Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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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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IceyD said:
Your JRPG releases for April 2021:

- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV (Switch)
- SaGa Frontier Remastered
- Atelier Mysterious Trilogy Deluxe Pack
- Nier Replicant Ver.1.22474487139...
- Death end re;Quest (Switch)
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May not fall into everyone's definition of JRPG, but Poison Control is an April release, too. :D

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
It isn't discounted, but Iffy's Online Store still has copies:

https://www.iffysonlinestore.com/death-end-request-2-SE/

I'm really surprised to see Blue Reflection's price shoot up.

I enjoyed that game a good amount and got the platinum.

Sometimes you just wanna be a schoolgirl and rock out to that battle theme ya know
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Because of the map issues and it being sub only (and the fanservice made me a bit uncomfortable) I was going to wait for a discount on blue reflection. But then it vanished and I was never able to get a copy. Maybe I'll get lucky they'll bundle it with the second game.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
May not fall into everyone's definition of JRPG, but Poison Control is an April release, too. :D
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IceyD said:
Good catch! Looks great.
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I thought that was already out. As I swear I remember it being part of the buy 2 get 1 free sale at target a couple months back. Unless that was just to preorder it.

Anywho speaking of games that went out of stock and the price surged like blue reflection. As a heads up Fairy tail nintendo switch is back in stock on gamestops website. They must have flipped the stock checker again or something. Much like blue reflection or Ys 8 it goes for a premium even cart only. Ordered 2 so I can take my chances on rolling a complete copy. Might order some more since if my luck with Ys 8 is anything to go buy I'll need to get like 11 of them just to score one complete copy or piece meal one together.

 
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BoxPizzaBox said:
Some digital only niche games that come to mind people may be interested in considering. Not an exhaustive list, but stuff I noticed in my own collection:
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My recommendation is to not sleep on PS1/PS2 classics. Lot of niche Japanese games that are expensive for physical versions but cheap on there. I know piracy for those systems is extremely easy but I like legally buying things and devs/publishers actually get the money in this case anyway.

I hadn't bought everything I wanted because games were going on sale all the time until Sony killed PS3/vita sales last year. Been buying the ones I really want since then, but hadn't picked up everything yet.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
https://www.siliconera.com/ps3-vita-and-psp-playstation-stores-will-close-in-july-and-august-2021/

It's nice that the download list will still work, even if that thing is atrocious on Vita. Have fun scrolling through years of every purchase on every platform (oh, and all your PS+ games getting put at the top of the list if that renews) to get to old Vita purchases.

I think I have pretty much ever digital only game for those platforms I want already, but I do need to go through and see if I want to grab any DLC. I like the OP weapons and armor in Neptunia games, so maybe something like that for the Superdimenion Neptune vs Sega Hard Girls crossover game.

Some digital only niche games that come to mind people may be interested in considering. Not an exhaustive list, but stuff I noticed in my own collection:

PS3:

Eiyuu Senki (also has enhanced Steam releases)

Battle Princess of Arcadias

Darkstalkers Resurrection (also on Xbox 360)

Legasista

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls (also on Steam)

Class of Heroes 2G (physical copies were extremely limited)

Lots of PS2 Classics games.

PSP:

Black Rock Shooter

Brandish: Dark Revenant

Summon Night 5 (physical copies were extremely limited)

Vita:

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3

Monster Monpiece (also on Steam with the censorship removed)

A.W. Phoenix Festa was digital only, but has already been delisted (asia English versions exist)

Senran Kagura Bon Appetit (and expansion DLC)[Also on Steam], Ray Gigant (also on Steam) had LRG releases, but were digital only prior to that.

Not much else is coming to mind, most of my games are physical. I like costume DLC so I'll want to grab some for old Dynasty Warriors games I haven't played yet maybe. Dungeon Travelers 2 is pretty tough and has some DLC that can help / extra characters.

The whole announcement is kind of making me feel more positively about Steam, weirdly. The platform has come a long way for niche game fans as Sony seems to care less (just opinions). I've always kind of liked consoles and physical media, and will probably continue to like physical media but I am liking Steam more and more.
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Summon night 5 wise you can still buy copies from vgpca I think. edit Nevermind I was thinking of summon night 6 apparently. so wrong game and platform.

