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LTTP FFVIII: The Aesthetic Fore-bearer to FFXV

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FF VIII is a really unique game with fantastic art, amazing soundtrack, incredible setting and memorable characters.

So many unforgettable moments ;_;

If FF XV is half as good as VIII I'll be in heaven, but I doubt it.

Succession of Witches
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
It isn't my favorite mainline FF overall, but it's the one with my favorite world and atmosphere when I think about it.
 

Izuna

Banned
Give FFVIII Lost Odyssey's ability system and it's probably one of the best JRPGs.

EDIT: I see someone posting Squall in Dissidia. Sadly the whole Advent Children DBZ flying BS is the antithesis of FFVIII, which was based on the real world with magic being a social-political element. There were still colleges, normal relationships, racism etc. It was interesting to see how all of this would affect a world based on ours. When a FF game has people surviving or doing stuff a regular human cannot without magic being involved you can't identify with the characters the same way as you can in FFVIII.

Post Advent Children FF does nothing for me =(
 

Mephala

Member
Give FFVIII Lost Odyssey's ability system and it's probably one of the best JRPGs.

EDIT: I see someone posting Squall in Dissidia. Sadly the whole Advent Children DBZ flying BS is the antithesis of FFVIII, which was based on the real world with magic being a social-political element. There were still colleges, normal relationships, racism etc. It was interesting to see how all of this would affect a world based on ours. When a FF game has people surviving or doing stuff a regular human cannot without magic being involved you can't identify with the characters the same way as you can in FFVIII.

Post Advent Children FF does nothing for me =(

>_>

So those massive air dash is where you draw the line huh? I mean, sure but Squall is pretty ridiculous in his own game. Sword beams up in orbit, leaping just as high as he is able in Dissidia for his limits, even suspending himself in the air momentarily in certain attacks. Even his jump from the bell tower is kind of ridiculous.

I think the suspension of disbelieve comes less from the way they fight and more from the fact that there are no regular NPC characters that help keep the world more grounded. Which makes sense given they aren't really in any sort of world that has non-combatants. In any case it is clearly a fanservice game and not cannon any way so I say just enjoy it if you're able. :D
 
2EAAg.jpg

You do know that this image is shopped, right? And that this exchange never happens? I see it trotted out in every FFVIII thread as if it's somehow an accurate representation of the game's writing and its execution of the love story, when in reality Squall never acts so callously towards her, even when he's still hiding behind his "cold loner" facade.
 
You do know that this image is shopped, right? And that this exchange never happens? I see it trotted out in every FFVIII thread as if it's somehow an accurate representation of the game's writing and its execution of the love story, when in reality Squall never acts so callously towards her, even when he's still hiding behind his "cold loner" facade.

TBH I just wanted to get a good screencap of him saying whatever, and that just struck me as the most humorous.
 

Jennipeg

Member
The brilliance of the game is that it gives players the option to break the game with the card game

Amazingly, in all the times I have played it, I have never done this. I think I should give it a try. I love that card game, I'm just holding off because i'm convinced they will add trophies like they did with VII.
 
I enjoyed this game when it came out and I still have fond memories of it. The biggest problem to me personally is the junction system. I just never really enjoyed it. I still think FFVIII has the best soundtrack though.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I hate how it basically makes you play cards for weapon upgrades. I hate card games!

I love the atmosphere of this game, though. Everything is so clean. It's like near future/full sci-fi blended together and separated by continents. The OST is amazing, the character design is great, the world design is extremely cohesive and well thought out with a believable history (and future). The characters are a weak point, and the draw system is kind of lame. None of the characters really develop or contribute much outside of Squall and Rinoa.

Despite FFVIII being an overall "stronger" title from a world building standpoint, I still much prefer VII for its more oppressive atmosphere.
 

Korigama

Member
The FF that I like best right after VII. Always loved the setting, soundtrack, and general aesthetic. Being able to break the game through the Junction system also holds appeal to me. Felt that much of the cast was squandered potential, though, and that there's plenty of lazy writing later on in the game. If I had to choose, I would've preferred to see this remade before VII.

