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As of my freshman year, I will be posting content centered around a certain topic. You can expect my blog posts to feature well-written sentences.
Katana Zero is an 2d side-sidescrolling hack-n-slash platformer video game. It is about a post-war samurai who is hired by an organization to hunt down major criminals in return for a time-stopping drug which the main character is addicted to. The game is available on all consoles and is short enough to complete in one sitting, although DLC is planned for release sometime this year.
The plot is intricate to say the least. Without spoiling the game, the nameless protagonist is forced to slay enemies in return for a drug that was created during the war that led to the destruction and desolation of the city. Without the time-stopping drug, the main character suffers from mental breakdowns and addictive impulses which cause him to hallucinate Throughout the game, the main character becomes more and more addicted to the point where he will act out irrationally and jeopardize the mission should the player choose an option that directly conflicts with his orders. He deals with new characters that both idolize and despise him for his past actions in the war, taking a toll on his mental health. The soundtrack is reminiscent of the neo-punk setting in that it uses many futuristic-sounding instruments such as synths to create electronic dance music and dubstep tracks. The songs vary from level to level, and there is even a level set in a dance club where the music is credited to the DJ of the club on the official soundtrack. The gameplay is typical of action-platformers such as Ninja Gaiden and another indie game known as Neon Abyss with the exception of a sword being the main form of combat instead of guns. Other weapons include grenades and fire cocktails, though they are collectibles in each level and are not integral to the main character's kit. As I mentioned before, the player can make choices that affect the progression of the story. As a result, it is possible to reach an alternate ending by ignoring all of the orders given to you and skipping over the dialogue between you and the psychiatrist. The only demerit the game has is that it ends in a most unsatisfying way. The ending is abrupt and leaves many questions unanswered, especially right after the most climactic part of the story. The credits roll and the player obtains a new sword that they can use should he want to replay a previous level. Another mode is unlocked, though it increases the difficulty greatly. Sure, it leaves room for speculation, but it does not excuse the sudden ending that leaves the player with a sour taste in their mouth. The fact that DLC has not been officially revealed yet does not help either. Despite the sudden ending leaving the player wanting more, Katana Zero is a great game with a plot worth investing in, crisp, clean visuals and excellent sountrack, and fun, intuitive gameplay. Score: 4/5 Recap:
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Brady Bryan
It has been three years since the best selling Dragon Ball game of all time was released, and since its debut, Dragon Ball FighterZ has made waves in the fighting ge community. Before released, it was preemptively announced to be a staple game at EVO in 2018, and has become extremely popular since then. With such familiar faces recognizable to millions and arguably billions the world over, the game was bound for popularity. However, it is important to analyze what makes this game so beloved three years after its worldwide release, as well as where its shortcomings lie. While most two-dimensional traditional fighting games can range in terms of music and visuals, FighterZ excels in both. In fact, FighterZ flashy and bright display went on to set the bar for future traditional fighting games in terms on how to balance gameplay with stunning, beautifully modeled visuals as well as clever uses of camera angles to make the characters' inputs feel as thought they carry more weight and hit harder. The use of metal music placed intermittently in each track in tandem with the distant, spacey instrumentals and rock music come together to form an impeccable soundtrack. Aside from the "in-your-face" visuals, another very apparent theme that may have laid the foundation for the overall concept for FighterZ is its accessibility. To this day, the idea of simplifying FighterZ's gameplay in comparison to other popular fighting games such as Street Fighter and Guilty Gear is a topic of debate when it comes to a competitive and professional level of performance. Making impactful inputs simple to perform as well as the inclusion of auto-combos allow new characters to pick up the game and learn the basics of two-dimensional fighting games easier than the aforementioned games. However, certain characters such as Ultra Instinct Goku toe the line between accessibility to newcomers and unbalanced gameplay. He is only one example of a character that has too much in his kit which leads to a cheap style of gameplay, and has many players debating (or more accurately, complaining) about how much accessibility is too much. Comeback mechanics are also featured in this game via certain characters as well as a universal mechanic by the name of "Sparking" in which a character recovers health, has access to different combo routes, and deals more damage. The sparking effect increases in potency as the player loses more characters, meaning that it is most effective when a player is down to their last character, allowing them to potential kill one character in a single combo. This too is a topic of hot debate. As for the story, it's extremely bland and unintuitive, though what else is to be expected of a fighting game? Overall, FighterZ is a very good game for those who are looking to dip their toes into the fighting game scene due to its ease of accessibility and low learning curve. New players will be drawn to the popular characters from one of the most famous series of all time, and will stay for the stunning visuals and hardcore music. However, those looking for a game that will challenge them and force them to strategize may feel underwhelmed by the balance choices and simple inputs. Review Score: 3/5
