character of an impious, irreverent and somewhat effeminate priest investigating medieval crimes could get its own spinoff game. They could call it... Cleric. Agnea - No real surprises here but I can appreciate a character whose quest is to just be a really good dancer, and goshdarn it, I hope she succeeds! Hikari - I suppose every RPG needs its generic noble swordsman hero to anchor the team but I was hoping for a little more tension. Hikari is an MVP on the battlefield though, I've beaten up countless elderly men to ensure it. Ochette - I think JRPGs are a lot more in love with the squeaky feral child archetype than I am. Don't hate her chapters or anything but it feels the most disconnected from the other tales. I think if I found her earlier I'd bother to get more into the wildlife pokemon minigame. Will my final character rankings change? Who knows! Does anyone care? Not likely!
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Jul 22, 2023 00:46
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exquisite tea posted:Did you know I got 35 hours into this game and only just realized that everybody's initials spell OCTOPATH? The first game did this too. This being a sequel, it ups the ante with the gimmick. I assume it will also be done in a potential Octopath 3, possibly to go even further beyond. Boogaloo Shrimp fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Jul 22, 2023 |
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Jul 22, 2023 01:04
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exquisite tea posted:Throne - By far the darkest and most tragic of the tales. "Goes there" in ways you wouldn't expect from a cutesy pixel art JRPG. I feel like I definitely chose my first hero correctly since her chapters are always the ones I most look forward to seeing. I'm really looking forward to your reaction for her last chapter. Boogaloo Shrimp posted:The first game did this too. This being a sequel, it ups the ante with the gimmick. Every single character's name will begin with one of the letters. FireWorksWell fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Jul 22, 2023 |
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Jul 22, 2023 01:08
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I didn't notice the characters names spelled OCTOPATH until somebody mentioned it here, long after I finished the game haha
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Jul 22, 2023 09:24
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fridge corn posted:I didn't notice the characters names spelled OCTOPATH until somebody mentioned it here, long after I finished the game haha Do you one better for Octopath 2; So do the antagonist's names
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Jul 22, 2023 09:26
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Do you one better for Octopath 2; So do the antagonist's names Yeah the dedication to the bit is top notch!
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Jul 22, 2023 10:00
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Feral child characters are pretty hit or miss in my book, but Ochette is absolutely a hit, and I can never put my finger on what exactly is the secret sauce that makes them click. I think, for Ochette, the thing is that she isn't actually a child and doesn't come off as one. Being naïve about "civilized" affairs and mature and insightful in other specific ways is par for the course, but her quirks are more dog-like than child-like, which I think does a good job of selling her as an adult from another life.
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Jul 22, 2023 11:48
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I also have fairly low expectations for 'wild child' characters, so while Ochette was never really my favourite, she's better than I expected which is enough for her to be good in my book. Her story isn't really great for me, but her general temperament and interactions move her up.
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Jul 22, 2023 12:08
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I buy what Ochette is selling almost entirely on the strength of her english VA. They are having a FANTASTIC time, and as a result, so am I.
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Jul 22, 2023 12:57
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I'm very much looking forward to more of Ochette and Osvald's VAs in Persona 3 Reload next year. Also hoping for more cute OT2 merchandise, I only have the artbook/guide so far which has neat concept art but it is in Japanese because I couldn't wait.
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Jul 22, 2023 13:13
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I just passed the 30 hour mark in this, and I'm having a ton of fun, but I gotta say, I'm starting to struggle a bit with bosses. I just finished the Chapter 2 Winterbloom Castti boss, Plukk/Mikk/Makk, and it was really rough! All I did was attack and use healing consumables because it felt like I had to be breaking 100% of the time to keep up with the purple powered-up attacks you have to break. Are bosses in this game somewhat meant for you to experiment with party/job loadouts? I kept thinking about how that fight would be easier if I'd had, say, anyone who could do all-enemy multi-hit-on-boost bow attacks (which I don't think even exist; I've got all-enemy bow attacks from Inventor and Orchette beast skill but none that can be boosted for more hits). I'm also not really sure what strategies there are for physical defense on the party, does anyone have skills for that that I've missed? That fight is 100% physical damage from the bosses which made it much harder to set up any kind of defensive buffs.
