Author Topic: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)  (Read 427950 times)

Helepolis

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Compared to the 13.5 full game, this is going to be a quick cover up. Well, demos being demos and such. Did I hear a wolf howling? Headless girl?

Touhou 14  - Double Dealing Character DEMO article


Introduction
Double Dealing Character is the name for the 14th danmaku game our one-man-wonder ZUN has been working on. A pleasant surprise for Reitaisai10 visitors as they will be blessed with two Touhou games. As usual, the demo provides only 3 stages and revealing 3 bosses. The game is being sold (or was sold at this point of time) at Reitaisai for 300 Yen. Either way, let us quickly take a look at what ZUN has been working on in secret.


Our three selectable heroines. No extraordinary fashionable clothes here, unlike Marisa in UFO for example.

Gameplay
The game impacts us with a surprise return from Sakuya. While I am sure many of you have already noted this from the CD photo, I will say it here again: Sakuya is playable. A long with Marisa and Reimu, our three girls seem to have head to fly through the stages, fire danmaku, hold spell card battles and then. . . who knows. It is a Demo! Bloody hell!

The girls have two shot types. You've all already heard of the "Dark Spark" or "corrupted weapons". The rebellion of the weapons themselves seem to be very visible when you're using your shottype or spell card. So you can decide: Fight with possessed and 'dark' weapons or stick to your faithful clean and divine weapons. The girls themselves don't change appearance themselves for the shottypes, so people who thought Marisa might be wearing some alternative clothing, sorry to disappoint you.

CharacterNon FocusFocusSpell Card
Reimu (corrupted)Homing amuletsTarget lock GoheiGiant gohei, sweeping in front of Reimu
Reimu (clean)Homing amuletsStraight needlesFantasy Seal
Marisa (corrupted)Laser and magic shotsFlame throwerDark Spark
Marisa (clean)Laser and magic shotsMagic shots and exploding missileMagic Bomb
Sakuya (corrupted)KnivesKnives + delayed homing knives? ? ? ? ?
Sakuya (clean)KnivesKnives + straight green knivesInvincibility and removal of bullets

Above a quick overview of the girl's shot types. Reimu is pretty straight forward and always feels like the more easy to use characters in every game. Her corrupted gohei strongly resembles Imperishable Night, Border team where you summon Ran in Yukari mode who locks on the first target before moving to the next. Useful when the boss is forcing you away from her. Marisa's straight forward shot type makes it difficult to handle bosses if they force you to move. Though her corrupted hakkero's focus mode leaves a burning trail, which does some damage. So you're not always in a loss! And finally Sakuya has an interesting ability where just like Reimu, you summon several knives who lock on target then rush forward to deliver them pain.

Be aware that Reimu's corrupted spell card makes her immense slow. You need to be in front of the boss to deal damage. Reminds me of Youmu's slashing charge shot in 10D. Marisa's flame thrower hakkero has a pretty long range. Sitting at the bottom of the screen, you can keep hitting the boss easily.


Reimu's Gohei being out of control. Look at that beast! / Marisa's corrupted Hakkero, spitting deadly flames. / Dark Spark, the true corrupted form of her fierce magic. Oh my.

The bosses are a fish/mermaid girl by the name 'Wakasagihime', A pretty creepy girl 'Sekibanki' and the howling girl 'Kagerou Imaizumi'. Again the electric guitar is the leading theme for these girls. Interestingly the stages you visit are quite familiar. Just play and see for yourself.


The three bosses from the demo. ------ Wait, did Sekibanki just DETACH her head? ----- We've already been in this place, don't you agree?