Brady Bryan
Earlier this year, Valorant became the new craze for PC players worldwide. With its CS:GO-like gameplay and character designs reminiscent of Overwatch, it quickly garnered a large following. Another factor that contributed to its success is how it was first made available to players. For a short period of time, Valorant was only made available through Twitch, a streaming service which provides rewards for watching streamers stream gameplay or real-life content. Sometimes, viewers would get a code which gave them access to the beta of Valorant in which they could match with other beta players, making the game a sort of niche commodity. Aesthetically, the game is decent on the visuals. Nothing about the game stands out more than the characters whose appeal lie solely in their appearance and skills (moreso their skills). The character designs are mediocre at best and lack interesting personalities. It feels as though the player is playing as a piece of cardboard with over "ten cool new sayings." The character selection is also limited as there are only eight playable characters. The music isn't especially notable either as the tracks in the game are generic compositions for background noise with the most prominent pieces being those on the main menu. While the characters and the music aren't the selling point of the game, the main interest lies in the gameplay. Valorant's gameplay is a double-edged sword. Those that play CSGO will feel right at home, while those craving a first-person shooter that features unique gameplay will be left wanting more. As mentioned before, the only differing factor between Valorant and most other first-person shooters are the skills as well as the only game mode in Valorant being "Bomb," a "search and destroy" style game mode. It is questionable whether the choice to only include one game mode was intended to be a sort of bold step away from the first-person shooter genre. Conversely, the game handles well on the controls, though that's about the only positive remark the game has going for it. Similar in fashion to other shooter games, headshot detection leaves a lot to be desired, and while the game has its fair share of hackers, that issue is not a result of the game's shortcomings. There isn't much else to say about the game other than it feels like another CSGO clone. In fact, many other reviewers of the game compare it to Counter Strike in the first few sentences of their evaluations. Valorant can be summed up as the love child of Counter Strike and Rainbow Six: Siege with influences of Overwatch, though I would rather choose one of the games if I wanted a complete experience. The only way that I can even open the game is if I have nothing better to do than shoot the breeze with friends. While others may argue that the game has been in beta, the same could be said for Fortnite which has featured hundreds of new content over the years. Rating: 3/5 Recap:
Brady Bryan
With the recent release of the highly anticipated Animal Crossing: New Horizons, fans of the Animal Crossing series and even outsiders who have recently caught on to the hype that is ever so prominent of Twitter and Instagram, everyone has scrambled to purchase it (and Doom Eternal due to the ironic, heavily contrasting duality of the selling points of both games) and play it immediately. While long-time fans of the series are well versed in what the series has to offer, it is important to remember the game that preceded it as many of its fans already have: Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS. Being the first Animal Crossing game that I ever truly played (not including Animal Crossing Wild World which I would just walk around in as I had no idea what to do), New Leaf had a lot to offer with quality in spades. First and foremost, this game is heavily centered around interactions with the NPCs and incentivizes the player to return every day as their is something new each and every day. Think of this game as being largely episodic, where different features are unlocked each day. That being said, the player is never truly done with the game as they need make sure that they tend to their town by watering flowers, pulling weeds, and interact with other villagers to ensure that the town never grows ugly or the villagers dislike you. How long you choose not to play the game affects the status of the town as well as your popularity, so don't think that you can get away with neglecting your duties as mayor. The villagers are some of the most expressive NPCs to ever exist. Each of them are rich in personality and dialogue. There are several villager archetypes such as peppy, snooty, and cranky, and while every single villager falls into one of these categories, each and every single one of them have their own unique catchphrase. The villagers