Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

shivan128

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Welcome to the Japanese niche games deals and discussion thread!  Feel free to talk about local and import Japanese games here.  Our goal is to maintain a thread dedicated to active deals on niche games including RPGs, Visual Novels (VN), Shoot'em ups (Shmups), Musou, etc.  Also maintained are pre-orders for standard, limited and collector's edition games with key release dates provided.

I've wikified the thread to make it more friendly and open to others that can actively update with important information. You can find the wiki post directly below this one.

NOTE:  Please, leave the censorship discussion away from this thread.  It's common for japanese games to have questionable content outside of the country.  We want to keep discussions to the game itself and not about cultural/societal tolerance.

A message from Thorbahn:

Our CAG Japanese Niche Games Thread also has a community on PS4, where you can interact and game with other members of the thread.

Our moderators are: Draekon, Las_Hole, and Waffleswanton

You can basically friend any of our members, or any moderator, and you will be able to request to join the community under "Communities friends are in" tab, and a mod will approve your request.

You can also leave your PSN ID in the thread, saying you want to join, and we can invite you directly as well.

As always, have fun and enjoy your stay!

 
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Mistover impressions after 1 expedition after 45 minutes. I didn't like this one. I usually love dungeon crawlers but enemies felt spongy and battles were very repetitive already. It also doesn't feel like Darkest Dungeon, although it looks like it. Feels like a cross between Mystery Dungeon type games along with positional battles like Darkest Dungeon for battles. I feel stuff like Etrian Odyssey is just better than this. I usually love these type of games, but just was not impressed. Oh well I'll let it be mist over later. 6.5/10

 
nitrosmob said:
Mistover impressions after 1 expedition after 45 minutes. I didn't like this one. I usually love dungeon crawlers but enemies felt spongy and battles were very repetitive already. It also doesn't feel like Darkest Dungeon, although it looks like it. Feels like a cross between Mystery Dungeon type games along with positional battles like Darkest Dungeon for battles. I feel stuff like Etrian Odyssey is just better than this. I usually love these type of games, but just was not impressed. Oh well I'll let it be mist over later. 6.5/10
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Thanks for the impressions, I think I was already going to pass but this helps cement that. The closer I looked the more it didn't look like it was for me. I don't think it's ever been on a steep discount either, which is odd. For Steam, the historical low looks like have been 30% off 2 years ago and it looks like they aren't going to do a last minute sale before it's removed either.

 
SO6-Release-Date-Ann_06-29-22-1280x720.jpg


Star Ocean: The Divine Forces launches October 27th

Star Ocean: The Divine Force Release Date Revealed

https://twitter.com/StarOcean/status/1542145178877698050

 
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Soma_Cruz said:
Also question for anyone who might know, can I jump right into Labyrinth of Galleria or should I play Refrain first?
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I don't know definitively, but the story in the first one ended well enough, and it looks like a different character in the second. It's unlikely they're connected outside of easter eggs.

 
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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition pre-orders are tomorrow, June 30th. No time specified, same as last time. Order limit dropped from 2 to 1 this time.

 
gospelman said:
:switch: Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE is clearanced out at $29.97 at GS.
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Nice... nothing in stock locally so I ordered for shipping. The last time I ordered a bunch of new games from GS, a majority of them arrived as guts so was really hoping to avoid anything I couldn't get from a local store.

 
If you don’t want to play GameStop Roulette for a sealed copy of Tokyo Mirage, Target will price match on chat
Best Buy will do it too, but their chat takes forever

 
The Nintendo Monkey's Paw granted the wish of making it have the same content as the Japanese release, but in this case it just means Japan also has the North American Wii U censored version on Switch, too. lol

 
I gave the Live A Live demo a try last night.  Overall quite basic for the sample they gave though I did like it overall.   I had decided not to get it but if it were half price... maybe I'd change my mind.

 
For the record- there's no physical PS4/5 release for either Chrono Cross Remaster or FFIX Remaster right? I know FFVIII Remaster got a PS4 release in Asia and then a PAL release, after the physical release on the NS so I figured I'd ask. 

Would rather play these games on a PS control due to preferred controller, better AV experience, and hella faster. 

 
Vinny said:
For the record- there's no physical PS4/5 release for either Chrono Cross Remaster or FFIX Remaster right? I know FFVIII Remaster got a PS4 release in Asia and then a PAL release, after the physical release on the NS so I figured I'd ask.

