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alt title: lets play .hack// - thanks cyberconnectPOO // courtesy of baal  Poll Open To Decide Final Party  .hack// (or dotHack) is a series based around an extremely popular, virtual-reality video-game that is not only enjoyed by millions worldwide, but also has the capability to place people into comas and trap them inside the game. The series came about in 2002, when the creator company, CyberConnect2, released three seperate .hack products nearly all at once; .hack//SIGN, an anime series, .hack//GAME, a series of games collectively referred to as IMOQ (or Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine) for the PS2, and some novels/manga. The series, while never really popular, did become a cult hit, prompting another manga/anime release (//Legends of the Twilight), which didn't do as stellar a job, and put the series into stasis. Years later, the series was revitalized with yet another new anime, .hack//Roots, and another series of games (known as .hack//G.U. or The G.U. Trilogy). The trilogy was well received as a direct upgrade to the original games, and prompted CyberConnect2 to try and continue that momentum. This was followed up on by .hack//LINK (yet another anime and game) that sadly, did poorly enough to warrant it being passed over for localization. This was considered to be the "final chapter" in the .hack// series; after this, no new games (aside from a JP only mobile game) have been announced. Thus, the series is considered to be "finished". In total, there are seven PS2 games and one PSP game; 4 from the IMOQ series, 3 from the G.U series, and .hack//LINK. And I'm playing all of them to completion.  Well lets get this out of the way: please no spoilers about this dumb anime game series, thank you! The .hack// games are maximum anime games with decent-for-its-time voice acting and actually good music, but are also plagued by poor combat decisions and repetitive grinding gameplay. So, a standard JRPG then. While I won't pretend that the story is Shakespearan, the series does have its charms and quirks. My main companions on this wild ride will be Emalde and EldaTaluta, and they've only seen some of the anime and IMOQ games, while some of my other compadres will have had almost no exposure at all to the series! The set-up for INFECTION is that you are a boy, named Kite, who is logging into "The World" for the first time to play with your friend. He's a big strong level 50 Blademaster and he can stop anything in the game...right?  The requirements for a fully completed save file in my opinion are:
No, I am not going to be doing the megabullshit stuff like maxing out Elemental Resistances, or grinding max gold, or anything dumb like that. No, I am not going to have 250 updates of me grinding Oh No Melons. All that poo poo will be edited out, leaving the initial process, some commentary on how it works, and the end result. Also some podcast talk about dumb poo poo irrelevant to the game, who knows. There's also A LOT of text, side-stories, and so on that I'll be chronicling for your convenience. This LP will be video the whole way through, with post-commentary added; all the data files will be in their own playlist in the event you wish to read them. G.U. 100% Completion List to come later.  I'm aiming for a once a week update; sometimes twice a week, but no promises for that. While I love this series, warts and all, the G.U. games are infinitely more fun, so I will be trying to burn through the IMOQ games as quickly as possible. The "once a week" update schedule will be after the holidays, natch. First actual commentary update will be first week of January. Terminology IMOQ - Stands for Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine, the titles of the four dothack games. GU - Shorthand for .hack//G.U., the title for the trilogy. GU means a lot of things, but the developers ha stated that it primarily means Growing Up.  Extra Files and Videos Grunty Food Sound Clips for download #00: A Brief History of .hack// #01: The Story So Far .hack//DATA FILES #01: INFECTION Pre-Game Files (Video) #01: INFECTION News Files (Images) .hack//IMOQ #02: Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field #03: Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground #04: Δ Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand #05: Δ Boundless Corrupted Fort Walls #06: Δ Detestable Golden Messenger #07: ϴ Quiet Eternal White Devil #08: Δ Plenteous Smiling Hypha #09: ϴ Soft Solitary Tri Pansy #10: ϴ Cursed Despaired Paradise #11: The Terror of Death: Skeith I also have a no-commentary version of the videos, starting here. boy are my arms tired fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Mar 23, 2017 |
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Dec 22, 2016 18:00
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Godspeed, you insane bastard.
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Dec 22, 2016 18:03
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Let's Watch - A Idiot Go Insane From Grinding I've had no real exposure to .hack before, so will be interesting to see
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Dec 22, 2016 18:50
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boy are my arms tired posted:All that poo poo will be edited out, leaving the initial process, some commentary on how it works, and the end result. 
