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Who is Ayn Rand? Born to a middle class Russian-Jewish family in 1905, Rand was treated to a front row seat to the wonders of communism in action. Rand fled with her family to the Crimea following the “liberation” of her father’s pharmacy but ultimately returned to Saint Petersburg where she could attend university when she wasn’t busy starving. Due to her life experiences, Ayn Rand quotes are some of the most thought-provoking in the world.
Rand was granted a visa to visit her relatives in Chicago in 1925. Upon her arrival the next year she was driven to “tears of splendor” by the sight of Manhattan’s skyline. Needless to say there was no going back for the young woman, who upon witnessing American cinema set out to become a Hollywood screenwriter.
As luck would have it Rand soon met the great director Cecil B. DeMille, thus securing work as an extra in one of his movies and a subsequent job as a junior screenwriter. By 1931 Rand had married and become an American citizen.
Rand began sharing her political leanings as she published her first works of fiction including We the Living, a semi-autobiographical novel set in Soviet Russia, and Anthem, a grim vision of a totalitarian collectivist future in which all innovation had been stifled and even the word “I” ceased to exist.
Rand’s breakout success arrived in 1943 when she published The Fountainhead, the story of a young architect who refused to conform to his industry’s hostility toward innovation. She would continue working in Hollywood until 1957 when she published her magnum opus The Fountainhead, again set in a dystopian future where bureaucratic legislation had made free enterprise all but impossible.
The Fountainhead served as Rand’s most extensive statement on Objectivism, a philosophy of her own design which she had formerly defined in her appendix to Atlas Shrugged:
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
Rand’s philosophy holds that knowledge and values are determined by reality, not the product of human thought. To attain the highest objectivist ideal – the achievement of one’s own happiness – man must place the greatest value on reason, self-interest, and liberty. For Rand, no social system other than “full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism” could fully recognize individual rights.
In addition to her contributions to literature and philosophy, Rand actively supported anti-communist groups including the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and the American Writers Association throughout her Hollywood career. Throughout her later years Rand traveled the country to deliver lectures on her Objectivist philosophy. In her final public lecture the year preceding her death in 1982, Rand said the following:
There is hope so long as there is one man left living on earth. There is hope, but it will not be saved automatically. It depends on the free will and choice of every man who is able to think. Those who don’t want to think don’t matter in this issue. They’re merely social ballast.
Ayn Rand Quotes on Love
“Love is our response to our highest values – and can be nothing else.”
“Love is blind, they say; sex is impervious to reason and mocks the power of all philosophers. But, in fact, a mans’s sexual choice is the result and sum of their fundamental convictions. Tell me what a person finds sexually attractive and I will tell you their entire philosophy of life.”
“To say ‘I love you’ one must know first how to say the ‘I’.”
“Love is the expression of one’s values.”
“Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own currency. And in love, the currency is virtue. You love people not for what you do for them or what they do for you. You love them for the values, the virtues, which they have achieved in their own character.”
“If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It’s no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing. But if you tell an ugly woman that she is beautiful, you offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty.”
“Man is an end in himself. Romantic love – the profound, exalted, lifelong passion that unites his mind and body in the sexual act – is the living testimony to that principle.”
“There are two aspects of man’s existence which are the special province and expression of his sense of life: love and art.”
“To love is to value. Only a rationally selfish man, a man of self-esteem, is capable of love—because he is the only man capable of holding firm, consistent, uncompromising, unbetrayed values. The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”
“One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one’s own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns and derives from love.”
Ayn Rand Quotes on Capitalism
“The businessman’s tool is value.”
“Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason.”
“Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants.”
“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.”
“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.”
“Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.”
“Capitalism was the only system in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only system that stood for man’s right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.”
“Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.”
“Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtues, not of vices.”
“What it does guarantee is that a monopolist whose high profits are caused by high prices, rather than low costs, will soon meet competition originated by the capital market.”
“Let those who are actually concerned with peace observe that capitalism gave mankind the longest period of peace in history—a period during which there were no wars involving the entire civilized world—from the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.”
“A free market never loses sight of the question: Of value to whom? And, within the broad field of objectivity, the market value of a product does not reflect its philosophically objective value, but only its socially objective value.”
“Child labor was not ended by legislative fiat; child labor ended when it became economically unnecessary for children to earn wages in order to survive—when the income of their parents became sufficient to support them. The emancipators and benefactors of those children were not legislators or factory inspectors, but manufacturers and financiers.”
“Prior to the American Revolution, through centuries of feudalism and monarchy, the interests of the rich lay in the expropriation, enslavement, and misery of the rest of the people. A society, therefore, where the interests of the rich require general freedom, unrestricted productiveness, and the protection of individual rights, should have been hailed as an ideal system by anyone whose goal is man’s well-being.”
Ayn Rand Quotes on Government and Politics
“The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.”
“Lobbying” is the activity of attempting to influence legislation by privately influencing the legislators.”
“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.”
“Government ‘help’ to business is just as disastrous as government persecution … the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.”
“Do you think nobody would willingly entrust his children to you and pay you for teaching them? Why do you have to extort your fees and collect your pupils by compulsion?”
“The great creators – the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors – stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”
“There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.”
“A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.”
“I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.”
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
“Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.”
“The right to agree with others is not a problem in any society; it is the right to disagree that is crucial.”
Ayn Rand Quotes on Life
“An individualist is a man who says: I will not run anyone’s life – nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself to anyone – nor sacrifice anyone to myself.”
“Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.”
“When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.”
“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
“Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.”
Ayn Rand Philosophy Quotes
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
“Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one’s emotions.”
“Any alleged right of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another isn’t and can’t be a right.”
“Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”
“I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.”
“The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.”
“My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”
“Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”
“Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.”
“There are no evil thoughts except one; the refusal to think.”
“We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
“I am, therefore I’ll think.”
“The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”
“God … a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man’s power to conceive.”
“Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”
“From the smallest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from one attribute of man – the function of his reasoning mind.”
Ayn Rand Quotes on Capitalism, Government, Philosophy, and More originally appeared on Thought Grenades, the blog on Libertas Bella.