Though XV has the same art director, with the same "fantasy based on reality" focus, I don't find anything about what we're getting with that game to be anywhere near as compelling (which does genuinely disappoint me, considering how excited I was for it following Vs. XIII's rebranding trailer as XV compared to not really looking forward to it at all anymore).
 

zoukka

Member
So many things to love in VIII but...

The Junction system is completely broken and renders all battles in the game autowins after a few hours of play time. Because of this it falls way behind VII and IX.
 
Guess who just installed FF8 on to his Vita?

👈🏻

Anyone got a link to the breaking game, refining cards for spells and such guide?
 
TBH I just wanted to get a good screencap of him saying whatever, and that just struck me as the most humorous.

Unfortunately it misrepresents Squall's character to people who have never played FF8 or people who decided long ago they disliked the story for whatever reason and it's been so long that they can't remember if the scene was accurate or not, but assume it is so their dislike is more justified.

The first and one of the few scenes in the game where Squall breaks his loner persona and talks about how he really feels, and it's the one people most remember for him being an uncaring asshole because of that image.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Guess who just installed FF8 on to his Vita?

👈🏻

Anyone got a link to the breaking game, refining cards for spells and such guide?

Have Quetzacotl learn Card then Card Mod. Modify Quistis card, which you can get from Balamb Garden, into Samantha Souls. Refine Samantha Souls with Diablos' Time Mag RF into Triples to junction to Strength.

Have Siren, which you draw from the early boss Elvoret, learn L-Mag RF. Buy 30 tents asap and refine them into Curagas to junction to HP.

There you beat the game less than halfway through Disc 1 lol. If you want more indepth information on how to break it even more I would recommend Game Corner.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Seriously where is Final Fantasy VIII/IX HD on PS4, I can understand waiting for it to be released but they haven't even announced it and didn't even mention IX for PS4 when they announced the PC and mobile versions.
 

Jennipeg

Member
Seriously where is Final Fantasy VIII/IX HD on PS4, I can understand waiting for it to be released but they haven't even announced it and didn't even mention IX for PS4 when they announced the PC and mobile versions.

I just want trophies. I've collected/completed everything in this game before, i'd love to get trophies for it too.
 

NahaNago

Member
The music and the atmosphere of the game is what i love most about it. i always felt this game had a shoujo like feel to it. Make rinoa the main character and have squall and seifer duke it out for her until squall in the end wins her love.
 

Baalzebup

Member
Pretty sure Squall is most OP MC for ps1 FFs. Not sure was bugged or not but Squalls accuracy is 100% even while blind you can't just pull trigger. His lion heart attack and weapon is ridiculous damage and his stats can be increased if keep low level to get GF stay boosting skills. The dude wrecks shit solo even without the yellow and smashing circle to get limit trick.

Definitely not a mistake. Both Seifer and Squall have accuracy 255 as a standard, which represents their prodigious skill with Gunblades, a weapon type noted to be notoriously difficult to learn and master. Both of them are just that good. Headmaster Cid even comments Squalls SeeD graduation with something along the lines of "finally a Gunblade-master." He actually *knew* that the SeeD needed one for what is to come.

Squall was noted to pick up the weapon for its difficulty, because he was a stubborn git, and Seifer picked it up because he saw it in a movie and thought it was cool (part of his romantic dream) :D
 
Second least favorite of the main line(not as bad as FFXIII). It was the first FF game that felt "limiting" to me. Didn't feel as grand as other FFs. The characters all were tied together, and any real meat regarding what happened beyond that close tie is irrelevant(even though I love that kind of shit). Not to mention how limited the monster selection was. Mentioning FFXV as being based on the aesthetic style, I sure as hell hope it doesn't follow FFVIII in this regard, and from the footage, might certainly not.

The characters(other than Squall and Rinoa) didn't grow as much past who they were in the beginning(which I'm not asking for 180 change in character, but going on such a quest and witnessing some strange events, you'd think they'd grow just a bit differently by the end). And I know I was supposed to care for Squall and Rinoa, but the writing they gave me did nothing for me in that regards. Then again, I'm not one for romance stories. If a story happens to have a romance sub-plot, and it's good, I'll feel it. I felt more for Locke and Celes in FFVI than Squall and Rinoa in FFVIII.