Demo impression and conclusion
As a demo, it is hard to gauge the overall impression of a game. So I will be holding my judgement until the full game appears. However, many things can be noted here. ZUN has adapted his graphics again. Small detail such as the spawning animation of bullets or the scattering/vanishing effect seem to be done using different textures. Bosses use a dark, evil looking "charge up" animation giving the game an interesting look. Even when a certain mid-boss appeared using that animation I was surprised. Electric guitars (if I am not mistaking) seem to be the leading instrument during theme songs. Especially fighting the third boss, the lead instrument is clearly an electric guitar. Feels quite energetic and yet another brave move from ZUN to sway from his traditional romantic trumpets. Though those always remain around so fear not.

The demo looks promising so far. ZUN seems to indeed have eliminated any complicated system such as the trance mode in 10D. Basically you're using power, bombs, graze and some other scoring mechanics to play through the game. I am sure the experts among us could explain this part better.

Again, for final judgement, please watch warmly as girls do their best to prepare for the full game.

--Helepolis
« Last Edit: May 27, 2013, 03:51:33 PM by Helepolis »

Tengukami

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2013, 02:08:25 PM »
(Gonna carry over my last post from the previous thread over here, if no one minds.)

I absolutely love the fact that the game rewards you for going unfocused against bosses, and for bopping up over the PoC. If I'm not mistaken, it seems you lose a life and a bomb when you pichun, too, which probably makes up for the way this game shovels green stars at you.

If anyone figures out better how the PoC bonus works, please do share. This game is a lot of fun to play, and I'm for the first time considering trying for High Score runs over at HME. I mean hey, Easy Mode needs representation, too, right?

In conclusion: fun as hell, nicely rewards risk-taking, and WAROUN!

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

ToyoRai

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2013, 02:09:58 PM »
Can some one give me/us a short summary of character's shot types, thank you.

Yeah, Iw as right on the PoC part after checking it out myself.  I guess when the game calls it "Item Get Border Line", I wasn't sure those were the same thing.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 02:26:48 PM by ToyoRai »

Helepolis

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2013, 02:11:02 PM »
Can some one give me/us a short summary of character's shot types, thank you.
Ah I forgot to cover that in my article orz. Hang on.

AnonymousPondScum

Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2013, 02:13:27 PM »
This seems like a good return to form so far. Glad they made it simple---the trance system in TD was interesting but felt more like another button I had to worry about.

Kagerou's a straight-up badass.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 02:17:00 PM by Miffed Myouren Magician »

BT

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #5 on: May 26, 2013, 02:15:00 PM »
There is SO MUCH GRAZE in this game that if grazing is a good scoring factor it's going to overshadow everything else easily.

I think it's possible to safespot~supergraze Cirno completely, or at least her spellcard (I'm assuming the nonspell works the same way). If I'm wrong, it's because you need to be really fast to manage to circle her when she fires those icicles.

Oh, nevermind, it's definitely possible, just really hard.

You can also milk Cirno's nonspell pattern for graze by staying under her right before she shoots the icicles and skedaddling.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 02:37:52 PM by BT »

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2013, 02:19:02 PM »
I'll copy my message here too, with an addition:

->I find it funny that bosses bleed power items if you do them unfocused. Kind of reward for risk type of thing, huh.  And for Marisa-B (Magic Missile I believe that is?) , even if you're focused, as long as you hit the boss, they get you power items at about the rate TD bosses drop divine spirits when you're not close to the boss. Tested, doing so in this game yields nothing regarding this power drop. If it does, it's low enough change to go without me noticing.
->The stage 1 theme's start reminded me of Bad Apple!! , (Edit: And another reminded me of Reincarnation!!!! MIMA IS BACK OMG- *shot*) , but I liked it nontheless.
-> Stages 2 and 3 totally remind me of Story of Eastern Wonderland - The Dullahan (forgot the name >.<) reminds me of Noroiko (SoEW stage 2 midboss) and Kagerou, as someone already said (I think) , of Meira (SoEW stage 2 boss). Personally, I love the referrence there with the final attack being like one of Meira's attacks.