I stay out of politics' murky waters. They are too sordid to take a deep plunge into, and too ghastily undesirable and mordantly prosaic to impel me to cast more than a furtive glance on it.
Even so, I more often than not surprise myself being at grips with the miasma of feminism's neophytes.
Consider this phenomenon, just to give a perplexing example:
In the literary world, there are countless prizes and competitions (pardon the not exactly proper use of this term) that seek to give a bit of recognition to what are at some time the best efforts in literature and acknowledge the conquest of artistic summits. I cannot stress this word enough, for what is to be valued in literature is its utmost fidelity in front of the rigors of artistry.
But guess what comes next, what truly resembles an exercise in bewilderment: there are literary prizes for feminine literature.
So what is being valued, prized, held as the supreme importance is the gender of the author that produced that and that work of art, its actual intrinsic value being minimized in favor of completely collateral considerations that do nothing except harm the autonomous splendor of high art.
Are we not reaching the peaks of hypocrisy here?
Some would argue in vain that the aim of these practices are to promote women writers. But how is this possible, given that there already are literary prizes awarded to anyone, regardless of the gender of the author, that toiled for the formalization of the consummate work of art. Why do women need a special branch of literary prizes just for them, and just for the fact that they were born as women? Especially since there are no converse prizes for masculine literature solely?
Does this not concur to an aftermath totally opposed to the one initially invoked by those who supported such causes? Does this not reduce women to the level of mere flimsy victims that have to have assured special circumstances? In such an environment, they can only rise themselves to the ridge of invalid and disabled subjects. How could a feminine literature prize be of any worth and prestige since it's already conceived as a watered down, edulcorated version of a proper competition? How could a feminine literature prize resemble any kind of association with art, since it's not given primary for artistic merits, but for gender merits?
This accomplishes nothing, except solidifying women's position in the arts as definitely inferior, and should be abolished.

I experienced this vividly going through Gavin and Lucien’s routes in Chapter 19 and am now working Kiro and Victor into this essay (your mileage may vary on whether I’m reaching though LOL). Still, I thought there were some interesting writing devices here.
To begin, what is horror?

Horror is a genre of speculative fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. […] It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it might be also non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society. The horror genre has ancient origins with roots in folklore and religious traditions, focusing on death, the afterlife, evil, the demonic and the principle of the thing embodied in the person. [Wikipedia]
Horror literature has roots in religion, folklore, and history; focusing on topics, fears, and curiosities that have continuously bothered humans in both the 12th and 21st centuries alike. Horror feeds on audience’s deepest terrors by putting life’s most frightening and perplexing things—death, evil, supernatural powers or creatures, the afterlife, witchcraft—at the center of attention. [Literary Terms]

Now that we’ve discussed horror as a genre, I’m going to propose that Kiro and Lucien have psychological horror in their routes.
Gavin and Victor have atmospheric horror. It may be similar to psychological horror but I’m going to differentiate these more in their personal sections, so please stay with me!
(On another note, have you noticed that Kiro and Lucien are tragedies due to human choice [their choice] while Gavin and Victor are tragedies due to external circumstances? It’s so interesting but also a topic for another day.)

KIRO

So, to describe psychological horror:

Psychological horror usually aims to create discomfort or dread by exposing common or universal psychological and emotional vulnerabilities/fears and revealing the darker parts of the human psyche that most people may repress or deny. This idea is referred to in analytical psychology as the archetypal shadow characteristics: suspicion, distrust, self-doubt, and paranoia of others, themselves, and the world.
The genre sometimes seeks to challenge or confuse the audience’s grasp of the narrative or plot by focusing on characters who are themselves unsure of or doubting their own perceptions of reality or questioning their own sanity. Characters’ perceptions of their surroundings or situations may indeed be distorted or subject to delusions, outside manipulation or gaslighting by other characters, emotional disturbances, and even hallucinations or mental disorders. [Wikipedia]

I bolded the part that was important to us here. I don’t mean anything negative by the “gaslighting” part but we can’t ignore that, when Kiro commands MC to forget moments with him, he is literally re-shaping her perception of reality by messing with her mind.
Going back to the beginning of his route though, we need to talk about the gorgeous foreshadowing and setup there.

1. Kiro’s route opens up with him saying he has a perfect disguise. MHM.
2. Sun and sky descriptions. His smile, warmth, and hair is like the sun. His eyes are like the clear blue sky. There’s a description about how he’s like an angel. Everything establishes him as someone in the heavens.
3. He quotes a line from a script about how all meetings are predestined but a reunion relies on your personal efforts. HM. MC tells him that his acting is too good so she can’t read him.

Then comes the creeping horror. Because he’s so good at acting, even if MC instinctively feels that something is wrong and there are glimpses of sadness around him she can’t get close to the truth. He makes her doubt that she’s even seeing what she thinks she sees.
But we know better as the audience and, meanwhile, we’re getting descriptions like this:
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^{I’m putting an image here because Elex focused on the wrong thing in their translation.}
The Chinese line goes “He stretched out his hand and blocked the sunlight above his head, and then he curled his fingers in tightly as if grabbing something.”
Emphasizing with the bold because Kiro is preventing the sunlight from reaching him and casting himself in the shadow underneath his hand, yet he’s still trying to grasp the light. SYMBOLISM!
Then, after Kiro commands MC to forget him on the rooftop and she regains her memories and tries to go back, she bumps into Helios and we’re immediately struck with descriptions about his silver hair (opposite of Kiro) and eyes like a frozen lake (Helios is grounded and not close to the sky, which is ironic considering his name).
Despite MC constantly asking him if he is Kiro, because she can’t shake their resemblance, Helios keeps denying it and making her doubt herself. Funnily, I think this (and his words about seeking the truth herself) are what pushes her to get out of this illusion. The doubt piled on so high she couldn’t stay here anymore, not to mention Kiro was AWOL.
It’s interesting to note that in Kiro and Gavin’s case the MC feels compelled to find the truth and, while Gavin passive-aggressively dissuades her by ignoring her and refusing to speak, Kiro actively tries to push her away from him.