Would rather play these games on a PS control due to preferred controller, better AV experience, and hella faster.
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That is correct, unfortunately. I've also been hoping for something along those lines, but nada.

 
shadowysea07 said:
yes it's prettymuch copy pasted port. With some enhancements.
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BoxPizzaBox said:
The Nintendo Monkey's Paw granted the wish of making it have the same content as the Japanese release, but in this case it just means Japan also has the North American Wii U censored version on Switch, too. lol
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Thanks. Means I'll just stick with the Wii U version.
 
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Shiravune announced some VNS. These 5 supposedly are part of 13 releases still to be released in 2022. I'll give a slight synopsis along with my own interest in the games. Expect more throughout the weekend from other companies as Anime-Expo is going on. Each announcement has a linked NSFW VNDB page.

Dawn of Kagura: Maika’s Story – The Dragon’s Wrath

Great Deceiver

HimeYoku: A Sacrifice of Lust and Grace

Revenge of the Orcs: Flag of Conquest

TAMAKAGURA: Tales of Turmoil

Dawn of Kagura from Debo no Su Seisakusho is about a shrine maiden named Maika and youkai going berserk and she must go to battle. This looks like some weird tentacle nukige, which I usually don't play.

Great Deceiver from elf & Empress stars the Mistress from the game Starless (released from JAST USA). This is a sequel to that game starring Mamiya Marie who is going to help manage a fitness club or something and goes to training up the MC. I'm not a huge fan of the Empress games, and quit playing the original, so this will be a pass.

Himeyoku from Escu:de is about the MC taking over a kingdom and he has no love for it so he takes his revenge on the princess. I don't like revenge games much, so this is a pass.

Revenge of the Orcs from Dieselmine is about a princess knight, elf and warrior who are are going and demolishing everything. A lone orc remains and someone says you want revenge and it's a tale of revenge. I don't like these stories, so this is a pass.

Tamakagura from Debo no Su Seisakusho is about a main character and a priestess who are exorcists and fight yokai. They are joined by another priestess and this is their story. I'm likely to not play this either as it's likely a tentacle nukige.

Not really my type of announcements, but I hope something in the rest of the 13 left for this year is something I want to play.

 
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https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1543415106863652864

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aaUjtExEw0&feature=emb_title

 
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Chaos;Head NOAH and Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp are getting Steam releases also. Chaos;Head releases on October 7th and Danganronpa S is releasing July 21st.

 
Aksys had a boatload of anime-expo announcements. First Piofiore Episodio 1926 is being pushed up to September 8th, 2022. Trailers are all below:

Death Mark 2 coming out in 2023 for the Switch and PS4.

Inescapable is from Dream Loop games and has bunch of contestants in a contest and whoever survives till the end gets $500,000. It will explore how far humans are capable of going and is inspired by Danganronpa. Coming out PS4/5, Xbox, Switch, and PC in 2023.

Norn9: Var Commons & Norn 9 -Last Era are coming to the Switch in 2023. These are otome games. The first one came out for Vita, and the second is a fan disk.

Radiant Tale is an otome game releasing for Switch in 2023. The mc is a girl who wishes for a more eventful life. A group called CIRCUS comes to meet her and asks her to help produce their show.

Shuuen no Virche ~ErroR: Salvation is coming to Switch in 2023. It has a country cursed where people die by 25. Our MC girl hastens up those around her dying and is going to commit suicide. She decides not to when she meets the Watchmen of Death. It is an otome game.

Sounds like a lot of neat stuff and I will scoop up all the otome games (don't miss out on Norn9 for sure pretty cool) and the Danganronpa inspired game. I like the idea of Death Mark, but haven't played any of the games yet.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZxRotGSSAw[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZIuIlh0dlc[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL3UuGuyBxA[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=too4eCkDdzM[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT64DCcCmbc[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWB9vwJc7jg[/media]

 
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nitrosmob said:
Aksys had a boatload of anime-expo announcements. First Piofiore Episodio 1926 is being pushed up to September 8th, 2022. Trailers are all below:

Death Mark 2 coming out in 2023 for the Switch and PS4.

Inescapable is from Dream Loop games and has bunch of contests in a contest and whoever survives till the end gets $500,000. It will explore how far humans are capable of going and is inspired by Danganronpa. Coming out PS4/5, Xbox, Switch, and PC in 2023.