will often trade with the player, make requests, or simply give the player words of encouragement which is admittingly quite touching. Talking to the villagers is one of the primary ways of advancing in the game as they will request public works projects that the player can then fund with bells, the in-game currency. While this sounds linear, keep in mind that this is only one of the ways to progress. Other forms of progression include donating fish, fossils, bugs, and famous artworks to the town museum, upgrading all of the stores on Main Street. This is all done in the pursuit of the main objective of all Animal Crossing games: paying off your house debt. Sounds dreadful, you say? Well, I won't say that you are wrong, but their are enough distractions to pull your attention away from that and instead focus on improving the town. Besides, the prospect of paying of you debt has already been joked to death by fans (lovingly, mind you). The game is very cutesy in both style, animation, and music. The town music changes with each hour, making there a grand total of 24 songs that the player hears just by walking around in their town alone. Other songs such as the ones heard in shops or on the island are also simple in melody. Referring back to expressions, the player and the villagers' expressions change depend on what is being said, causing the villagers to be bashful, angry, or happy, so there is never an unclear emotion when talking to one. There are never any errors to be had when playing the game, and aside from being meant for very casual gamers, the game does its best to appeal to everyone, even finding itself extremely popular among the LGBTQ+ community. It does a phenomenal job at making the player feel calm and relaxed. I want to say that there is not a single soul on Earth that should not play this game, but unfortunately not everyone is interested in games that require heavy devotion of time and energy, and would rather play games where the ending is not far from sight. While that may be the only noticeable issue the game is ineffective at handling, that is purely by design and is not a result of poor development or mismanagement. For anyone looking for a "timesink" game, look no further and play New Leaf or New Horizons as even after only two days of its release, every single fan both new and old is very pleased. Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars Recap:
Brady Bryan
Before anyone asks, yes, this game is enjoyable. Notice how I didn't say "good," but this game does have some redeeming qualities, and it would appear that most of the naysayers have gone quiet since its release (aside from going on Twitter to make fun of some of the bad move animations as if that horse hasn't been beat to death already). Moreover, people posting gameplay with them interacting with their Pokemon via one of the new features have been flooding everyone's timelines with cutesy, comedic videos. Otherwise in terms of quality, the game was exactly how people expected it to be. Nothing exceptional, but was at least able to allow players to make what they will of their experience. I suppose it's one of those "it's-so-bad-it's-good" type of games, but it's not on the same level of bad as other games in the genre are. Firstly, the plot. The plot is your generic Pokemon franchise storyline: Get first Pokemon, defeat enemy organization, battle your rival, become Champion and catch the big-bad Pokemon advertised on the cover (often in interchangeable order), and fill up your Pokedex. The only spin that Pokemon Shield puts on the formulaic plot is that the enemy organization isn't so much evil as they are high-spirited fanboys of one of the player's rival whereas in older games, the enemy organization is focused on either destroying the earth, destroying the universe, taking over the world, or simply stealing other people's Pokemon. Anyone with a few brain cells could predict the plot, so I doubt if one could call it "mind-blowing" or "engaging." With the region being based off of Europe, the people of Galar speak with English (British) dialect which can be fun to read out loud initially, but can gradually become grating depending on the type of person you are. With an easily predictable storyline, the game did a good job of catering to the younger audience. Looking for a challenging Pokemon game? You are far better off playing the older Pokemon games or a fan-made Pokemon ROM hack as Pokemon Shield will not suit your tastes. In contrast to older games such as Pokemon Red or Gold where the player had to remember what to do at all times to progress the story to avoid being soft-locked, the game holds your hand tighter than a mother with her toddler, making the first-time experience extremely linear. Hell, the game explicitly tells you what to do to progress simply by entering the menu with no way to turn off clues or hints. The AI is impressively unintelligent to the point where the player could be at a huge type advantage, but still win because the AI's Pokemon choose the same move over and over again. There's no reason to not use your starter Pokemon because of how good they are compared to the other Pokemon lurking in the wilderness. One of the key mechanics introduced is "Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing" in which the player uses a special bracelet to cause their Pokemon to grow to towering heights, effectively tripling their health, strengthening their attacks, and in some cases, completely changing the design of certain Pokemon. This is extremely crucial