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Jul 22, 2023 15:13
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The Hunter job has a multi-hit bow attack that can be boosted for more hits and can be manually set to decide how many hits are on each target. Generally, unless everyone has the same sub-job, bosses will probably have some weaknesses that any party composition can exploit to a degree. There are a few universal shield break options, the best one being Beastling from the Merchant's Hired Help command (but it requires money to use it). For physical defense, there's Shackle Foe from the Thief job that reduces physical attack power of a foe. Alternatively, Cleric has an ability that reduces the damage of the next hit, so you can use it on someone with Warrior and have them use Provoke to draw attacks that don't target the entire party to themselves. Warrior also has an ability that raises their own physical defense. Also make use of party turn manipulation to give yourself a bit more breathing room to break; Hunter can use Leghold Trap to force an enemy to last in the turn order (unless they're recovering from break), and Agnea can pick up a skill that allows the entire party to go first next turn (outside of an enemy recovering from break, they always have priority).
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Jul 22, 2023 15:23
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abraham linksys posted:Are bosses in this game somewhat meant for you to experiment with party/job loadouts? I kept thinking about how that fight would be easier if I'd had, say, anyone who could do all-enemy multi-hit-on-boost bow attacks (which I don't think even exist; I've got all-enemy bow attacks from Inventor and Orchette beast skill but none that can be boosted for more hits). Definitely. The main thing that can really make bosses easier is to break them ASAP because it denies them actions, so playing around with party compositions and making sure you have good breaking options is going to give you a huge leg up. abraham linksys posted:I'm also not really sure what strategies there are for physical defense on the party, does anyone have skills for that that I've missed? That fight is 100% physical damage from the bosses which made it much harder to set up any kind of defensive buffs. Same for this, sort of. There are good defensive skills, like Sidestep from Merchant (which can be made multi-target with a later-game subjob), but for me what always worked was just playing it like rocket tag. Bosses can do tons of damage, but if you break them quickly, so can you, and you can just make them rarely even get to attack you if you're able to play aggressively enough. Turn order manipulation can help a ton, too. Hunter's Leghold Trap is a huge help because it makes the target always act last on that turn, giving you more turns to break them before they get to attack you. And if you have Agnea's EX skill, that can basically do the reverse, where it makes all your characters act first on the next turn.
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Jul 22, 2023 15:27
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I am finding lategame that there is some truly incredible shield shredding tech. Just absolutely not allowing bosses to do anything, debuffing them + buffing Hikari/Osvald/Throne/hell anyone probably and having them annihilate in one turn.
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Jul 22, 2023 15:34
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Yeah lategame is all about overwhelming offense. You get really, really powerful ways to break (Ochette's Provoke Beasts is one of the best), Castti keeps you on full BP constantly, and then you have mega damage dealers like Hikari, Throné, Osvald, and even Temenos just shred things. Buffs and debuffs are really impactful, too. Attack buffs like from Peacock Strut and Lion Dance are significant, as are defense debuffs on enemies, so don't neglect those if something is giving you trouble. You can boost your damage by a ton by debuffing the boss and buffing your attackers. I ended up intentionally nerfing myself by not equipping the break damage limit skill so the final bosses of each story would actually get to do their attacks sometimes Harrow fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Jul 22, 2023 |
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Jul 22, 2023 15:37
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I thought about doing that too but the temptation of breaking in some cackling villains face in within 5 turns or so was too strong  going to have to look up some fights later
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Jul 22, 2023 15:40
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Sleng Teng posted:I thought about doing that too but the temptation of breaking in some cackling villains face in within 5 turns or so was too strong Lol when I finally equipped that skill for the final boss and superboss I felt like Goku taking off the training weights and suddenly dealing 5x damage to everything
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Jul 22, 2023 15:42
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Harrow posted:Lol when I finally equipped that skill for the final boss and superboss I felt like Goku taking off the training weights and suddenly dealing 5x damage to everything Lol. Some of us choose to be Goku, others Saitama.
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Jul 22, 2023 15:49
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Thanks y'all, will try to reconfigure my party to have a little more coverage. I will admit I have not touched the skills relating to turn order or speed at all and I should probably figure out how they work (I kinda gave up and made Throné a Warrior because I could not figure out her skills at all and just having her do big attacks was easier). Just hard to get a sense of what an increase in speed will actually do in a given fight - e.g. will it give me extra turns or just have her go earlier in a turn, and is that useful? It also took me a while to fully clock that all the turn based buffs/debuffs tick over at the end of the turn for everyone, and are not based on the caster's or target's turn. Is it just me or is that uncommon in turn based RPGs? Not that I've played a ton to compare. I assume this is why order within a turn matters, though; it seems like your buffs and debuffs need to happen as early in the turn as possible.