If I'm not mistaken, it's every third time you do PoC with the bomb-limit number of items, instead of bomb fragment, it gives you a life fragment instead. And of course, the 2.0 bonus seems to always give a life fragment. Dem different sound effects, I liek.

Helepolis

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #7 on: May 26, 2013, 02:23:55 PM »
Updated shot type quick overview. Does anybody know the name for Sakuya's corrupted spell card? I think it reads: "Dual Banshee" but a more useful name would be better?

Garlyle

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2013, 02:31:06 PM »
So... what exactly do Sakuya's bombs do?  I mean, Reimu's Fantasy Seal/Gohei swing and Marisa's Dark Spark are obvious, and the new bomb for Marisa(standard) is pretty self-explanatory upon use - it creates a little field thing that transforms bullets into power items.

But the question is, what do Sakuya's bombs even do?  As far as I can tell it just wipes bullets away after a couple seconds and turns them into points or something which is pretty standard but also years weaker than anything else... or am I missing something?

AnonymousPondScum

Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2013, 02:35:55 PM »
Dayumn, but Cirno's sprite looks pugly. :V

Everything else looks solid graphically, though.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 02:38:19 PM by Miffed Myouren Magician »

redlakitu

Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2013, 02:37:34 PM »
My very first reaction to the music in this game was one of disappointment. Now I'm in the Music Room and just can't stop listening to the Stage 1 Boss theme. Incredibly addictive.

BT

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2013, 02:39:06 PM »
Should there be a Talk About Gameplay thread in HME or should everything be dumped into this thread? At least for the time being, since it's going to happen sooner or later.

Tengukami

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #12 on: May 26, 2013, 02:39:22 PM »
If I'm not mistaken, it's every third time you do PoC with the bomb-limit number of items, instead of bomb fragment, it gives you a life fragment instead. And of course, the 2.0 bonus seems to always give a life fragment. Dem different sound effects, I liek.

Yes. Furthermore, what's neat is that this game happens to be perfectly suited to exactly the way I play - hanging out just under the PoC, and bopping up over it every now and then to collect everything because can't see shit, Captain. This even happens during boss fights, if you manage to capture a spellcard and zip over the PoC. Awesome stuff.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #13 on: May 26, 2013, 02:39:33 PM »
So... what exactly do Sakuya's bombs do?  I mean, Reimu's Fantasy Seal/Gohei swing and Marisa's Dark Spark are obvious, and the new bomb for Marisa(standard) is pretty self-explanatory upon use - it creates a little field thing that transforms bullets into power items.

But the question is, what do Sakuya's bombs even do?  As far as I can tell it just wipes bullets away after a couple seconds and turns them into points or something which is pretty standard but also years weaker than anything else... or am I missing something?
Sakuyas corrupted bombs as far as I can tell, activate a cherry border like field ala pcb.
If you get hit it'll then clear the screen, but if you survive it without getting hit you get back 3 bomb stars.
There may or may not be a few frames of invincibility before and after activating it... I can't tell.
Essentially a more op version of Mari C from SA.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 02:43:09 PM by Frog »

Serela

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #14 on: May 26, 2013, 02:51:46 PM »
I played ReimuA and for the first stage couldn't stop going "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS"

It's like she's the grim reaper throwing her homing scythe around from Castlevania or RosenkreuzStilette or something.

Anyway, this game looks pretty cool, and I love the stage 2 and 3 bosses' attacks. I'm really excited for this game.

Also, MarisaB's bomb is... interesting. I'm not entirely sure what it does in terms of damage, but it creates some kind of forcefield that moves up the screen where you can sit to be invincible for a very significant chunk of time; and all enemy bullets that go in turn to power items. And yeah, SakuyaA's bomb is Nitori's Camoflague almost exactly, save for possibly having a nice chunk of invincibility on cast.

I'm not sure how I feel about SakuyaA. Her possessed knives tend to do stupid things like all locking onto a wimpy fairy or two, or attacking the second bosses'... uh... familiars... instead of the boss itself and making me time out a - midboss noncard-. They're pretty good on the third boss though.