LUCIEN

I’m not going to copy the definition of psychological horror here again but the parts that apply to Lucien are suspicion, distrust and Characters’ perceptions of their surroundings or situations may indeed be distorted or subject to emotional disturbances.
The moment I started reading his route I had to clap at the abrupt change in pacing. Unlike the other men, where the MC sees fragments or has a dream sequence in the middle or latter half of their route, we start off Lucien’s route with a dream sequence about the hell colosseum and hear Ares saying that the evolution of humanity is inevitable.
Cue my endless crying about how all MC wants to do is tell him that there must be another way. Is he saying the cruelty and savagery in the colosseum is necessary for human evolution?
Anyway, not only are we starting off with a fresh reminder of his coldness as Ares, but the previous two chapters (13 and 16) that we’ve had with him have also been chilly and distant. So, Papergames explicitly went ham with the gentle, kind, calm, and everything sweet and nice descriptions for Lucien in this route. This is to make it eerie and fake and ramp up the horror.
I could probably fill the rest of the post with examples but the main points are:

1. Sunlight is always falling on him, gentling his features.
2. His hand and touch is warm. His smiles are kind. His demeanour is quiet and calm. Everything he does is out of consideration for the MC and he’s just super nice everywhere.
3. The innocence of the children is emphasized, especially how they’re never angry for long, they help each other up, and they don’t know anything about being malicious in the dark.

Papergames is doing this with full knowledge that we know the truth… that this Lucien is a distortion of reality. Remember, Lucien and Ares are two sides of the same coin.
Once MC realizes the falseness of this world and Lucien as a person (thanks to the autistic girl’s drawing) she ends up finding him at the event in full Ares!mode.
Gods, the imagery here was gorgeous with the snow reflecting the light of the fireworks and looking like embers were raining down on Lucien. But, actually, what I want to point out is the symbolism of those fireworks. Elex did fine with saying they were never meant to watch the fireworks together.
But, perhaps due to how Chinese works, there’s an emphasis about how they have no fate to watch the fireworks together. No connection in their lives of being able to see these together.
BTW the fleeting splendor of fireworks is a metpahor for the ephemerality and beauty of humanness and worldly life. Thus, MC and Lucien being unable to see this together is showing how their individual philosophies on life are never on the same page.
In addition, the fireworks is another call back to [Main Story 9-14] where Lucien’s eyes are described as having the wisp of smoke from fireworks, hinting at his humanness and warmth. So, bringing back how they can never see fireworks together… SOBS. ^{ELEX! LOOK THIS IS GOING TO HAUNT US FOREVER! Why’d you translate it as fiery.}
Anyway, IMO, the realization that you cannot have Lucien without Ares is what snaps her out of the fantasy illusion of him being endlessly kind and gentle. MC and Lucien have not confronted the chasm between their philosophies yet and it is her firm belief in her principles which gives her the courage to come out of this illusion.
Meanwhile, Lucien is the only one of the men where the MC goes in the opposite direction of him and let me just cheer on my girl for telling him straight up that she won’t follow him anymore because, from the start, their destinations were different.

GAVIN

So, I mentioned earlier that atmospheric horror sounds similar to psychological horror because doubting your surroundings seems like a mental thing, right? However, I posit that in the case of Gavin (and Victor) the MC doesn’t doubt herself or these two men but that the very environment is what causes her to feel something is off.
It’s ironic that her wish for certain things in the world to have never happened is exactly what kicks her out of her fantasy dream, because she sees the kid that Gavin killed on screen in the hell colosseum and she ends up realizing that this world is fake.
The horror is literally seeing a dead person in front of you LOL (jk). It’s realizing that what you’ve been experiencing is hollow and just an illusion.
MC’s realization is what triggers Gavin’s transformation into his army uniform version and his personality switch, like the one he hinted at happening in his Chapter 18 call.
Symbolism overtime here:

1. He doesn’t touch her anymore. Even though he’s so worried about her (running up to her when she trips but doesn’t help her up). There is an unbreachable distance between them, like two magnets facing each other with the same side.
2. In the beginning of the route, he was wearing clothes with color and took her around to see all the colorful lights in the city. However, his army uniform is a black which carries such an oppressive force that it’s as if it covers all other colors.
3. Snow, a symbol of purity, is sucked into his clothes like they were a black hole. White disappearing into black.
4. His hands, which carry out his justice, have become covered in darkness. His gloves (which, BTW, also act as another barrier between him and MC touching).
5. The wind, usually warm and gentle around MC (if it’s not the surrounding environmental air), is now a whistling cold gust that blows between them.
6. He’s like an injured lone wolf.

I mentioned this above in Kiro’s section but when he leaves into the darkness MC follows him. This is noteworthy because MC and Gavin share parallel character arcs with their views of justice and it’s shown here with how they’re heading in the same direction. This unshakeable belief and principle is what gives MC the courage to seek the truth. Not to mention, these two can never abandon each other. She saves him, he saves her, etc.

VICTOR

Is it just me or did Victor turn into a shoujo heroine here? LOL. For once, MC is the one with the answers and truth and dream!Victor has no idea what’s going on.
I sympathized a lot with MC’s struggles here. We all know how much Victor suffered at the end of Chapter 18 and so do we dare break this blissful illusion and bring everyone back into that hell?
It takes the old man in the cabin visiting MC and advising her that she can’t turn her eyes away from the truth and experience of the world and bury her head in her work. To experience reality with both eyes open is how one reaches their full potential.
The horror here is again realizing that everything around you is fake… and that you’re going to pull the rug out from underneath someone in blissful ignorance. However, it is the knowledge that people (cough Chapter 18!Victor cough) may be suffering in another world while she’s here enjoying herself that lets her break out of this illusion and confront the truth.
I also actually think it’s the fact that dream!Victor is this constant presence of calm, kindness, and steadiness that gives MC the courage to leave this dream world.
If you think about it, Victor is just as optimistic as the MC. His immediate response to her question about what he’d do if everything here was an illusion was that he’d make this [sort of] world a reality. SOBS. Look at them, they’re both so willing to put themselves on the front line and go through hell just to give each other happiness.

ADDENDUM

To hammer in the horror point there is a figurative “monster” in all of these.
Kiro’s monster is MC’s own perception of reality (given how he keeps changing it for her with his Evol). She’s pretty much fighting against her own mind and memories whenever it comes to him.
Lucien’s monster is himself… She has to struggle to trust him when he keeps doing things that bring that into suspicion.
Gavin’s monster is the unknown darkness and ugliness of the world. She has to hold onto her principles of justice and confirm that (hopefully, together with him).
Victor’s monster is a fake reality and the hollowness of how the other person you want to keep safe is not the REAL version of them. Both of them actually experience this multiple times, if you think about it, wow. They have to accept reality and work from there to find their happy ending with the real version of each other.