 
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Zenax[zd] said:
My recommendation is to not sleep on PS1/PS2 classics. Lot of niche Japanese games that are expensive for physical versions but cheap on there. I know piracy for those systems is extremely easy but I like legally buying things and devs/publishers actually get the money in this case anyway.

I hadn't bought everything I wanted because games were going on sale all the time until Sony killed PS3/vita sales last year. Been buying the ones I really want since then, but hadn't picked up everything yet.
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I very recently modded my PSP so that I could add some emulators to it, though one side benefit I really love is the ability to turn any PS1 game into a "PS1 Classic" and run it on the PSP, regardless of whether it was officially released as one or not. I've added all my PS1 games to my PSP and it's great.

Worth noting that you can do this on Vita, too. Presumably PS3 as well, but I don't know anything about modding PS3s.

 
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FlawlesslyFatal said:
A single "new" copy of Death End Re;Quest 2 popped up online at GS for $30. I had to grab it. For some reason Iffy didn't print a whole lot of this game, already sold out everywhere so price could start shooting up.

Sent from my SM-N970U1 using Tapatalk
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IFFY's games are typically low-print, but they aren't as desirable as Koei-Tecmo or NISA's typically so the prices don't inflate as badly outside of stuff like their LRG distros or Vita stuff.

 
Souffrir said:
I very recently modded my PSP so that I could add some emulators to it, though one side benefit I really love is the ability to turn any PS1 game into a "PS1 Classic" and run it on the PSP, regardless of whether it was officially released as one or not. I've added all my PS1 games to my PSP and it's great.

Worth noting that you can do this on Vita, too. Presumably PS3 as well, but I don't know anything about modding PS3s.
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I forgot why I modded my Vita 1000. Something broke on it so I had to replace it, so I modded the broken one. Similar thing with my PSP. I broke the screen or something, so I modded it to rip my UMD games to play on a PSP Go. I guess the Wii as well, only modded so I could play The Last Story at faster than 3 fps cause it has one of the crappy drives that had issues with dual layer or whatever it was.

I guess the point is, I guess I only ever bother to mod things when I have to.

 
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I'm only going to buy a game if it's one I want to play. Whether or not it's scarce just doesnt factor into my equation. I'm not buying games as an "investment." If a game I own happens to go up in price, great, but that's a collateral consequence of me picking up titles I want to play.

There are a few PS4 titles that were released fairly recently that seem to have gone OOS. Sounds like this may be tied to the Suez Canal jam, which finally got resolved today. Hope that replenishes supply over the next few weeks.
 
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Don't know if anybody cares but the Judge Eyes PS5 remaster is $17 in Japan for some reason which is weird because it's a pre-order PS5 game and you know....Japan.

 
Mattiful-Joe said:
I'm only going to buy a game if it's one I want to play. Whether or not it's scarce just doesnt factor into my equation.
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I generally agree, as I view gaming as a form of "mental break" from actual profit/work. But not everyone does, and that's fine for them I guess. I mean, several threads on this forum are filled with people focused on collecting bing rewards with their gaming time.

An exception is if I find out something is becoming scare, I will sometimes grab it in the event that it might become something I really enjoy in the future. For example, I'm really glad I bought the Utawarerumono games back when I knew nothing about them. But now I really enjoy them and am happy I have copies because they are scarce / delisted.

I'm about 60% through Death end Request 2 on steam. I am not liking it as much as I thought I would. I guess I was expecting them to improve or polish up the battle gameplay. And it's just as rough, if not rougher, than the first title. Audio is also worse across the board. But who knows, hopefully the last part of the game is amazing.

 
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Playing Rise, kinda funny how awhile back we were talking about how characters in the series never have names and now in Rise they've decided to give I think every single NPC in the game a name. What makes it even funnier to me is that this game is very much in the vein of Generations where there is almost no story whatsoever, so a very weird time to give everyone a name. There is like a cutscene or two each time you move up a quest tier but otherwise you're just chaining hunts back to back.