Norn9: Var Commons & Norn 9 -Last Era are coming to the Switch in 2023. These are otome games. The first one came out for Vita, but the second is a fan disk.

Radiant Tale is an otome game releasing for Switch in 2023. The mc is a girl who wishes for a more eventful life. A group called CIRCUS comes to meet her and asks her to help produce their show.

Shuuen no Virche ~ErroR: Salvation is coming to Switch in 2023. It has a country cursed where people die by 25. Our MC girl hastens up those around her dying and is going to commit suicide. She decides not to when she meets the Watchmen of Death. It is an otome game.

Sounds like a lot of neat stuff and I will scoop up all the otome games (don't miss out on Norn9 for sure pretty cool) and the Danganronpa inspired game. I like the idea of Death Mark, but haven't played any of the games yet.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZxRotGSSAw[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZIuIlh0dlc[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL3UuGuyBxA[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=too4eCkDdzM[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT64DCcCmbc[/media]
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWB9vwJc7jg[/media]
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Lol, you somehow missed mentioning Pups& Purrs Pet Shop (guess the hospital game sold ok?)

Most excited for Radiant Tale, but will be picking up the other otome as well along with Inescapable.

 
https://twitter.com/KaroshiMyriad/status/1543736205044756481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1543738223356420096%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=

 
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It stinks that a bunch of visual novels are skipping the PS ecosystem now, but between Sony cracking down with content censorship and the lack of a solid portable option (RIP Vita) for a genre that really benefits from portability I can't blame them.

Glad we're getting Anonymous;Code and Death Mark 2, at least. The SciAdv series are some of my favorite VNs and I really enjoyed the Japanese horror themes from the original Death Mark. Day one pickups for me.

 
Tothoro said:
It stinks that a bunch of visual novels are skipping the PS ecosystem now, but between Sony cracking down with content censorship and the lack of a solid portable option (RIP Vita) for a genre that really benefits from portability I can't blame them.

Glad we're getting Anonymous;Code and Death Mark 2, at least. The SciAdv series are some of my favorite VNs and I really enjoyed the Japanese horror themes from the original Death Mark. Day one pickups for me.
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the censorship and gating are definitely 2 of the bigger factors for sure. Portability is likely the biggest though like you also mentioned. Whole reason I picked up re zero on the switch was for the portability.

 
Another mass amount of announcements. I'm splitting JAST USA along with Mangagamer. I will do one more for Sekai/Denpasoft/Others to keep the posts shorter. The links are NSFW VNBD entries. I'm also giving a quick synopsis and my thoughts as well.

Mangagamer announcements:

Lkyt.

Rance 03

JAST USA Anime-Expo announcements:

Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era

Gore Screaming Show

Inyochu: Insects of Insemination

Mamono Musume: Spider & Harpy & Cyclops

Tokyo Hero Project

Tokyo Necro

Lykt. from parade is a dark BL VN where every 1000 years the Dark Reign rises and pushes forth to destroy humanity. The mc along with another are forced to defend against this threat. Will their friendship and love prevail? This is a little different looking than the usual BL stuff, but I usually don't read them, unless they have a very good story. I'll wait for reviews about the story before thinking of buying this one.

Rance 03 by Alice Soft is another Rance game and is based on the remake version. Rance goes on adventures and Mangagamer are slow at translating them. I am way behind on these games, but usually buy them to support the localizing, and Alice Soft games are usually pretty decent.

Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era is an ero RPG from Ninetail (same developer as the Venus Blood series) where there is a magic city and they find out beneath them are ruins of a fallen civilization with advanced technology. The main character and others go into the ruins to find stuff. This looks OK, and I'd likely buy it on release.

Gore Screaming Show from Black Cyc is an eroguro where the mc Kyouji returns home and rekindles the friendships of ladies he once knew and stays with his aunt. His aunt is into the occult and he helps her figure out the mysteries of the island. He eventually meets a strange young girl who brings destruction in her wake. This one is a classic and seems very interesting. I'm usually not into the gore filled VNs, but I'll take a chance on it, to see if it rises above that. Purchasing on release.

Inyochu: Insects of Insemination from Tinkerbell where the MC starts up a demon hunter company. One of his associates goes to investigate a school and they lose communication with her. He and another co-worker decided to pose as students in this school, and they find out there is a lot more being hidden in this small town. I'm really not into nukige with a lot of tentacles, so this is a pass for me.