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Dec 22, 2016 19:53
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Pierzak posted:What, no training montage videos? A few! All at a crisp 500% speed because jfc this combat is slow Hell speeding up the first goblin race fight the clip was still something like 40 seconds
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Dec 22, 2016 20:07
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That reminds me, does anyone have the Oh No Melon soundclip? I've wanted it as a message alert tone for my phone for years now.
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Dec 22, 2016 20:20
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:That reminds me, does anyone have the Oh No Melon soundclip? I've wanted it as a message alert tone for my phone for years now. I'm on holiday but I spent a few hours recording some of those already so Ill just make a set when I get back and post them for the thread
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Dec 22, 2016 20:27
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LINK was a blight and deserves its fate. GU is legit rad but tbh I might only think that because after IMOQ that series felt like JRPG ambrosia
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Dec 22, 2016 21:10
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I am so hype for this. I hope you realize that it is going to literally kill you, though. Like, holy poo poo.
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Dec 22, 2016 21:16
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I can't wait for all this menu navigating action.
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Dec 22, 2016 22:51
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is someone holding a gun to your head? are you stuck in some kind of Saw-esque trap requiring you to lp a completionist run or your kidnapped son dies? should someone call the police? good luck, friend boy are my arms tired posted:I'm on holiday but I spent a few hours recording some of those already so Ill just make a set when I get back and post them for the thread that would be amazing i'm imagining someone's phone on the train screaming BLOODY EGG with each new text message
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Dec 23, 2016 01:27
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That would be me, and I can't wait.
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Dec 23, 2016 02:08
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AriadneThread posted:is someone holding a gun to your head? are you stuck in some kind of Saw-esque trap requiring you to lp a completionist run or your kidnapped son dies? should someone call the police? Nope I am just deeply mentally ill and enjoy this kind of thing! Also my phone is set to Mandragora
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Dec 23, 2016 02:10
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I was depressed thinking that CC2 is mostly forever trapped doing only Naruto games until they die these days. However, according to some Wikipedia links they were behind JoJo brawlers, Eyes to Heaven and All Star Battle, Asura's Wrath and are going to develop a shooter in whatever Project Venom is and are collaborating with SE in the FF7 remake? drat, CyberConnect2 is doing better than I thought.
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Dec 23, 2016 02:50
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I remember getting the first game. and wondering why the hell someone would simulate MMO combat in a single player game.
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Dec 23, 2016 03:13
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Boy, I remember this. Or rather, I remember the fourth game, Quarantine, because somebody bought it for me one Christmas, and not the others. But whatever, I dived in anyway. Had very little idea what was going on, until I managed to unlock the cutscenes from the previous games, which was a nice feature. Except, did they really need to make four games on four discs if the majority of the content fit on just one? No. Combat was a tedious affair with a minimal skill requirement, and I couldn't see any difference in the performance of the various character classes, except the magic-focused one. Not a great game. But the music was goddamn fantastic, so I managed to grind through to the end.
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Dec 23, 2016 03:28
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You sir are insane in the membrane. I look forward to watching this series. I played .hack//Infection to completion twice on my old PS2 but never played the other 3 titles. It was an ambitious idea releasing them as 4 separate (full priced!) games; in an almost episodic manner similar to many modern titles. I also watched //Roots cause G.U looked interested and also shorter. Sadly //Roots was angsty as gently caress and less about trying to save Kite/the parties friends and more about Hasio being sad that no girl loved him.
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Dec 23, 2016 03:33
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Montegoraon posted:Except, did they really need to make four games on four discs if the majority of the content fit on just one? No they did not and IIRC they eventually got his with a lawsuit telling them to knock that poo poo off.
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Dec 23, 2016 03:43
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The difference between IMOQ's story and the G.U. Trilogy is that IMOQ's story is primarily about a mystery. It's a chosen take on the "Trapped in a game" story that's existed forever, and the story presents itself as the characters trying to seek the truth and solve the mystery before time runs out. With G.U. the plot is very much focused about Haseo's growth, his past as Sora and connecting with other players. It's about Growing Up. For my part, I find IMOQ to be one of the stronger stories with this concept, up there with Log Horizon (We're stuck, we don't know how or have a way out. Time to rebuild society.) and to a degree Overlord (I am alone in a world that isn't the game world. Yet my abilities have been retained. I am also slowly becoming a villain.) And all of the .Hack stories are stronger than loving SA:O.
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Dec 23, 2016 04:05
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Onmi posted:The difference between IMOQ's story and the G.U. Trilogy is that IMOQ's story is primarily about a mystery. It's a chosen take on the "Trapped in a game" story that's existed forever, and the story presents itself as the characters trying to seek the truth and solve the mystery before time runs out. Log Horizon is defiantly the VR World plot successor to IMOQ that GU wanted to be. Too bad no Season 3.