Game Information

Game Title: Final Fantasy XV
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Media: Final Fantasy Versus XIII - First Trailer (2006) | Final Fantasy Versus XIII - All Trailers
E3 2013 Trailer (Name change from Versus XIII to XV) | TGS 2014 Trailer
'Dawn' Trailer | Driving Gameplay
'Dawn 2.0' Trailer | 'Reclaim Your Throne' Trailer
Uncovered Final Fantasy XV Full Recap | E3 2016 Trailer feat. Afrojack
Altissia Walkthrough | Live at Abbey Road Studios
TGS 2016 Trailer | PAX West 2016 Gameplay
'Omen' Trailer | 'Judgement' Trailer
101 Trailer Extended Cut | 'Stand Together' (Official Live-Action)
Developer: Square Enix Business Division 2 ^{More Info}
Publisher: Square Enix
Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 83 [Cross-Platform]
MetaCritic - 84 [PS4]
MetaCritic - 84 [XB1]

CAUTION -

• As per usual, be careful reading reviews when trying to avoid spoilers. Even glossing through some of the review pages, there are screenshots of things that seem kinda spoiler-y, maybe moreso to Final Fantasy veterans who'll immediately identify familiar looking FF tropes. So keep that in mind

Reviews

Destructoid - Chris Carter - 9 / 10 (PS4)

As I'm typing this up now, I'm seeing a future where people buy Final Fantasy XV due to some of the more positive assessments (like this one), and walk away disappointed. Because if you loathe JRPGs, XV is not going to make you a believer. In a way it's silly that Square spent 10 years making this, and it feels like a really shiny version of something it would have actually made 10 years ago. While a complete overhaul of the genre would certainly suit someone's needs, XV suits mine just fine.

Eurogamer - Aoife Wilson - Unscored (PS4)

Final Fantasy 15 rediscovers the series' epic scale and love of intimate moments, but its scrappiness can sully the bigger picture.

Game Informer - Andrew Reiner - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV struggles mightily with open-world navigation, but succeeds in storytelling, combat, and in empowering the player. Even fishing is good fun

GameSpot - Peter Brown - 8 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV's world is filled with natural splendor and harrowing dungeons that far outlive the shallow story about a prince and his cliched bodyguards.

GamesRadar+ - David Roberts - 4.5 / 5 stars (PS4)

Even when it stumbles, Final Fantasy 15's ambitious open-world, fast-paced combat, and the humanity of its four leads make it a fascinating adventure to behold.

GearNuke - Khurram Imtiaz - 9 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is a breath of fresh air for the series which was starting to lose its significance after the release of Final Fantasy XIII. It is one of the best open world game on the current generation consoles and a return to the form for the franchise.

IGN - Vince Ingenito - 8.2 / 10 (PS4)

When I’m riding chocobos across the beach at dusk with my three friends and hunting iconic Final Fantasy monsters in a huge, picturesque open world, Final Fantasy XV feels like nearly everything I could want from a modern Final Fantasy. But when it funnels me into linear scenarios and drab, constricted spaces that plunge the simplistic combat into chaos, my blood boils a bit. There is so much good here, so much heart - especially in the relationships between Noctis and his sworn brothers. It just comes with some changes and compromises that were, at times, difficult for this long-time Final Fantasy fan to come to grips with.

TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 8 / 10

Final Fantasy XV is a unique offering, both for the franchise and RPGs in general. Placing the onus on the relationships of your party, rather than the narrative, has meant that this is a game that strikes not just an emotional chord, but a personal one. While Final Fantasy stalwarts will likely balk at the action-heavy combat, the spirit of the franchise remains, and is better served here than it has been in many years.

ThisGenGaming - Charlie Oakley - 7 / 10 (XB1)

Final Fantasy XV wasn’t a bad game, but after all that hype, and being a first time player, I was disappointed with what was offered. There’s many features about the game that I can praise like the combat and dialogue, but there’s those negatives that makes it a disappointing first experience. I feel this is going to be a game with very mixed opinions, and I’m sure there’s many playing it early who think it’s a great game, but for me personally, this was a good yet disappointing game.

USgamer - Kat Bailey - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)

I was really skeptical that Final Fantasy XV could ever be successful; but despite some real flaws, it ultimately won me over. I warmed to the characters over the course of many camping trips, found more than I was expecting in the open world, and even enjoyed the bombastic setpieces. I have no doubt that it will be harshly criticized in some circles, but it also has some real merit. Stick with it even if you find yourself rolling your eyes at the opening hours: You may be surprised by how much you end up enjoying yourself.

Xbox Achievements - Dom Peppiatt - 90% (PS4, XB1)

As an RPG, Final Fantasy XV has everything you’d expect: a compelling, emotional story; a tapestry of complimentary mechanics; a significant lifespan; a cast of relatable and well-written characters and a world that’s dense enough to be a character in and of itself. As a Final Fantasy game, it lives up to all the tropes, despite the variations it’s taken from the more ‘classic’ games. Final Fantasy XV is a title that's aimed super high, and although maybe it hasn’t quite hit the targets it set for itself, it certainly doesn’t disappoint, and is a strong enough RPG experience to stand aside The Witcher as one of the best open-world role-playing games of this generation.

Kotaku - Jason Schreier - Unscored (PS4)

It’s got everything I want from a Final Fantasy game. I know that it’ll be yet another snapshot in a life filled with Final Fantasy. Another grand adventure, another gang of worthy heroes; another tale of crystals and magic and betrayal and love, all beautiful melodies and lush scenery and the finely honed complexity of carefully choreographed combat. Onward to secrets beyond the horizon, and don’t forget the Phoenix Down. If that’s not Final Fantasy, I don’t know what is.

GamingBolt - Pramath - 9 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy 15 makes a case for being one of the best, most progressive Final Fantasy games ever released, and a hell of a return to form for the franchise.