to the plot and lore of the game as Dynamaxed Pokemon battles are a sort of spectator sport exclusive to Galar, and is also how the antagonist of the game plans to succeed in his nefarious goals. Wild Pokemon also appear in the overworld, which is a first in the series, allowing for new methods to shiny hunt or hunt for an especially strong Pokemon. Early on, players can encounter final-evolution Pokemon in the wild that will absolutely decimate their team, which is an interesting way to caution players thinking that they can beat absolutely anything. As for most of the rest of the features, everything is still as you remember it: sloppy, low-res textures for certain objects such as trees, shadows are pixelated and ugly, the list goes on. While some moves such as Double Kick have unimaginably horrid animations that make the player want to facepalm, other moves such as Cinder Ball have such impressive and pleasing animations that will make the player "ooo and ahh." Caves and towns (particularly caves) are colorful and vivid and overall pleasing to the eye. The newer Pokemon designs are either hit-or-miss for me purely based on look and the new evolution methods are downright questionable. For Runerigus, an evolved form of a regional variant of Yamask, the player (as opposed to simply leveling up the Pokemon) has to weaken Yamask to a certain HP and run under a certain part of a rock in a certain place. Sounds confusing, right? The music was composed by Toby Fox, who is the creator of another popular game, Undertale. Whereas the music in Undertale was so dynamic and pleasing where musicians claim that Toby Fox took music theory and flipped it on its head, the music in Pokemon Shield is more simple and, honestly, bland. Did I forget to mention the voice actors? Well, that's because even after more than twenty years, characters (other than Pikachu and select other Pokemon) are still silent, communicating only through text. And before anyone asks about the frame rate, it's a Nintendo Switch game, of course the framerate dips sporadically, nothing new here. This game is unarguably worth three stars out of five. This is a game you would play if it was a rainy day, the power went out, and you are very limited in video game options, but even when the power comes back, you would miraculously still continue to play because you progressed so far and became attached. If you tune out all of the obvious flaws like few people can, you can have an enjoyable experience with this game. Rating: 3/5 Brady Bryan
Super Mario, the most popular video game franchise in the history of the world, let alone gaming has recently released another iteration of its beloved Mario Kart franchise: Mario Kart Tour. Garnering hype up to its release, this game may very well become the next mobile craze that Pokemon Go once was. The app is available to both iPhone and Android users for free (a given, if you ask me). The game is locked to a vertical aspect, which sucks because the original games are played in a horizontal aspect. The vertical aspect lock is nonsensical and hinders performance potential. Despite that, the game retains the same bright-colored, cartoony look that fans of the Mario Kart series are familiar with, most closely resembling Mario Kart 7 graphics. The exact replicas of the courses from the main Kart games with the addition of a few original courses add a sense of nostalgia which is always welcome. The old courses even retain their music from their original games which overcame me with memories of when I played Mario Kart Wii seven years ago. While others take issue with the controls, the controls are simple, yet effective. The blame probably comes from the stupid disorienting vertical aspect lock. Since the speed stays the same, the skill ceiling for this game feels capped beyond swiping left and right. Since the way to play feels so limited, I just can't seem to play the game past fifteen minutes or unless I'm procrastinating because of its simplicity. I suppose its easy controls make it easier for younger kids to pick and play the game, which is the target demographic (at least, that's the audience it appeals to the most). In conclusion, Mario Kart Tour, with its easy controls and inherent competitive nature may just become the new Pokemon Go craze with friends wanting to race you all the time. Good times with friends are imminent with this pocket Mario Kart, which is why I give this game 4/5 stars. Recap:
Brady Bryan
Dragon Ball has had many iterations of video games in the past twenty years. From arcade to handheld to console, it has had its fair share of fun, combative games albeit some games more flawed than others. One spinoff of the Dragon Ball series is one titled Super Dragon Ball Heroes. What makes this spinoff stand out is its massive character roster as it encompasses every single character from the Dragon Ball universe both canon and non-canon. This includes movie characters, unofficial manga publications, and new original characters. The series recently received an anime adaptation around five months ago. The video games adaptation of the series come in the form of a turn-based card game. A few weeks ago, the latest installment of the Super Dragon Ball Heroes games was World Mission. I haven't much prior experience to the series games, but only after playing through only five minutes, this game was a regrettable purchase. There is an abundance of expository and baseless nonsense that the player is bombarded with. On top of that, some scenes are unskippable. This means that the player