Mamono Musume: Spider & Harpy & Cyclops from Cyclades is the third running in this monster series. In this one a spider princess gets bored and summons a human into her home. It's a one way portal so he is forced to live with them and must live with one of the 3 girls. I like monster girls and this looks like a fun cute nukige which I'll buy on release. It is actually releasing July 25th, 2022 and has a 10% discount at the JAST USA Store(NSFW).

Tokyo Hero Project from ALcot takes place 2 years after the creation of a defense project with cosplayers to keep the order. Little do people know that this society fights the secret evil society Black Outsiders. The mc misses a part time job interview because of one of the scuffles with this society. He ends up getting a tip for another job, and little does he know that it will be working for the Black Outsiders. This is the same creators as Onigokko! and that was one of my favorites released that year. These games have great graphics, fun stories and just are a good time. Easy buy on release.

Tokyo Necro from Nitro+ is a futuristic story where two main characters use their martial arts to defeat necromancers and their undead. One day they find a mysterious girl who doesn't remember anything but her name and needs protection from necromancers. Nitro+ games are must buys and this looks interesting.

Overall an excellent showing from JAST USA. Lots of different genres with some coming from some of my favorite companies. Only one is a no play for me, which is better than usual for them. Mangagamer had a weak showing for me, but more Rance games are never bad. I just wish they would get more Da Capo or something.

 
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18 minutes of One Piece Odyssey gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8_uSWqWXmI

I'm glad I watched this because it tempered my expectations and changed this from day-one-at-$40-thanks-to-Target-B2G1 to wait-for-$20-on-sale for me. Something about Luffy's slow running and constant pick-up-item animations seems...off to me. I'm glad the turn-based combat at least looks interesting.

 
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Here are Denpasoft/Sekai Project and others Anime-Expo announcements. The announcements are generally NSFW VNDB links.

Denpasoft announcements:

NTR Mousou sareru Fujiki-san Denpasoft are publishing this and not much is know other than NTR.

4 3DCG titles from Blue-Arrow. These are pretty much 3D sex games and I don't play these. List below:

Chinatsu’s Summer Vacation
Hiiragi’s Special Lesson
Succubus Shelly
Succubus Shelly2
 
Sekai Project Announcements:
 
A Light in the Dark for PC/PS4 Fall 2022 with Japanese dub. This is a pretty bleak VN that's been out on PC for a while.
Amatsutsumi releasing July 29th, 2022!
Hamidashi Creative
HAPPY SAIN†SHEOL
Inupara: Dog’s Paradise
Nekopara After: La Vraie Famille
Nie no Hakoniwa
Parfait Remake
Raspberry Cube
Watamari – A Match Made in Heaven Part 1
 
Hamidashi Creative from Madosoft (Wagama High Spec...where is my fan disk!) is about an MC who gets lucky when the former student council president leaves and he is selected the new student council president by lottery. He is unlucky and must establish his student council. Looks very light, but will be enjoyable. Purchase on release.
 
HAPPY SAIN† SHEOL from 122px no Meido where 2000 years before a disaster corrupted the land. A temple was established to aid those who still wanted to live in this dead land. The MC is a trainee priest there enduring hardship and one day 6 ordinary girls appear and he remembers one he saw in a vision. It looks interesting, though I'm not a huge fan of the art. Still probably a buy on release.
 
Inupara: Dog’s Paradise from NEKO WORKs takes place in world where a dog groomer is transported somewhere and the dogs and others he knew become humanoid dogs. He is well trained, but has to deal with all these new dogs and his coddling sister. It's a spinoff from Nekopara and looks aight. I'm way behind on these games, but they're decent fun. Buy on release likely.
 
Nekopara After: La Vraie Famille from NEKO Works takes place after Nekopara 4 and has another cat girl with one being his sister from the series and the cat girl introduced in volume 4. Fraise the catgirl has feelings for the MC, but is not sure how to show them, so she employs the MC's sister who also harbors feelings for him. Hilarity ensues I'm sure. I'm way behind of these, so I'll likely pass until I catch up, but it looks like more of the same.
 
Nie no Hakoniwa from Chatte Noire, which is NEKO WORKs sister brand, has a story about an oppressed minority who eventually get a mysterious box from an outsider, which helps them overthrow their oppressors. Years later there are now 7 nobles houses and are prosperous. All of them but one produce an heir, so they get an outsider to join one of them. They raise him with another eldest daughter and they are to marry, but on the day of their marriage a nightmare is born. It looks interesting, so I'd buy it on release.
 