The music, while I felt had better synth quality over FFVII(melodic farts at times), this is where I think Uematsu became hit or miss. Prior to this, I loved EVERY song(even the horrible synthed FFVII songs), but here, I find that either some songs are glorious(Liberi Fatali, The Extreme, Succession of Witches...) and some are just... blah.

If there were any good things I could mention about it, the art direction was great. The world looked cool, the monster design looked awesome and while I felt the main character design was bland(probably the more earthy colors), I did like Seifer's design, as well as Edea and the Sorceresses(well, and the majority of NPCs, for that matter). Deling City is probably one of my top ten fictional locations I'd love to live at. And, well, I know a lot of people piss on the Junction system and Drawing system, but I'm one of those odd birds that would spend a whole battle maxing out every character with every spell each monster had without feeling bored or annoyed.
 

Meliora

Member
Never got people's problem with this. I mean, junctioning and GF's generally is pretty fantasical in the first place, that they also cause
amnesia
doesn't seem like much of a stretch to me!

I agree with this. I also think it is kind of a cool idea that there is a price for their power. it's not available to everyone and not everyone can just go and buy materias or find magical equipment on every monster like in other FFs. It sets SeeD apart from the rest of the population and it should because they are meant to be powerful. That it comes with a drawback or a sacrifice if you will, balances it out a bit or what would be stopping everyone from just doing the same?

The memory loss
could have been foreshadowed better and mentioned a bit more sure, but I don't think the idea itself is bad. You can also read about it on the computer in the classroom if I remember right, so it is mentioned early in the game.

Also for the ending of the game,
I like that it doesn't specifically end happily for the world. It ends well for the main characters at that time, but we don't know if the time loop is broken or not. It it doesn't break, the future isn't very bright, so it leaves the ending open.
 
Just escaped the Desert District; like I said before I really like how the game blends gameplay and FMV to create a cinematic feel.

I also think the game is getting wise to me a little; so far I've been bunching up my GFs on my party and switching them out as need be, but recently they've been doing things where you need to shuffle back and forth between both groups, which keeps me on my toys a bit.

I'm a little worried whether I'm playing the game the right way though; how cards factor into the main gameplay I'm still a bit confused on, as well as how weapon upgrades are supposed to work.
 

BaldusCattus

Neo Member
I'm late to the thread as usual but it's great to see some really good debate and understanding of this game being shown. It's probably my favourite main series FF, too, even if I know its not the best.

I've always thought this game gives you returns for what you're willing to invest. Yes, you can game the Draw system and ruin your experience of the combat - just as you can Auto-battle your way through FFXIII - but it's not the way to play and you won't enjoy the time spent doing so. Yes, it's easy to write off Squall as a dick and laugh at the "Whatever"'s.

Look deeper though, and you find a story that's remarkably coherent within itself, and characters whose behaviours, personalities, and motivations make perfect sense when viewed with the big picture in mind. This is so well realised that FF8 actually rewards replay maybe more than any other FF. Peculiarities of the first playthough stand out as foreshadowing of things to come (read the messages hidden in the world-blanketing RF-interference on the Timber TV big-screen, for example).

Explore, and you'll find numerous side-missions that don't so much reward you with gear, but with backstory and character development; the Winhill and Moomba sidequests are particular standouts. Classic hidden areas reward map-trawlers too; the Deep Sea Research Center is completely missable, but will net you the two most powerful Summons in the game.

I kind of envy you your voyage of discovery, OP... and, if you've discovered all there is to learn about these often tragic characters, and don't have some grit in your eye through the beautiful ending sequence, you've a harder heart than I care to know ;)
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Just escaped the Desert District; like I said before I really like how the game blends gameplay and FMV to create a cinematic feel.

There will be another showcase of this later on.

It was a really interesting technique (that really only worked at that moment in time).

There was a lot less of this technique in IX. Some "polygon on top of FMV" scenes, but not so many where you actually control.
 
So many things to love in VIII but...

The Junction system is completely broken and renders all battles in the game autowins after a few hours of play time. Because of this it falls way behind VII and IX.

Agreed. I love a lot about this game but it is broken at the core.
 
There will be another showcase of this later on.

It was a really interesting technique (that really only worked at that moment in time).