has to mash through the repetitive, bland dialogue just to get to another insignificant scene. One of the beginning scenes between the main character (you) and two other allies is unskippable and takes roughly around a minute to two minutes to mash through the text. After you are done viewing that scene (which also counts as a mission meaning that nothing engaging such as a battle has occurred), you have to read through another long scene. The animations of the game in both battles and the overworld are subpar and stiff. The expressions on the characters' faces appear mediocre and boring. It's almost too easy to lose interest in the story due to the boring dialogue and long scenes. It makes one think that the developers of the game threw in a story mode haphazardly to entice players and made that the game's selling point along with its massive roster. As far as digital card games go, the battle system isn't so bad, and the fighting animations are fun to watch apart from the fact that they all appear to be lacking frames. Other Super Dragon Ball Heroes games are similar to World Mission, but they appear to be more loved by the fans than World Mission. This is notable as one of the main enticing traits of the game was that it was the first game of the series to be localized in America as all of the other games are Japan-exclusive and were only playable in America through hacking or purchasing a Japanese copy. In conclusion, World Mission dropped the ball before it could even get it rolling. Recap:
Brady Bryan
Jump Force released about a week or two ago on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC after being teased at E3 last year, and the game is already raising some eyebrows in a negative manner. Everyone was hyped for the game when it was first revealed, but now that it's out and it seems that nothing changed between then and now, the game is suffering from some backlash. There is a wide range of issues with this game that left some of the the VGC and AC (Video Game Community and Anime Community respectively) with a sour taste in their mouth. The first complaints involve the roster. As Jump Force is an anime game, there are bound to be some familiar faces such as Naruto, Goku, and Monkey D. Luffy, a.k.a the posterboys of the game. However, you don't need to be an anime fan to realize that there is a HUGE imbalance between series representatives, with the series of the aforementioned characters having around six representatives each, whereas the other members of the cast have a maximum of three or four characters to represent their game. The ratio of Dragon Ball, Naruto, and One Piece characters to the entire cast is 18:40, which is almost half the roster! And there are about fourteen franchises being represented in the game! Not only that, but some of the characters that they included and excluded are questionable. For those that aren't familiar with anime, to keep it simple, they excluded fan favorites that were in the previous "Jump" games such as "Victory VS+" and replaced them with less recognizable characters (other than a select few). The second complaints involve the gameplay. Not only does it look stiff, but the controls feel stiff as well. It's as though the animators wanted to create a stop-motion animation out of 3D models. The colors of both the stages and characters are drab, but this is part of the vision the director(s) had for the game as they aimed to create a grittier, more realistic take of the anime characters we grew up with. Despite this, the colors clash too well, especially on some stages, to the point where identifying the location of the character when far apart is nearly impossible. The lack of indicators and a meaningful UI during combat doesn't help either. There's so much more that I could talk about, but that deserves another blog. Other aspects such as the atrocious story mode, lack of voice acting in some areas, and long loading screens will be saved for another day. But the craziest thing is that people couldn't wait to pay the $60 on release day, so they paid about $30 extra to play three days earlier for a terrible game experience. Recap:
Brady Bryan
Fighting games are a staple to the video games community, and it's easy to see why due to its highly competitive nature. Classic games such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have left such an impression on hand-to-hand combat-based video games that other games that released down the road took heavy inspiration from their mechanics. Guilty Gear, Skullgirls, and BlazBlue are extremely similar to them in terms of playstyle. Another game that released earlier this year that's no exception is Dragon Ball FighterZ. It managed to merge the world of Dragon Ball Z with traditional 2D-fighting mechanics and created something that was able to appeal to not only the Dragon Ball community (or anime as a whole) due to its flawless and visually stunning graphics (technically 2.5D), but also the hardcore competitive community with its complex combos and large, universally shared movepool. Unlike most 2D fighter games, FighterZ features a story mode. However, fans of the game dislike it due to how tedious and boring it could at times. For example, the computer-controlled characters would barely attack or even move at all, essentially waiting for you to defeat it so you could advance to the next fight just so the same thing would happen again but with a different character. Some fights weren't even fights so much as they were tutorial levels which would prompt you input commands on