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Jul 22, 2023 17:44
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In case people are interested, the Octopath Traveller II race on RPG Limitbreak is about to start: https://www.twitch.tv/rpglimitbreak
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Jul 22, 2023 18:01
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Everything that's not a boss gets one action per turn, and the turn order is consistently displayed at the top of the screen. When you break an enemy, they lose any remaining actions for that turn, and their entire next turn, but always gets to act first on the turn after that. The chief benefit of manipulating turn order is that if you can break a boss before they act, you win two whole turns to let loose, but also yeah, if you buff an ally before they act, they get another turn with the buff online. Boss fights are many and varied and designed to push you to the limit if you're not ahead of the gear/level curve, but the turn/break systems are universal. A lot of the challenge in the game is getting a feel for that rhythm; bosses are always going to beat your rear end in a straight fight, but it won't be a straight fight if you're shutting down two thirds of their actions and stacking the multipliers from breaks, boosts and buffs.
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Jul 22, 2023 18:06
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I don't know where Osvald's story goes, but up to chapter 3 anyway, I dunno. I think if somebody killed my entire family and then successfully blamed me for it, leading to a life sentence of hard ice labour, which I managed to miraculously escape - well, as much as revenge I'd think, I have the right to take everything this person has to try and rebuild my life. Considering the corruption is coming from the law itself, there's no hope of legal justice. In fact, you could argue there's a moral imperative to neutralise as many of the people involved as possible considering the damage they will continue to be doing to others. And that's a lot of other cheek to turn anyway. In the vacuum of meaning you'd be in there, having something to focus on would be impossible to resist. Although the idea that Harvey wanted Osvald to escape seems ridiculous at the moment. If he wanted that, why do any of this in the first place?
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Jul 22, 2023 18:34
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here's what they do. the make chapters like the final chapter of 2 throughout the game. Like there's a "whole party" chapter 1, 2, 3 etc that unlocks when you've completed everyone's respective chapter 1, 2, 3, etc
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Jul 22, 2023 18:38
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roomtone posted:Although the idea that Harvey wanted Osvald to escape seems ridiculous at the moment. If he wanted that, why do any of this in the first place? Because he's a petty piece of poo poo who wanted Osvald to suffer, and then twist the knife with his daughter.
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Jul 22, 2023 18:40
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Because he's a petty piece of poo poo who wanted Osvald to suffer, and then twist the knife with his daughter. Aren't these chapter 4 spoilers
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Jul 22, 2023 18:43
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I never understood what compels ppl to post spoilers in response to someone who clearly hasn't reached that point in the game instead of posting something weird and cryptic like "oh youuuull seeee uehehehehee  "
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Jul 22, 2023 18:54
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roomtone posted:Although the idea that Harvey wanted Osvald to escape seems ridiculous at the moment. If he wanted that, why do any of this in the first place? He's a dick
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Jul 22, 2023 18:55
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roomtone posted:I don't know where Osvald's story goes, but up to chapter 3 anyway, I dunno. I think if somebody killed my entire family and then successfully blamed me for it, leading to a life sentence of hard ice labour, which I managed to miraculously escape - well, as much as revenge I'd think, I have the right to take everything this person has to try and rebuild my life. Considering the corruption is coming from the law itself, there's no hope of legal justice. In fact, you could argue there's a moral imperative to neutralise as many of the people involved as possible considering the damage they will continue to be doing to others. You know that pokemon Garbodor that’s literally made of trash? Harvey’s like that
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Jul 22, 2023 19:04
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I love how Osvald's theme feels like a pastiche of Ramin Djawadi, it's very fitting somehow
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Jul 22, 2023 19:06
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To be exact Harvey expected Osvald to escape. Honestly it was kind of amazing finding out that Harvey was even more obsessed with Osvald than Osvald was with him.
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Jul 22, 2023 19:07
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Captain Oblivious posted:You know that pokemon Garbodor that’s literally made of trash? Harvey’s like that This is an unforgivable insult to Garbodor, who is perfect and can do no wrong.
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Jul 22, 2023 19:33
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I'm with you on the usually annoying cutesy children characters, but Ochette is more like a young adult dog as others said. She's got child-like innocence but otherwise is treated as a fully capable person in the world and her outsider beastman perspective is nice. The VA work is also top notch.
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Jul 22, 2023 21:23
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Just started the game a couple of days ago and about to get my 5th character. Do characters outside of your party gain experience passively or will I have to grind them up whenever I swap them in?
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Jul 23, 2023 01:13
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Ibblebibble posted:Just started the game a couple of days ago and about to get my 5th character. Do characters outside of your party gain experience passively or will I have to grind them up whenever I swap them in? Sadly they do not gain EXP if they're not in the party. They catch up quick, though, so you shouldn't have to actually grind, just bring them along and they'll catch up. Gear is more important than levels anyway, really. For reference, I never had to grind at all except when I wanted to get to really high levels for the optional superboss (and even then it was about 15-20 minutes of metal slime-equivalent hunting and I was done). I ended up somewhat overleveled just playing normally.
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Jul 23, 2023 01:24
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