There was a lot less of this technique in IX. Some "polygon on top of FMV" scenes, but not so many where you actually control.

VII and IX did a lot of 'transition from gameplay models to FMV scenes' moments for set pieces (FFX did this a bit as well, though besides Tidus talking to Sin after killing Yunalesca there tended to be hard cuts between in-engine 'event' scenes and FMV scenes), but yeah I don't recall anything where an FMV and game play occurred simultaneously.

I'm actually kinda liking Selphie in the mission into the missile base, how fired up she is to avenge Trabia. I was expecting her to be as grating as Rikku, but besides a bit of klutz early on she kinda hasn't been. Same more or less with Zell, though he's still a bit of a goober. They're all significantly less vivid than FFVII characters so far, but they haven't been extremely irritating either.
 

Lucreto

Member
Love the game but never played it properly, I have action replay cheat codes for infinite money and The End magic. I could never defeat Diablo with its demi attack.

I loved the card game but the Random rule was the bane of my existence. Is there a way to manipulate the rules to eliminate it from appearing?
 

Baalzebup

Member
Just escaped the Desert District; like I said before I really like how the game blends gameplay and FMV to create a cinematic feel.

I also think the game is getting wise to me a little; so far I've been bunching up my GFs on my party and switching them out as need be, but recently they've been doing things where you need to shuffle back and forth between both groups, which keeps me on my toys a bit.

I'm a little worried whether I'm playing the game the right way though; how cards factor into the main gameplay I'm still a bit confused on, as well as how weapon upgrades are supposed to work.

Cards are 100% optional, although they can help you along the way by giving you early access to items and materials you'd find much later in the game. You *can* get pretty much everything without even touching the cards. Their use can be boiled down to a pretty simple set of options: You use one skill to turn cards into items and then either use those items if they are consumables, keep 'em as weapon upgrade fodder for later or refine them into spells using the other GF refining skills.

Weapon upgrades are quite simple. The weapon magazines you find will give you a list of materials for a certain tier of weapons. You can always upgrade to whatever version of any weapon that you have the materials for, even if you don't have the list of materials from the magazine(the weapon shop keepers know their craft even if you don't know what exactly is needed). Every single new tier weapon upgrade is a straight up 100% upgrade from the previous one with no tradeoffs, so there is little reason to keep a weaker version if a better one is available. Squalls limit break finishers are tied to his weapon, but even there, going up is only beneficial as you gain new ones (well, okay, there is exactly one event later in the game where using only Revolver might be beneficial for the duration of a single boss battle).

As for the GFs, there is little reason to switch out anything. Barring the prison break sequence where you options are limited for a reason, you can always transfer Junctions, magic and the GFs between party members wholesale. Upon switching the party, the game should pretty much prompt the switch by itself. It is also available from the party member switching screen:
latest

Note the option for Junction exchange. You can always keep all of your eggs in your 3-man basket, and should as well.

I loved the card game but the Random rule was the bane of my existence. Is there a way to manipulate the rules to eliminate it from appearing?
There are several guides which explain how to do that, step by step.
 

neoism

Member
yeah looove this game doing a no squall level up lionheart disc 1 playthrough really fun...

plus i got no-encoutner as soon as i got diablo lol

i have 30 hours in and 20 of it was triple traid and the seifer trick lol
 
Wait what, there's a civil war in the Balamb Garden? I wasn't expecting that.
As for the GFs, there is little reason to switch out anything. Barring the prison break sequence where you options are limited for a reason, you can always transfer Junctions, magic and the GFs between party members wholesale. Upon switching the party, the game should pretty much prompt the switch by itself. It is also available from the party member switching screen:
latest

Note the option for Junction exchange. You can always keep all of your eggs in your 3-man basket, and should as well.

Ah thanks, that's what I have been doing, figured it's good to always be using my GFs. Is it bad that I sort of spam them on bosses in place of using magic?

Also, is it beneficial to mix up which GFs are junctioned to each character? Wondering if I should change that up from time to time.
 

Baalzebup

Member
Ah thanks, that's what I have been doing, figured it's good to always be using my GFs. Is it bad that I sort of spam them on bosses in place of using magic?