MarisaA's flamethrower doesn't seem to have much worry about vertical length like Youmu's gimmick did in TD; it seems nice.

Should probably be noted that Sakuya's unfocused is Spread Knives. And, I'm still not really sure what SakuyaB's bomb exactly does. (I mean, invincibility and removal of bullets, yeah, but more or less all bombs do that) I guess SakuyaB's bomb in PCB pretty much only did that, but it was in exchange for a pretty powerful shot type and the most bombs per life...
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 02:54:59 PM by Serela »
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ToyoRai

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #15 on: May 26, 2013, 03:00:52 PM »
If general discussion is allowed here, so spectulation time:
Since my "new youkais" theory got debunked by making the bosses seem like they have been living here for a while, I have another theory. Everytime boss apears or are charging up an attack, black smoke appears. So would it be possible that this black smoke is what is causing youkais to start attacking? Especially since the new bosses seem to be passive otherwise.

Site note, I find Sekibanki's "burning wire" bullet pattern to be verry cool. Heck, she is porbably my favourite boss of the three. Though I find it weird that she's called rokurokubi even though her ability makes her more like nukekubi (rokurokubi is the one with elastic neck where as nukekubi is the one with detachable floating head).
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 03:05:21 PM by ToyoRai »

FinnKaenbyou

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #16 on: May 26, 2013, 03:06:50 PM »
Updated shot type quick overview. Does anybody know the name for Sakuya's corrupted spell card? I think it reads: "Dual Banshee" but a more useful name would be better?
Pretty sure the translation is 'Silver-Coloured Another Dimension', where Another Dimension is in katakana. Less awkward wording would be something like 'The Silver Otherworld'?

The 'clean' card is Dual Banish, I think.

Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #17 on: May 26, 2013, 03:23:14 PM »
Is it just me, or do the non-spells seem a lot harder than they did in the past in lunatic?

Maiden Synnae ミ☆

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #18 on: May 26, 2013, 03:27:10 PM »
-EDIT-

Nevermind, I managed to find it out.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 03:33:22 PM by Synnae ~★ »

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #19 on: May 26, 2013, 03:29:03 PM »
The Stage 2 Boss theme is SO YS, it's incredible. For me, the music of TD was meh at best, but this one is just either beautiful or outright super awesome. Those electric guitars are very fresh, and... yeah, it's really a lot like Ys. Which is awesome.

Besides this, the unique weapons, the particle effect changes and the weird characters, along with the POC gimmick, I'm in love with all of them. If the final game will continue with this, I'll may have a new favorite.

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #20 on: May 26, 2013, 03:31:02 PM »


can someone tell me what's written on those options? I really need to know.

Look at the tools that the previous games have it's the same thing. (TH11-13) It has something to do with input response.

Gray21oh

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #21 on: May 26, 2013, 03:33:48 PM »


can someone tell me what's written on those options? I really need to know.
They are the input latencies, usually you'd set them to what your computer can handle. It goes from top to bottom Simple > Normal > Automatic > Fast. Its recommended that you have it on automatic.

Maiden Synnae ミ☆

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #22 on: May 26, 2013, 03:35:25 PM »
Sometimes automatic gives me problems while I'm recording, despite my overall good computer. So, it's better to put it as fast to ensure good speeds. But anyway, that's just me.

Thanks for the info!

But anyway... as for my opinion about the game so far:

characters are FUCKING AWESOME

Guitars are FUCKING AWESOME (Especially stage 3 boss' theme <3333)

Flamethrower and dark spark are FUCKING AWESOME!! :getdown:

Seriously, I almost cried... everything is too awesome so far for me and I loved everything about the game. I'd say this has the potential to become my favorite touhou title when the full version is released.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 03:41:26 PM by Synnae ~★ »

Sweetness and love~ ♥

Tengukami

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #23 on: May 26, 2013, 03:45:32 PM »
characters are FUCKING AWESOME

Guitars are FUCKING AWESOME (Especially stage 3 boss' theme <3333)

Flamethrower and dark spark are FUCKING AWESOME!! :getdown:

Seriously, I almost cried... everything is too awesome so far for me and I loved everything about the game. I'd say this has the potential to become my favorite touhou title when the full version is released.