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Dec 23, 2016 04:27
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Back in the day, there were some people out there who were demanding this game with it's dull combat system and easily broken leveling curve be made into an actual MMO. I was honestly kind of baffling. Anyways, the (completed) LP of the first series took four years of on and off work and multiple threads to finish, and a quick glance shows that the LP of GU stopped somewhere in the second game; you have your work cut out for you here. I'll, uh, also spare you the character effortposts I made for the previous LP; aside from the Twinblades and a couple of the others, non-postgame characters are all largely interchangable, so there's no real need to fuss over minute differences.
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Dec 23, 2016 04:28
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Sup, fellow .hack// turbo nerds? I contributed a lore series in the other threads on the batshit insane things that caused The World to be literally the only game in town and the wacky hijinks of CC Corp's internal staffing. The lore has nothing on the absurdity of 100% completion in these games without heavy abuse of gameshark codes. Just the Ryu Books alone are an abuse of what game makers should expect players to put up with for that elusive 100%, much less the rest of your list. Godspeed, you glorious bastard.
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Dec 23, 2016 05:15
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I wrote a post for the old thread about why the games have the names they do. But it's in the archives now so i can't actually see my own postGridlocked posted:Log Horizon is defiantly the VR World plot successor to IMOQ that GU wanted to be. I actually don't think it is. It's definitly in the same genre, but the actual concepts they tackle are very different. Log Horizon is "What is the life of an NPC? What is society when the only 'law' is that you can't be violent in the hub towns, and that nowhere near entails things like harassment and killing players so they'll always return to spawn and be unable to run away? How in fact, do we rebuild the world, and can we remake society." Dot Hack, on the other hand is "What is causing all of this, what are the mystery's of The World who is Aura Who is Morganna What the gently caress even is The World really, it's an MMO RPG on the surface, but there's something deep beneath the surface and we need to find it." In short, Log Horizon is more concerned with "How" while Dot Hack IMOQ is more concerned with "Who and What" G.U. is more of a character study. Almost every returning character in one form or another, is hosed up as a person. Kuhn having failed in his relationship with Mai Minase and become a womanizer who can't actually hold on to a relationship, Literally ANYTHING to do with Endrance and how wrecked he is. And, as mentioned, exploring the change in identity that Haseo has gone through since his character was first introduced. G.U.'s problem is it's not really sure how to keep the player moving along the character drama stuff, and decides to take the short cut of having a Tournament Arc across three games, interspaced with AIDA, who are sort of meant to be a mystery but at the same time.. aren't. The mystery's in G.U. are for the players, not the characters. What the gently caress is up with Azure Kite? being an example of something interesting for us the player, but not for any of the core cast.
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Dec 23, 2016 05:47
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Onmi posted:I wrote a post for the old thread about why the games have the names they do. But it's in the archives now so i can't actually see my own post Your summary is apt and correct.
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Dec 23, 2016 06:02
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.hack games excel at analyzing the differences between the real world and the world of the MMO. And how the events of the MMO affect the real world which in turn affects the MMO.Onmi posted:G.U.'s problem is it's not really sure how to keep the player moving along the character drama stuff, and decides to take the short cut of having a Tournament Arc across three games, interspaced with AIDA, who are sort of meant to be a mystery but at the same time.. aren't. The mystery's in G.U. are for the players, not the characters. What the gently caress is up with Azure Kite? being an example of something interesting for us the player, but not for any of the core cast. Its other problems is that it tried to do stupid fanservice and ultimately never getting a satisfying resolution to a few major mysteries. I seriously hate the Mysterious Mentor character and everything associated with him. Especially since Haseo never called him out on his poo poo. Seriously think about his actions during ROOTS and GU and you will realize he is a total moron who only succeeds due to plot contrivance. Especially in the post GU story. The fanservice thing is also what sunk LINK. They simultaneously tried to go for the lowest common denominator while trying to wow .hack fans and failed miserably on both counts.