Also, is it beneficial to mix up which GFs are junctioned to each character? Wondering if I should change that up from time to time.

Well, there are a few GF related mechanics of varying levels of interest. For one, using one ups the affinity for that GF and drops the affinity of the others for that particular character. Affinity is directly related how long it takes to summon that particular GF. So you can either spam one and it will get pretty fast at the expense of others, or you can mix them up and it will kinda stay at +/- 0 when you have a large enough number of them. There is absolutely no direct downside for using them in battle, beside just making the fight last longer due to the long summon sequences.

At first, the GFs should just be spread around so that as many characters get as many Junctioned stats, defenses etc as possible. After acquiring Carbuncle (I think this was at the end of disc one, from the two Lizards that Edea sicked on Rinoa & Co) and you get your first 3 x passive abilities ...ability, you might want to look at the abilities that give you more stat points at level up if you have any interest in tackling some of the more difficult bonus bosses or such. The game never really *needs* it as there are multiple ways to break it or cheese it, but I've personally taken a liking to arranging my main guys getting as many bonus stat points as possible. If I remember the stuff anywhere correctly, Ifrit has Strength Up, Siren has Magic Up, Carbuncle has Vitality up and Leviathan has Spirit up. It'll be a while before you can get the 4x ability passive through normal means though, for that really maxed out stat growth. All GFs with naturally occurring 4x abilities are very late game stuff. Full exploitation of this involves leveling as little as possible before you can get to the good shit and then leveling up your dudes one at a time with those stat boosts. Lots of busywork.
Wait what, there's a civil war in the Balamb Garden? I wasn't expecting that.
Lol. Disc 2 is just full of those wtf moments. I really wish I could play that game again for the 1st time.
 
I've realized that several of my GFs have accidentally been moved to learning page 2 abilities when they haven't learned all the junction abilities yet. I've noticed that like several of my characters have like 4 junctioned slots while one only has two.

The 'making battles take longer' bit me in the ass at the Cruise Missile Base, for example. I thought how they fired was really neat.

I do wish they dug a bit more into what Galbadia's deal was before the Sorcerer took over, though part of that is my infatuation with the headcanon of Galbadian paranoia over Esthar driving their imperial agenda on their home continent.
 

Jennipeg

Member
Lol. Disc 2 is just full of those wtf moments. I really wish I could play that game again for the 1st time.

Me too, i'm getting nostalgic just thinking about it, this part of the game right through to the end of Disk 3, holds my fondest gaming memories.
F.H
has some great character development for
Squall
and then it builds up to the
Garden battle
and then on to
Esthar
which must be one of the coolest cities ever put into a game. Man, I'm going to have to replay this again soon.
 

Mr_Moogle

Member
If you want to make monster characters in FFVIII the trick is to not level them AT ALL until the last part of disk 3 when you can access all GF's and have the airship.

Basically certain GF's have a bonus point ability for a certain stat. You get one bonus point per level so if you equip a character with the following GF's, you can make monster characters.

Ifrit: strength bonus (+1 at level up)
Siren: magic bonus (+ 1 at level up)
Brothers: hp bonus (+ 30 at level up)
Carbuncle: vitality bonus (+ 1 at level up)
Leviathan: spirit bonus (+ 1 at level up)
Cactuar: all five bonus abilities

Say I start levelling Squall in disk 3 and he's at level 7 or 8, you're looking at an extra 93 points in all these stats by the time he gets to level 100, making him basically unstoppable.

The hardest thing about this strategy is not gaining experience. To do this you need to get access to Diablos Encounter-none ability as soon as possible. There are also other ways to avoid gaining levels like using the Card ability. Enemies transformed into Cards wont give you exp, only AP. I don't remember it all perfectly but you will need to resort to some pretty weird strategies to avoid gaining exp. I can even recall petrifying members of my own party at one stage. There used to be a guide for this somewhere on the interwebs. I'll try to find it.

It's a pain staking strategy but it's totally worth it if you like FFVIII and want to playthrough it again. You wouldn't want to do this on your first playthrough though.

EDIT: Damn you Baalzebup! I finally had something worthwhile to write on this message board and you beat me to it.
 