VideoGamer - Alice Bell - 8 / 10 | Written Review

Final Fantasy XV is about adventure and excitement. There are oddities, and it's not the FF you're used to, but it's a good time with some good boys, and has an unexpected emotional resonance to it. Sometimes it seems like it shouldn't work, but it does.

Daily Dot - Miguel Concepcion - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV overcomes its narrative lows with gameplay highs that consume the player's time with engrossing optional quests and frenetic battles. As a whole, it does not represent the best in the series, but it delivers just enough to deserve a place in the mainline series, which is an achievement for a game that originated as a Final Fantasy XIII spin-off.

Twinfinite - 4.5 / 5 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV was quite different from everything I had ever expected an entry to be, but it turned out to be exactly what I had been looking for.

Time - Matt Peckham - 4.5 / 5 (PS4)

Something wonderful and improbable must have happened towards the end of the topsy-turvy decade it’s taken Square Enix to finally produce a Final Fantasy worth crowing about. Thank director Hajime Tabata for somehow righting the ship. How he did so could presumably fill a book. How many games get 10 years to simmer? Change captains mid-journey? Have lord knows how many investment dollars (to say nothing of franchise esteem) on the line? And how often does vaporware materialize, after years of elliptical studio messaging, this lively and focused and fully realized?

RPG Site - Alex Donaldson - 8 / 10 (PS4, XB1)

Bold and brave, Final Fantasy XV brings back some of what made FF special to begin with. It's rough around the edges, but that's okay: where it counts, it's got heart.

Post Arcade (National Post) - Chad Sapieha - 8.5 / 10 | Part 2 | Part 3 (PS4)

I’m less than 10 hours in, and I’m starting to think Final Fantasy XV might have been worth the wait.

Metro GameCentral - 6 / 10 (PS4)

All these provisos and caveats mean that Final Fantasy XV is one game where the score is almost completely irrelevant. But that hints at the game’s greatest failing: that it is not going to surprise either its fans or its critics. If this seems like your type of thing then you’re almost certainly going to enjoy it. But if you usually turn your nose up at Japanese role-players then this is not the game to convince you otherwise. Because despite its achievements, and genuine attempts to move the genre forward, this does not feel like the last word in Final Fantasy.

Shacknews - Jason Faulkner - 9 / 10

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my journey with Noctis and the gang so far. I’m going to continue through the world of Lucis and give you all a full review as soon as I’ve experienced everything Final Fantasy XV has to offer. So far though I have to say that this is one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve had in this decade, though I must admit a little bias because I love the Final Fantasy series.

We Got This Covered - Jowi Meli - 4.5 / 5 stars

Final Fantasy XV might continue the series’ divisive streak thanks to a number of drastic changes to the tried-and-true formula, but I personally welcomed all of these with open arms. A beautiful world, exciting real time combat and a fascinating blend of open world and linear gameplay add up to a can’t-miss experience for JRPG fans. Though the remains of a long and troubled development cycle are evident in some of its rougher patches, this new entry in the legendary RPG series comes out on top for never losing sight of its theme — a road trip that both the game’s characters and the players who go along with them won’t soon forget.

Easy Allies - Ben Moore - 4.5 / 5 stars | Written Review (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV has been a long time coming. Some have waited ever since they got their first glimpse of Noctis in 2006. Others wanted redemption after the divisive Final Fantasy XIII. The burden of expectation weighs heavy and in that sense Final Fantasy XV is not a cure-all that will please everyone. At the same time, the game feels like a leap in the right direction. At its end, we aren’t thinking about story inconsistencies or derivative side quests. We’ve found ourselves attached to a group of four friends and we’re thankful for the adventure.

Paste Magazine - Eric Van Allen - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

There is no doubt Final Fantasy XV will be divisive, but in not playing it safe, the game earns a bit of my heart back with each errant monster hunt or one-off gameplay section. It’s messy, but earnestly so, like that high-school mirror selfie. Recalling all the good and bad, the moments that make you cringe and a warmth that makes you smile, you know not everything was perfect. You can only say you’re glad you chose to make the journey.

Stevivor - Matt Gosper - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

While I may not think of this personally as a true Final Fantasy title, that doesn’t make it any less of a good game. Despite all my above quibbles, I still haven’t been able to put the controller down for any longer than it takes to visit the bathroom or refuel my needy human body. It’s understandable why this was set as a side title to the franchise initially, given how much it plays with the formula, but fresh input is what is needed to keep this franchise alive. Final Fantasy XV welcomes new players with open arms, and challenges long-time fans to try something new. It’s worth your time, and worth the wait.

Cheat Code Central - Becky Cunningham - 4 / 5 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is imperfect, but the high points of this journey outweigh the messy bits. I recommend you learn to go with the flow, spend some time with your bros, and really get lost in the game. Don't try too hard to be a completionist, but don't forsake the open-world adventures and cling too much to the main storyline. It's in the balance between the two that this tale is at its absolute best.

AngryCentaurGaming - Jeremy Penter - Buy (PS4, XB1)

If you're a fan of Final Fantasy, this is a 'Buy'. Listen, if you're not a fan of Final Fantasy, some stuff here may actually get you interested. I enjoy the combat system and of course these worlds are never really that connected, so you can always jump in without feeling too lost. But, if you are a fan, it's an instant buy. It offers an enjoyable trip through a new land, a unique twist on combat and some of the best locations in an RPG in a long damn time. Now it's not a classic and not up to the fine form some of the prior games have shown, but it's a solid contender and offers enough enjoyable playtime that as long as you know what you're getting into, whether you're an old fan or a new fan, you will probably walk away satisfied. Speaking of walking away, there's probably a good chance you'll walk away wondering just how much you would have enjoyed this though, had some of those technical issues not been there.

PlayStation LifeStyle - Keri Honea - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

Square Enix has taken quite a few risks with Final Fantasy XV to make it different from past installments or even JRPGs overall. Despite some graphical issues, they have pulled off an amazing experience, and it’s one that veterans and newcomers alike can immensely enjoy. This road trip has been well worth the wait.

Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 3.5 / 5 (PS4)

After ten long years of development, Final Fantasy XV ends up being more style than substance. It’s apparent that a lot of content wasn’t able to make the final cut as there are characters who are killed off or removed from the plot off-screen with little to no explanation, despite their important appearance and stature. The story is also poorly paced, with the core open world being utilized within the first eight chapters and the remaining seven ending up as a linear slog. It’s apparent that the story isn’t going to win any awards, but the final four chapters wind up ruining what would’ve been a decent adventure thanks to the poor plot devices. With that said, the gameplay helps make up for some of these wrongdoings. Easily the best part of Final Fantasy XV is the world Square Enix has created, as while the populated side quests lack inspiration, it ends up being an absolutely beautiful and vast playground to explore. The charming character chemistry among the four protagonists is also properly developed and the fluid combat mechanics aid the overall enjoyment. There are moments of brilliance spread across the campaign, but with it comes a frustratingly disheartening story.

TrustedReviews - Stuart Andrews - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)

Final Fantasy 15 is the best single-player Final Fantasy in a decade. The new combat system is more action-oriented, but still surprisingly tactical, while the new focus on open-world exploration brings the game and its world to life. Crammed with character, choice and interest, it’s an RPG where the good times keep on rolling down the road.

Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 5 / 5 stars (PS4)

This game alone catapults Square Enix's most important franchise right back into the circle of most elite properties in gaming, proves that AAA games can be intelligent and meaningful, and deserves every plaudit and accolade out there.

Parallax Live - Parallax Live - 85% (PS4)

Nevertheless, we're happy to recommend this to newbies or veterans of the series alike. If you're looking for a meaty game that can keep you satisfied until Christmas, Final Fantasy XV ticks almost every box.

Game Revolution - Jonathan Leack - 4 / 5 stars (PS4, XB1)

What Final Fantasy XV succeeds at more than anything is providing an unpredictable and memorable adventure. Captivating story and characters were sacrificed along the way, but more than anything this game needed to prove that Final Fantasy can still execute greatness while taking risks. Its combat system and world design carry most of the weight, supported by attractive secondary activities and a great progression system. The result is something that doesn't necessarily feel like any Final Fantasy before it, although its high production values certainly make it deserving of the name.

Attack of the Fanboy - Dean James - 4.5 / 5 stars (XB1)

Final Fantasy XV had quite a lot to live up to after so many years, and while it may have taken a decade to get here, the journey was worth the wait with this phenomenal entry in the series.

Impulsegamer - Andrew Bistak - 4.5 / 5 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is a fantastic new direction for the series that positively creates an interactive and detailed world for players to explore with a fun bromance in the background. As highlighted by the developers, it’s both a game for fans and first-timers and although the traditional mechanics have been tweaked, especially when it comes to combat, it still feels like a Final Fantasy game but more importantly a Final Fantasy game for next-gen consoles.

COGconnected - Michael Chow - 90 / 100 (PS4)

Some great character depth as well as an overhaul to both the Final Fantasy formula and battle system makes Final Fantasy XV a delight for existing fans and new players.

Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 8 / 10 (PS4)

It's difficult to judge Final Fantasy XV. It bears all the scars of troubled development, and it has a list of nagging issues a mile long, but it's more than the sum of its parts. It's fun to play and has plenty of charming and likeable moments that balance out the frustrating time-wasting elements and weak plot. FF15 is a solid entry into the franchise and is as accessible to newcomers as it is to longtime fans. It might have some rough patches, but FF15 shows that it cares about the most important thing of all: fun.

Ars Technica - Simon Parkin - Unscored (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV takes the series in a new direction, but despite some memorable moments, it remains remains a confused, uneven package.

GameZone - Tom Caswell - Unscored (XB1)

A totally competent entry in the franchise that fans and newcomers will enjoy, even if that means they won't necessarily be floored by it.

GBAtemp - Tom Bond - 6.5 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is an ok game for the most part. My biggest complaints are with the lackluster story, the lack of that “Final Fantasy” feel thanks to the modernized world, and the occasional technical issues. Is it truly a Final Fantasy game for fans and first timers? I don’t think so. All the changes they made to the standard Final Fantasy formula don’t necessarily sit well with previous games. Would I still recommend FFXV? If you’re a true JRPG fan looking for a change, absolutely.

Game Rant - Denny Connolly - 4.5 / 5 (PS4)

Final Fantasy 15 attempts to deliver an action-oriented RPG road trip that can please both old school fans and draw in fresh blood. The bro-themed road trip pulls it off.

DualShockers - Giuseppe Nelva - 9 / 10 (PS4)

It’s also a monument to the determination and dedication of a team that quite obviously poured an inordinate amount of love and passion into creating a fantastic world that is worth exploring and living, and a lovely quartet of boys that are exceptional in their normality and humanity.

I couldn’t ask for better virtual friends than Ignis, Gladio and Prompto. I laughed with them, cried with them, and I really love them.
PlayStation Universe - Neil Bolt - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

A strong-willed effort to update the series, Final Fantasy XV rises above its myriad flaws to deliver an odd, beautiful adventure that harnesses the power of friendship to maximum effect. A pleasing return to form for a much beloved series.

GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 8 / 10 (PS4)

When it’s at its best, generally during the latter third of the game, the results are often phenomenal. At its worst, you’ll wonder how it can pass as a Final Fantasy game. On the whole though, the good far outweighs the bad, making Final Fantasy XV a flawed but essential title for fans of the long-running series.

Reno Gazette-Journal - Jason Hidalgo - 4.25 / 5 (XB1)

Final Fantasy XV represents a coming of age, not just for its protagonist but a series that was met with a polarized response from Final Fantasy XIII. It shows some courageous risk-taking that breathes new life into the series’ aging formula while also encouraging the kind of exploration that was lacking in FF13. Admittedly, the modern settings and new magic system dilute some of the fantasy elements the series is known for, and the hybrid turn-based and real-time combat system can feel like a compromise to fans of the two differing styles. At the same time, this is a worthy addition to the Final Fantasy franchise that looks to the future while also honoring its past.

TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 8 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is a unique offering, both for the franchise and RPGs in general. Placing the onus on the relationships of your party, rather than the narrative, has meant that this is a game that strikes not just an emotional chord, but a personal one. While Final Fantasy stalwarts will likely balk at the action-heavy combat, the spirit of the franchise remains, and is better served here than it has been in many years.