Parfait Remake from Entergram has an MC who saw Famille, a café his diseased brother go up in smoke. He abandons the dream of running it, but gets a second chance when a phone call says there is a space in the mall, and he can open there. The main issue of this is he has to leave college, some of the former works don't want to come back, and they have a competition in the mall named Curio, which was based off of Famille. I'm sure there is some drama, some fun, and other things. This is a remake of an older visual novel. It looks fun and I will buy on release.
 
Raspberry Cube is also from Madosoft (where's my fan disk!) and is about a guy who has a mantra for helping others. He comes back to his town and helps others at his school, but meets Ruri the class president who he chases after and ends up waist deep in dirt. Ruri takes a picture of this predicament and he wonders if she has a grudge against him. Another likely light moege with silly things. I like these, so I'll buy it on release.
 
Watamari – A Match Made in Heaven Part 1 from Kuro Irodoru Yomiji has the main character as an agent infiltrating an all girl's school to investigate. The opening ceremony has students chosen by the zodiac and she is chosen as the Virgo representative. She wonders why and what it will lead to. I generally play only a few Yuri game, but this one could be interesting. Likely a buy on sale game.
 
Other announcements:

Cardfight!! Vanguard: Dear Days coming out digitally for PC and Switch November 17, 2022. This features over a 1000 cards and a story about a strong willed girl. I love these games and will get it for PC.

Chinkamo Twins from Lovelab released July 2nd, 2022 and has a 15% launch discount. It's available at places like Denpasoft (NSFW) and Mangagamer (NSFW). This looks like a silly nukige, which could be fun.

Overall Sekai Project/Denpasoft had a load of announcements and most were good. I'm not a fan of the only Denpasoft announcements, but the rest sound like fun visual novels. I'm also excited for Cardfight!! Vanguard: Dear Days, as I like playing single player card games like the Yu-gi-oh ones.

 
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New Utawarerumono game Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten gameplay video. It release September 8, 2022 for PC. It is coming to PS4/PS5 in Japan, but only this one is getting localized so far.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TehTW1c8aGE[/media]

 
If it doesn't I'm guessing we'll be able to import an english copy, like SRW 30 and such. I still need to play the two Utawareumono games I have. 

 
Soma_Cruz said:
If it doesn't I'm guessing we'll be able to import an english copy, like SRW 30 and such. I still need to play the two Utawareumono games I have.
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Since this is a prequel you'd probably be better off playing it before those 2 to avoid a number of things that happen in the later games plot wise.

Also going by that video munechika is a mage? Weird given she was a hand to hand physical combat type in mask of deception and mask of truth. Though this may be before she obtained her mask and became one of the 4 great pillars along with oshtor and mikazuchi and varai. Mikazuchi still uses the same sword he had in the other games so he's still seemingly the same. Oshtor as well.

 
https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1544472530341113856

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1544473504942174208

 
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Soul Calibur 2 HD Online was delisted from Xbox last week. Everybody was freaking out over the Persona 3/4/5 news for Switch and it kinda flew under the radar. It's still on various sites selling the code card for $19.99. Soul Calibur 1 will not work if you buy it.

 
GeeWiz said:
I remember people talking about Disgaea 6 a while back and I've been thinking about getting it for PS5 recently. Is it worth it?
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Might depend on why you play Disgaea games. Virtually everyone admits that 6 offers fewer options and less post-game stuff than the last couple of games (largely because they redid the graphics engine and cut some things), so if you play Disgaea for the postgame grind, you'd be better off going with 4 or 5. It remains a good game and I enjoyed the characters/story.

 
bappt said:
Soul Calibur 2 HD Online was delisted from Xbox last week. Everybody was freaking out over the Persona 3/4/5 news for Switch and it kinda flew under the radar. It's still on various sites selling the code card for $19.99. Soul Calibur 1 will not work if you buy it.
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It was delisted back in May

https://twitter.com/JonComms/status/1529564249290317824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1529564249290317824%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=

 
As posted on the CAG Twitter, Best Buy is offering a steelbook with Valkyrie Elysium:

https://twitter.com/videogamedeals/status/1545057536864165895

 
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62t said:
It was delisted back in May

https://twitter.com/JonComms/status/1529564249290317824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1529564249290317824%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=
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As I said, under the radar.

 
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