And this is why I've been on these forums for going on 5 years now. There is no Touhou community in Iceland, and trust me, I've tried converting these people. Their bodies are not ready. So in lieu of that, there's nothing that pleases me more than being able to share in the joy of a new release with others here.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

Helepolis

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #24 on: May 26, 2013, 03:50:59 PM »
** pats Ammy on the shoulder **

Do not worry my friend. The number of touhou fans in NL is quite unknown and low as well. I think.

Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #25 on: May 26, 2013, 03:54:53 PM »
I understand that myself.  I live in a tiny town and pretty much all the gamers here are into FPS or Sports games.  I mostly end up playing alone and spending a lot of time on the computer goofing with anything Touhou related.

Sparen

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #26 on: May 26, 2013, 03:56:29 PM »
The game laaaaaaags for me. The graphics are awesome (except for player death, which is sort of seizure-inducing), but I think some of them were overdone, so the game runs at 30 FPS...

Oh yeah, and that 3rd boss's spell is cheap. When the boss moves on the lower half of the screen and rams the player without warning, it's impossible to do the spell blind.

Gray21oh

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #27 on: May 26, 2013, 04:04:00 PM »
Am I the only one who thinks the music is a tad bit of a step backwards from TD? Cause Stage 1's boss, Stage 2 and Stage 3's boss themes are kinda meh to me. :V
But hey everyone can't agree on some subjects, the game play is pretty alright, the auto point gimmick is pretty alright although I hope it doesn't get too brick crushingly hard like SA's graze gimmick. Typing's are pretty interesting (Reimu A is pretty sweet) along with the new characters that appeared.
Overall so far so good, hope it continues to be good in the full version, and I hope I don't look over the tracks yet to come.

FinnKaenbyou

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #28 on: May 26, 2013, 04:18:21 PM »
I suspect I AM the Scottish Touhou scene, pretty much. I think I've bumped into 2 or 3 people in the whole country who know of the series.

Also, an interesting excerpt I found in the MarisaB Scenario:
Quote
Marisa:
A werewolf, huh?...
As if meeting a mermaid in the lake wasn't enough for today,
I had to meet a half-human as well.
I'm not sure about rokurokubi, though...
are they humans from neck down?


Kagerou:
A mermaid in the lake?...
Do you mean Wakasagihime?


Marisa:
Exactly.
Do you know her?


Kagerou:
Somewhat.
Through Youkai Grassroots Network.
Though I also tried to eat her once
by mistake.


Marisa:
Hmm, I see.
So you are planning something, right?
Normally quiet youkai
are secretly gathering...

[Grassroots was a very specific translation, it seems. I had to look up the term, but apparently it's a political phrase.]

This seems to be the first big hint at the source of the problem. Could our villain be a leader stirring up the proletariat into rebellion?

Maiden Synnae ミ☆

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Re: Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ~ Double Dealing Character (Demo)
« Reply #29 on: May 26, 2013, 04:24:18 PM »
Am I the only one who thinks the music is a tad bit of a step backwards from TD?

Yes, you're the only one :V

As for myself, I LOVED the guitars as Zun's instrument of choice this time... and I'd say I prefer the boss themes over the stage themes overall, but the latter is also pretty good.

I don't know... I think those guitars gave the game a "darker tune" something that gives a macabre or sinister feeling... and for me it turned out pretty well. Some innovation is always good, but most of the time they go wrong and move backwards. However, I still think Zun did a step forward instead.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 04:27:08 PM by Synnae ~★ »

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