I completely finished every village quest in around 10 hours which is pretty dang fast compared to any of the other games. That is just low rank questing mind you, so it's not like I am done with the game or anything. But I wasn't expecting that since the trailers made it seem like the story would be told in a similar way as it was in World.

 
I don’t have a Switch, so...

Honestly, even if I did I’d probably wait on the G version. I couldn’t wait on World because finally MonHun on a console more powerful than a modern toaster, but now that I’ve had that, I can wait it out.
 
The Atelier Ryza preorder bonuses are being re-listed as a celebration for 1 million sales.

https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/atelier/ryza2/million.html

The Summer Adventure and Divermento's Embrace costume (That unlocks a brief moment between Ryza and Klaudia) are coming to all platforms.

The Puni Shirt (a Japanese exclusive costume) is listed as PS4/Switch only in Japan

Another DLC for Ryza 2 will be announced in a live stream on the 31st in Japan (8:30 AM March 31st Eastern)

 
^ There's also 15-20% discounts on Atelier games on the Humble store right now.  Considering buying Ryza 2 Ultimate for $70.39 since I'm guessing the season pass will never be a reasonable price.

 
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Looks like the Ryza sale is also going to hit Playstation. The Japanese focused stream is 12 hours from now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZYL7Q9anOA

 
It would appear Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists is the only game from the newer PS4 games that I am missing. Not really sure if that is a good or bad thing. Don't every hear anything about it and it never seems to go on sale. 

 
Has anyone heard any updates from PA on UnMetal (Vita). I thought I remembered it saying originally that it would be releasing in March but maybe I'm mistaken
 
Photophonic said:
It would appear Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists is the only game from the newer PS4 games that I am missing. Not really sure if that is a good or bad thing. Don't every hear anything about it and it never seems to go on sale.
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It's a town building game with the alchemists from all games through Lydie & Suelle showing up. There's a secondary goal of reaching some magic tree, but the exploration is only done one day a week which is also the only time to talk to the alchemists.

 
Honestly the only one I'm familiar with is Gourmet Glutton. I think I read like 3 volumes back in the day. It was pretty good and that is most of the value in the bundle. Honestly Bikings looks like a rip off of Yowamushi Pedal, but I might get this bundle. I like to support these manga bundles although this one looks a little mixed. Honestly I can read manga very quickly so I don't see a reason why I wouldn't want to read these. I would at least read the Gourmet Glutton, Jose Rizal and A Long Stay. Honestly some of these very short 50-60 page manga can have a very lasting effect. I've read a bunch of shorts and like short stories such as from Shintaro Kago, Junji Ito, etc... Gives a lot of fun. I'm not much of a shounen reader so I can't recommend those, but I do read a bunch of shojou, horror and sc-fi.

 
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Sold my copy of Blue Reflection for over $200.  Not sure if I want to buy the digital for $30 during this sale or not.  Do the KT digital games ever go for more than 50% off?

 
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bee01 said:
Sold my copy of Blue Reflection for over $200. Not sure if I want to buy the digital for $30 during this sale or not. Do the KT digital games ever go for more than 50% off?
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The lowest Mysterious got was $23.99 per title and now they're re-releasing them for $40 each. Eventually in physical stores they hit $20 before normalizing to $30 pre-pandemic.

On a more serious note: The Atelier Mysterious games now have a notification on Steam and PSN that they will be delisted on the 22nd (eastern US)

 
bappt said:
The lowest Mysterious got was $23.99 per title and now they're re-releasing them for $40 each. Eventually in physical stores they hit $20 before normalizing to $30 pre-pandemic.

On a more serious note: The Atelier Mysterious games now have a notification on Steam and PSN that they will be delisted on the 22nd (eastern US)
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It appears that's because the DX versions release that day, so they're being replaced:

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4108-CUSA26642_00-MYSTERIOUSDX0000

 
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Gust started re-releasing their PS3 Atelier trilogies as "Plus" versions on Vita with enhanced contents, then released them again on Switch, PC,  and PS4 as "DX" versions. This is the first time the system getting an enhanced re-release had the original available.

If you haven't played the games before the DX version is going to be the better deal, however if you have a Vita copy and want to cross save to a PS4/PS5 you need the original version.