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Dec 23, 2016 06:38
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SSNeoman posted:.hack games excel at analyzing the differences between the real world and the world of the MMO. And how the events of the MMO affect the real world which in turn affects the MMO. I mean, eventually they had to conclude the whole AIDA subplot in An anime special because the final boss of Redemption basically comes from left field and only exists to be a call back. But where as said bosses existence in IMOQ was an incredibly well pulled off aspect of the plot that leads to thrilling moments and a grand conclusion... In G.U. he's just there. It's almost like the game ended and then someone said "We need more game for a proper conclusion" and no one really knew what to do. My personal dislike is the game never gives you another Heavy Blade user. And, through hacking you can play with a few of the NPC ones and they control perfectly well
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Dec 23, 2016 07:13
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To supplement the story I'm currently making some videos on the media pre game (so, the books, sign, liminality, etc) for those mega nerds that care about that, but it won't be done until were a few episodes into infection or mutation. If you're interested in helping, let me know! This is a lot of media to consume for my little ragtag group of
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Dec 23, 2016 14:34
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boy are my arms tired posted:
Emphasis mine. You poor bastard. I wouldn't wish that godawful grind on my worst enemy. I wouldn't wish most of the grind in this series on my worst enemy. So I'll definitely be watching this because I can't get enough of this Hell series.
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Dec 23, 2016 19:48
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DoubleNegative posted:Emphasis mine. You poor bastard. I wouldn't wish that godawful grind on my worst enemy. I wouldn't wish most of the grind in this series on my worst enemy. So I'll definitely be watching this because I can't get enough of this Hell series. I've already farmed for about eight hours getting the 90 elemental items necessary for trades (burning oils and the like). Still not done, and that's the easy part. We in there boys and girls, we in there
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Dec 23, 2016 21:29
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I'm just wondering if there comes a point where an intervention needs to be staged.
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Dec 23, 2016 22:17
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If there is, we are already past it
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Dec 23, 2016 23:07
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Your username fits well with these stipulations then
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Dec 24, 2016 00:55
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thank you for helping me destroy my nostalgia for this bad game.
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Dec 24, 2016 01:18
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I can't believe how many complete crazy people this subforum houses.  What happened with //Link? I didn't even remember it existed.
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Dec 26, 2016 22:07
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Schubalts posted:I can't believe how many complete crazy people this subforum houses. im not insane, how dare you The problem with .hack//LINK is it managed to make the combat even more tedious than the IMOQ games due to the defense break mechanic taking way to goddamn long and requiring a juggle finisher for every single dude, including bosses iirc, and having even less different areas to go to then the IMOQ games (lack of visual variety and that's a goddamn sin when you look at literally any other dothack game). Game was very pretty and from what I had seen had a pretty interesting story if you're invested in the series, but the actual game part of it was so mind-numbingly terrible Also, I have a treat for the thread. At first I was going to just mute the BGM ingame and record the voice clips, but I figured it'd be a real good time to learn how to gently caress with .bin files, so here they are, ripped straight from the game itself. I also found some various sound clips that I thought were interesting and added them in. If you have an interest in the Japanese versions of the grunty food, i did get that converted over, but have not cut it up yet (for some reason I can't figure out how to get it in its cut-up forms already, it feeds it to me as one big sound file lmao). Also available are the first "data files" that we have seen so far, in image form, ripped straight from the disc. I have added both to the OP. If either link does not work for any reason, let me know and I'll fix it.
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Dec 27, 2016 02:50
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This. This right here is the series that finally broke my completion tendencies and my tolerance for grinding. It's been said before but there needs to be stronger words for "Godspeed, you insane bastard."
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Dec 27, 2016 02:58
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also worth noting, literally all of the BGMs, Wallpapers, etc/everything in MOQ can be found packaged together in infection, including bitmaps for bosses and characters not found on that disc (example: wiseman) gg cyberconnect2 e: me after the holidays 
boy are my arms tired fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Dec 27, 2016 |
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Dec 27, 2016 03:08
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bless you
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Dec 27, 2016 03:54
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I always thought this series looked cool, but I was always a Gamecube boy growing up, so no dice. godspeed. but you've beaten Strange Journey, I imagine, so your tolerance for horseshit is high. nothing about eridanus through grus was fun and you are crazy Bogart fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Dec 27, 2016 |
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Dec 27, 2016 04:00
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AriadneThread posted:bless you anytime Bogart posted:I always thought this series looked cool, but I was always a Gamecube boy growing up, so no dice. godspeed. but you've beaten Strange Journey, I imagine, so your tolerance for horseshit is high. strange journey was fun o boy i have a problem e: I just realized that the non-grunty sound effects were in .wav form, which sucks, so i converted it to .mp3 and reuploaded, please enjoy responsibily ty boy are my arms tired fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Dec 27, 2016 |
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Dec 27, 2016 04:23
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