RPG Fan - Nicholas Ransbottom - 88% (PS4)

With a fresh combat system and a lovable cast, Final Fantasy XV excels at its goal of being a title for both fans and newcomers alike.

EGM - Mollie L. Patterson - 7.5 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is nowhere close to the game that we should have received after 10 years of waiting—but it also isn’t anywhere close to the trainwreck that it easily could have been. While the storytelling is a mess and the game feels incomplete far too often, there’s enough to love here—from combat, to exploration, to the four Japanese pretty boys that make up your main party—to make FFXV a road trip worth going on.

GamesBeat - Mike Minotti - 90 /100 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV has its problems, but it’s filled with enough special moments that you can forgive the issues. The combat is fluid, thoughtful, and cinematic while the open world gives you a ton to do.

Rocket Chainsaw - Adam Ghiggino - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)

Let’s get the obvious question out of the way – was Final Fantasy XV worth the wait? Honestly, from the jumbled storyline it seems the project has to have been changed, re-jigged, and re-thought so many times that I doubt whether the final product resembles the original concept fans were waiting for all this time. What the game is ultimately, is Square-Enix’s response to more modern open-world RPG’s and bringing Final Fantasy up to speed to play in that space. And despite poor storytelling and a dodgy linear back half, the majority of the game delivers on a satisfying open-world experience, with tons to do, deep combat and some fantastical visuals. Luckily, you’ll spend far more time in the open-world than you will in the main quest (I spent 40 hours in-game, probably 25 of which were in side content), and it’s easy to recommend for that aspect alone. Final Fantasy XV feels like a true progression for the series, and I can only hope XVI isn’t another 10 years away.

Do You Even Game Bro? - Kieran Stockton - 7.9 / 10 (PS4)

Lacklustre side missions and difficulty balance issues can't fully tarnish this beautiful adventure in a grand setting. Final Fantasy XV is a game that fought hard to exist, and does the series proud

Pause Resume - Casey Wilkerson - 3 / 5 (PS4)

Final Fantasy 15 is a wonderful title, and a hell of a lot of fun to have played. It’s easily one of the best JRPG’s I’ve ever seen, and I wanted so badly to give it a four out of five, but when I realized that I finished reading an entire novel waiting to get from place to place in the Regalia, I knew I couldn’t. It’s a fine game, and it deserves a chance, but I hope everyone has a bit more patience than I do.

SA Gamer - Garth Holden - 9.5 / 10 (PS4)

This might be the darkest game in the series, but it is also, I feel, the best one so far. This is Final Fantasy, right down to the heart of it: four warriors of light looking for a crystal.

Next-Gen Gaming Blog - Adam Neaves - 10 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is not only my favourite game of 2016, it is up there as one of my favourite games of all time. I could of easily used another 2 or 3 thousand words to describe this game, but if you are reading this, get out and buy this game now! With 100 hours easy of gameplay packed in, including hundreds of sidequests, fishing, chocobo racing and more, Final Fantasy XV will keep you very busy this Christmas period. Square Enix put at the start of the game, Final Fantasy XV is a Final Fantasy for newcomers and veterans of the series, and they are right. Perfection is hard to get, but this comes as near as you're ever going to get.

Gamerheadquarters - Jason Stettner - 8.2 / 10 (XB1)

Final Fantasy XV is an intriguing tale that follows the adventures of these close friends in an incredible world. The music is absolutely fantastic as well providing extra life to the story. I did find some aspects of the story to be a bit off, this being mainly in the tone considering the gravity of what was happening in the world. While smooth I also found the combat to be repetitive after awhile and the game could have used some better checkpoints. It was annoying to restart a dungeon at times and instead of battling through it again, I'd resort to just running by everything. That aside, the story was at its best during smaller interactions and the more intimate scenes with the group were great.

Gadgets 360 - Rishi Alwani - 8 / 10 (PS4)

Is Final Fantasy XV everything it ought to be? For fans, yes. Without question, this is the Final Fantasy game you’ve been waiting for. That's actually surprising given how tumultuous its decade-long development as been. For first-timers, it depends how tolerant you are of narrative failings. Look past that, and you’re treated to fantastic moment to moment gameplay, and an intricate set of systems that will have you coming back for more.

Niche Gamer - Michael Jordan - 7 / 10 (PS4)

Everything outside the story missions is a lot of fun, but the story missions themselves are a massive disappointment. It almost seems like there were two games being developed at the same time.
The first is an amazingly interesting world-exploration game filled with great characters, interesting concepts, with the potential to expand; or a nonsensical, linear story game that feels it does not need to explain major portions of itself and leaves the player asking themselves “Why?” constantly. The world exploration, side quests, hunts, and clever travel banter is worth the purchase but the main story is not.

Pure Playstation - Kyle Durant - 6.5 / 10 (PS4)

The story and writing really let Final Fantasy XV down. Even the least favorite entries of the series have a coherent narrative albeit some unlikable ones. Characters are either here for no reason or haven't been developed in any way and certain actions/lack of knowledge between our main heroes really deprive this experience. I'm just glad the gameplay, combat, and interesting open world to explore redeemed Final Fantasy XV from obscurity. I take no pleasure in feeling this way about the highly anticipated title and I literally fell into a small depression after I beat the story. There are good ideas to like here but none of it comes together better than a high school literature project. If gameplay and exploration isn't enough to sate you (ala No Man's Sky) then this title may well be one to avoid.

Goomba Stomp - Mike Worby - 8.8 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV somehow transcends its many flaws in order to become a classic in its own right. Though any reviewer worth their salt would be hesitant to rate it too highly, due to its many faults, by any stretch of the gaming medium, Final Fantasy XV has clear and obvious merit, and, as such, cannot be dismissed or derided completely, even with its problems.

ZTGD - Jae Lee - 8 / 10 (PS4)

With such a lengthy and troubled development cycle, it was really anyone’s guess how FFXV would turn out in the end. Even though I’m relatively pleased with the outcome as the four friends carry the moment to moment gameplay with grace, the disjointed and lackluster storyline leaves an indelible mark on what is otherwise an incredibly well crafted RPG well worth experiencing.