 
Ob baby! Recently a bunch of VN licensors announced new titles on April 1st for some reason. I love VNs and PC ones especially, so let me go through the news.

Mangagamer announced Horny Elves and a Morale Orc from Waffle. These are the company that makes Funbag Fantasy games AKA some of my favorite nukige games ever. Their stories are pretty good (other than 1 of them), and this game sounds ridiculous. An orc is saved by a goddess, but she declares that he must not lay with any elves. Of course there are 2 horny elves out to get him, so hilarity ensues I'm guessing. This is based on a hentai manga. This is easily a must buy.

Mangagamer Blog (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

JAST USA is releasing shota VN Tomgirls of the Mountains: Josou Sanmyaku on 04-09-2021. A guy has bad experiences with women, so he heads somewhere with none. Well he gets some shotas instead! No way in heck I'm getting this, but good if you're into this.

VNDB (NSFW)

NekoNyanSoft announced 5 new titles! This is my birthday wish for sure. I'll go ahead and make a quick paragraph for each of them though one of them is a former Sol Press licensed title (yes!). First is Cafe Stella and the Reapers' Butterflies from Yuzusoft. Their fun Riddle Joker was released last year. Our main character dies tragically in an accident. He opens his eyes and notices he woke up to the same day that he died. He is reliving the situation leading up to it. He sees a death goddess and her cat, and she works with him to get through this situation by opening up a café. Easy purchase on release.

NekoNyanSoft Site (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Next is Sugar * Style from SMEE. The company also did the fun Making * Lovers. The main character gets in major debt after his parents leave him with it and run away in the night. He is looking to change his life, so he enrolls in a specialty school and goes to stay in the Hidamari Dorm. This dorm ends up being a woman's dorm, and they're not happy to see a male staying with them. Hilarity ensues. Easy purchase. I love this companies' games. Fureraba is still my favorite of theirs. Also this game is releasing this month 04-30-2021!

NekoNyanSoft Site (NSFW)

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Next is Koikari: Love for Hire from ASa Project. Our main character has a unique view point where he believes money will make his little sister happy. He works a part time job and plans to work after graduating. His sister knows about this and says, "I wont go to college because my big brother isn't going." He can't put that burden on her, so he must make money quickly. He signs up for a questionable website for human employment rental. Soon he finds himself being a pretend boyfriend for a classmate, a pretend lover and even a brother to a set of twins. Hilarity ensues I'm sure. Sounds entertaining as heck. I haven't played a game from this company, but count me in as purchasing this.

NekoNyanSoft Site (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Next is the one I mentioned was saved The Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeons from Laplacian. This one has the protagonist redeveloping a radio and he starts broadcasting to the artificial pigeons that consume electromagnetic waves. With this radio he hears a broadcast saying, "You will die in three weeks." He uneasily goes into the terminal for the first time in 15 years, as he has bad memories from it. A girl says ,"You won't die, because I have decided so. This is because I want you to look into the sky and smile." I like the art style and am very glad this is getting released. Easy purchase.

NekoNyanSoft Site (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Their last announcement is Aoi Tori from Purple Software. The company also made the quite good Hapymaher and the okay Chrono Clock. This one takes place in an all-girl Christian boarding school. No men are allowed though the main protagonist is attending the school and acting as priest. He has the power to escalate people, and this is increased if the activity is sexual in nature. He supposedly borders on insanity and doesn't leave the academy ever. This may change though, as he meets a vampire at the end of her 100 year journey. I don't know what to think of this one. I will get it since I liked the last game I played from them.

NekoNyanSoft Site (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Sekai Project/Denpasoft announced that they are going to be the ones to officially release feng's visual novels westward. The company went bankrupt sadly, but they got the assets. This includes anime adapted Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka and Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi. This announcement also has the fan disk for Hoshizora, all 3 Seiiki games, Yume to Iro de Dekiteiru, Zutto Mae Kara Joshi Deshita, and Chiisana Kanojo no Serenade. I'm linking the noisy pixel bog with all descriptions. All are easy buys. For fun I'll do a quick description for each one. The anime adaptations were average, and I watched them ages ago. VNDB links for every game NSFW.