Baalzebup

Member
Also forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't Raijin and Fujin the Shinto gods of Thunder and Lightening?
That is just Raijin alone. Fujin is the Wind God.
EDIT: Damn you Baalzebup! I finally had something worthwhile to write on this message board and you beat me to it.
*insert maniacal laughter*. Well, your post covers the details better so it's not like there is no contribution on your part :)
 

Burbeting

Banned
Usually I hope FF games delivery ring four different ways: Gameplay, Story, Music and Characters.

Sadly, I think FF8 excelled in only one of these four places, and that's the music. Story stopped being compelling after first disc, the main party felt very under-developed and boring (the really forced love story didn't exactly help), and the gameplay systems in the game felt very unbalanced at best, outright broken at worst.

Still, it's not a bad game, a quite solid 7.5/10 JRPG. It's also definitely one of the better looking PS1 games, and has some of the best character designs from Nomura.
 

Cikay

Member
FF8 has the best final dungeon ever.
The art direction, the level-design, the music. It's scary, epic and fascinating.

I really hope FFXV will also go full (final) fantasy at the end of the game.
 

Widge

Member
CHARACTERS

Quistis seems to be the Team Mom, a proto-Lulu of sorts in terms of a relatively young woman being placed into a position of authority. But where as Lulu's pressures are handled pretty subtly, Quistis's anxieties border on incompetence. At the point I am just at in the game, Quistis mid-mission decides to abandon her post to go apologize to Rinoa; which is flagrantly petty and unprofessional.

You see I like this. Quistis starts off as the authority figure of the game early doors before quickly crumbling when things get tough. Eventually she seems relieved to have the pressures taken away from her as she settles into a supportive role.

In comparison you have Zell. He starts off like a complete disaster and reaches a crisis point when getting things wrong at Timber. However, from this point he starts to grow, eventually coming into his own as a confident second in command to Squall. Take him to the Deep Sea Research lab or leave him in charge of the defense of Esther. A great journey.

It plays out amongst all the characters this way where their end point is resolving whatever childhood traits they had back at the orphanage.
 
You see I like this. Quistis starts off as the authority figure of the game early doors before quickly crumbling when things get tough. Eventually she seems relieved to have the pressures taken away from her as she settles into a supportive role.

In comparison you have Zell. He starts off like a complete disaster and reaches a crisis point when getting things wrong at Timber. However, from this point he starts to grow, eventually coming into his own as a confident second in command to Squall. Take him to the Deep Sea Research lab or leave him in charge of the defense of Esther. A great journey.

It plays out amongst all the characters this way where their end point is resolving whatever childhood traits they had back at the orphanage.

My issue is she just kinda cedes the lead to Squall in the assassination mission (I forget if that's what she does in Timber as well), and it's not really commented on, at least so far. I get that she afraid of letting everyone down, but that hasn't really been conveyed much yet.
 
Has anyone played ff8 on vita? I ask cuz I just started but there's some lag in the game. In menu but also during conversations I'll press X and the game sorta hangs.

Anyone have a fix for this? It's kinda annoying.
 

Jennipeg

Member
My issue is she just kinda cedes the lead to Squall in the assassination mission (I forget if that's what she does in Timber as well), and it's not really commented on, at least so far. I get that she afraid of letting everyone down, but that hasn't really been conveyed much yet.

Cid names Squall leader before they leave for the Timber mission, she joins them there and is below Squall on that mission as per Cid's orders. She's just a regular SeeD at this point and has no superiority over him. She's quite happy to do it, she is good at giving advice and seems more confident doing it.
 
Cid names Squall leader before they leave for the Timber mission, she joins them there and is below Squall on that mission as per Cid's orders. She's just a regular SeeD at this point and has no superiority over him. She's quite happy to do it, she is good at giving advice and seems more confident doing it.


I figured she'd still have seniority over him. Plus while I don't doubt that Squall cares for his squad mates, his taciturn attitude kinda leads to poor communication/conflict resolution skills that sort of make him not the best fit as leader.

Though I suppose it could be that she spent her year after graduation as a teacher/proctor instead of actually working in the field. Sort of a "Those who can't do SeeD missions, teach SeeD missions" type deal.

Also I love that even in the midst of a civil war SeeD still finds the time and capital to cut me a paycheck.
 
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