the screen instead of freely experiment with your characters of choice. Despite that and the many other flaws the story mode features, such as the "heroes beat villain" cliche and the only notable reward being the ability to unlock one new character, the story mode can have some interesting pieces of dialogue. However, no one really cares for the story anyways. The main point of interest the game features lies in the online battles in which people from all over the world can face off against each other. For those who skipped the story because they decided that it wasn't worth their time, the online system would be the first place to let you know that this game is not for the mainstream casual players. With the extensive movesets each character possesses, as well as the frame-perfect combos and situation-specific techniques, it's not wonder why some gamers may get discouraged after getting beaten game after games. Obviously those that play Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter will feel right at home as the similarity between action inputs are strikingly similar, and the terminology for certain moves are the same. For example, if someone were to say, "Perform a down heavy," in an quick manner, for both games, they would say, "Perform a 2H," as the numbers used to describe a direction correspond to the numbers on the right side of a keyboard in a three-by-three area. Certain characters are also just leagues above other characters due to excellent spacing tools, high DPS count (Damage Per Second), and other extremely useful mechanics such as heavy armor which negates the knockback of light, medium, or even heavy attacks. These types of mechanics tend to draw a competitive crowd as mechanics like these are easy and fun to implement into one's playstyle (or abuse as a typical gamer would put it). FighterZ does an excellent job meeting the expectations that fans of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat expect of a traditional fighter. Not only that, but fans of those games will have little to no problem adapting to the game. Casual players, on the other hand, will have a lot of trouble adapting to the game's playstyle as the learning curve is gargantuan. For any new players out there, I have a few words of advice to share: be prepared to grind for hours, because you will get destroyed multiple times. Recap:
Brady Bryan
As if it isn't evident from the title, this is going to be a continuation of any previous blog post on the popular video game: Fortnite. This is a great time to continue this as it's most recent major update known as "Season 4" added and tweaked several aspects of the game, and it's causing a massive uproar amongst the player base. For starters, it added several modern dances such as "Tidy" (a.k.a Snoop Dog's dance from Drop it Like It's Hot), "Popcorn," "Hype," and the infamous "Orange Justice." In fact, you could make a very convincing statement that the main driver of the new Season 4 update is that one repetitive emote. Essentially, it originated from a prominent YouTuber and Instagram celebrity "Roy Purdy." It was called the "Purdy Dance," and it took the world by storm (not another Fortnite reference I promise) as it was such a unique and captivating dance. After the dance was revealed, Epic Games (the company behind Fortnite) held a contest to implement a certain dance into the game. All that one had to do to enter was to film a video of them doing the dance that they wanted to be in the game and either tweet it or use the hashtag "#BoogieDown" on Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, or other social media. On Reddit, one kid (whom the internet has named "Orange Shirt Kid" due to his wearing an orange shirt) attempted to recreate the "Purdy Dance," but it just wasn't the same as the original. Luckily for him, everyone saw his video on various sites, and left comments and hashtags saying "#JusticeForOrangeShirtKid," as it was apparent that he was trying to "Purdy Dance," and people found it quite comical. This gained so much traction that the devs (developers) decided to not only implement the dance into the game (done properly mind you), but named it "Orange Justice" along with the caption "It's also a great exercise move." The caption is a reference to a phrase that the Orange Shirt Kid says, in which he states that it makes for a great exercise move. The contest promised its winners in-game rewards, but since he wasn't listed as an official winner in the top five, it is unclear to note whether or not he received said in-game prizes (he placed 23rd). This may just have been a little joke/nod to his entry and the traction it garnered. This is what makes Fortnite such a great game. Aside from just being a battle royale game, it knows what it's players want, and it does an excellent job delivering it. This is a great example of a company being interactive with its consumers instead of following its own agenda. It's good to have your own vision for your product, but if it doesn't interest others, then it is bound to fail once it hits the shelves. For a game that is still in "Early Access" mode, it sure is doing wonderful in terms of popularity, and I can't wait to see what Fortnite has in store next. Recap:
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AuthorBrady Bryan is quite familiar with blogs since he had to frequently post on his blog in 6th grade. Although its been a long time since then, he still knows what a proper blog should look like. Archives
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