Noisy Pixel Blog

Akanerio ni Somaru Saka - Guy ends up finding out his fiancée is at his school. They butt heads from the beginning, and their parents say they should go on a few dates. If it doesn't end up working out they can call the engagement off. Will their school life return to normal?

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi - Our main character goes to stay in an inn and one day falls and kisses a girl. Another girl sees this and declares him the enemy!

Seikii games - Main guy gets a girl in the first two, and the third one has 2 ladies for the price of one. A budget game series.

Yume to Iro de Dekiteiru - The main protagonist and friend have a club that disbands because one girl changes schools, and they lose touch with each other. The girl comes back from said school, and a new club is formed with the same members. They seek to help people with romance issues. They don't have a clue about romance, so they feel they should fall in love themselves.

Zutto Mae Kara Joshi Deshita - Our main character grew up around pushy women. He is not comfortable around ladies, and has only attended all boys schools. He comes back home and joins a co-ed school. He meets a girl who he hung out with when small. He exclaims, "Eh, you weren't a boy!" She lacks confidence, and he now finds her quite beautiful. This is their story.

Chiisana Kanojo no Serenade - Our main protagonist works in a mermaid café. During a mermaid festival he hears a beautiful voice, and sees a girl. She has an accident falling into the ocean. Her clothes are soaked, and he can't have that, so he invites her to the café to dry off. His mother decides to let her stay with them after she visits. He also has a girl he met at the festival transfer into his school, and now his life will never be the same again.

So many announcements around my b-day, so this a gift to me for sure. I will buy them all and I can't wait to read them all other than the shota one.

 
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That is true, but usually the licensors save all these for the anime convention season. I guess with the pandemic, it is different this year.

 
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I hope Iffy has/announces a Neptunia Re;Verse LE soon. I've skipped a lot of their LE's for a while but an LE for the first game/PS5 would be neat to have.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
I hope Iffy has/announces a Neptunia Re;Verse LE soon. I've skipped a lot of their LE's for a while but an LE for the first game/PS5 would be neat to have.
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I thought they would have announced it by now :( I ended up preordering a standard edition, but I'm hoping they make a LE still.

 
Idea Factory LEs are the worst lately. I hate it when CEs don't ship with the game and the CE stuff in the same box. It's like you get the game + a grab bag full of crappy trinkets. I've stopped buying beacause of this.

 
shosaisyu said:
Idea Factory LEs are the worst lately. I hate it when CEs don't ship with the game and the CE stuff in the same box. It's like you get the game + a grab bag full of crappy trinkets. I've stopped buying beacause of this.
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Don't forget the G1 steelbooks, too. No clue why they still use those.

 
If there's a CE for that upcoming Neptunia/Senran crossover, I'll buy that like the sucker I am (just look at my profile pic).

Got my Switch Trails of Cold Steel IV CE on Monday, 4 days before launch. NISA seems to always get me my CEs from them super-early. So, I can't wait to play it once I've gotten through the Crossbell games and the previous 3 Cold Steel games.

...so like, in 2025, I guess.

 
shosaisyu said:
Idea Factory LEs are the worst lately. I hate it when CEs don't ship with the game and the CE stuff in the same box. It's like you get the game + a grab bag full of crappy trinkets. I've stopped buying beacause of this.
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It's the same stuff either way, so personally that doesn't bother me. If you can just buy the game standalone for any CE your options are always "game" or "game plus crappy trinkets".

I like that they sell the leftovers separately sometimes for a reduced price. Sometimes you can get just the extras if you already bought the game during one of their sales for a good price.

Regarding the Steelbook sizing, Steelbook is used as a general term amongst people kind of like Band-Aid is to bandages but Steelbook is actually a trademark/a company. I suspect that by doing a different size they're avoiding having to involve and pay fees to Steelbook? I don't know if Steelbook has any claim to the size via a patent or whatever, as silly as that sounds (though there are Switch size actual Steelbooks too like the No More Heroes ones). All I can see is that they're avoiding making them actual Steelbook®'s for some reason. You may notice they themselves don't call them steelbooks. It's just 'Steel Game Case'.

I get the complaint about uniformity so I'm not dismissing it as invalid, but for myself I don't mind the size. I want a shiny metal box and I get a shiny metal box.

 
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