PCMag - Gabriel Zamora - 3.5 / 5 stars (PS4)

Final fantasy XV has solid open-world exploration, enjoyable action, and plenty of content, but it's packaged together with awkward gameplay decisions and a mess of a story.

Arcade Sushi - Jason Fanelli - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is an ideal experience for a new age of the franchise, and I’m looking forward to diving back in to see what I missed the first time.

MMORPG.com - Robert Lashley - 9 / 10

Final Fantasy XV is by no means a perfect game. There is a lot of potential and some of it does feel squandered but even with it’s shortcomings I truly enjoyed the adventure. The developers took risks and some of them paid off while others feel a little flat. I look forward to all of the upcoming free updates as well as the DLC and experiencing how the world evolves. The magic of the franchise is still there and I emotionally connected with this game the same now as I did with some of the other great entries at different points through my life. I may have ended up skipping a few along the way but XV definitely brought the allure and luster back. This really is a Final Fantasy for both new and old hats to the franchise alike.

NZGamer - Mark MacAulay - 9.2 / 10 (PS4)

Ten years is a long time, but Final Fantasy XV is well worth the wait.

Wccftech - Chris Wray - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV is a true return to form for the series. The main story of the game is passable, but surpassed by the fantastic tale of Noctis and his three friends, Gladiolus, Prompto and Ignis. The world they live in, the interconnectivity and just how alive it feels makes for a great game, warts and all.

TrueAchievements - Kevin Tavore - 3.5 / 5 stars (XB1)

Final Fantasy XV is a game about a journey between friends and for a journey, it's a fine one. The game has got issues ranging from poor character development to dull combat and generic side quests, but it's also something special thanks to memorable friends and amazing music. The developer wanted to make a game for fans and newcomers alike and they made many changes to the typical Final Fantasy formula. The result is a game that is not like what you would expect, but for those who want to find something to love here, there's something to find.

High-Def Digest - Sophia Edwards - 4.5 / 5 stars (PS4)

While it occasionally buckles under its own ambition and the game falters somewhat as the plot ramps up, overall 'Final Fantasy XV' is a beautiful, exciting game that I dearly loved. It may not be the best game I've played this year, but it is almost certainly my favorite, and Square Enix has built an incredible, extremely unique open-world. While I'm not sure I want 'FFXVI' to follow suit and be an open-world like this one, I'd absolutely love to see them expand upon some of the ideas presented here in future. A remarkable return to form for a franchise that many felt had lost its way.

The Jimquisition - Jim Sterling - 8 / 10 (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV, despite significant and glaring problems, is still a lovely time that managed to make me like Final Fantasy again. It’s a character piece, and the characters we spend our time with are fully realized and play off each other so well. It’s a lighter journey that nonetheless knows when to get serious, spurred by a charismatic nemesis and a quartet of lovable, beautiful boys.

^{Thanks OpenCritic for the review formatting help!}

Hello again, everyone. Remember a couple of days ago when I asked this:
"Can we do "prime point" next?"
And this:
"So, like I said, can we do "prime point" next?"
Well it occurred to me this morning that it would be of no use sitting around and chanting for an answer; if I really wanted to know what these two words together are supposed to mean, I'd have to first pose the question -- and then do some digging myself. To the internet!
From the first nineteen Google entries for "Prime", I see that the word Prime is defined as a paid subscription service from the Amazon corporation, wherein drones will same-day deliver packages right through your bedroom window while you sleep, and drop them directly on your lazy face! What a great time to be alive! Are we in the sixth bell of kosen-rufu?
But if we look far enough down the page, we find an actual dictionary. Webster tells us that the word "Prime" exists as a noun, adjective, or verb, each of which has different implications for how this word could potentially be used. It actually has a wide range of definitions, but these are the ones which best apply:
As a noun, prime could mean "the earliest stage", "the most active, thriving, or satisfying stage or period" (e.g., the prime of life), or "the chief or best individual or part".
As an adjective, it could mean "first in time", "first in rank, authority, or significance", "having the highest quality or value", or "not deriving from something else" (i.e., "primary").
As a verb, it could mean "to apply the first color, coating, or preparation to", "to put into working order by filling or charging with something", "to instruct beforehand" (e.g., "priming a witness"), or "to take steps to encourage the growth or functioning of something".
Three general themes emerge. As a noun or adjective, "prime" could mean first in sequence, or foremost in significance or quality. But as a verb, it also holds the meaning of: to prepare or influence someone or something.
Knowing how incredibly loose with language and soft-in-focus the people of the cult are accustomed to being, I wouldn't be surprised if any given usage comprises all three meanings at the same time. As in: "My "first" (and only) experience meeting Sensei, was accordingly the "most important" thing to ever happen to me, and it "encouraged my growth and functioning" as a wide-eyed Ikedabot! It was the "prime point" of my faith!
Then there's also the word "point". Without combing through the dictionary on this one, I can think of two usages of the word "point" that apply:
-- A "point" in space-time, i.e., where and when something happened. -- The "point" of something, which would be its intended purpose or message.
Dividing our previous three definitions into these two further categories, we're already looking at six ways in which this term could be applied, without even getting into any sort of specific context!
With these definitions in mind, let us now arrive at that universal prime point for present-day intellectual inquiry - a friendly Google search!
First the control search: A search for "prime point" gets us absolutely nowhere near the world of religion. It's a payroll processing company, a secular Indian non-profit foundation, and several other companies. However, a search for "prime point Buddhism" gets us all the SGI sources we need. So no, the term "prime point" is not in widespread use.
I did see a couple of Nichiren blogs using the term, so I believe the term is used in Nichiren Buddhism outside of the scope of the SGI. If any of our Nichiren-loving friends would like to set the record straight about what the term is supposed to mean in their tradition, that would be very helpful.
But for the purposes of this paper on this subreddit, I'm concerned with how the SGI uses the term, so what I searched for was 'SGI "prime point"'
Let's look at the first twenty-four salient examples I could find, from Ikeda himself, SGI publications, chapters of the SGI around the world, and individual members speaking on their own blogs, to get a sense of how this word is used throughout the world of Ikedaism. (These were just the bulk of the examples I could find before the Google search stopped giving me good results. If you have any others, please include them in the comments and let's keep the discussion going!)
First up: A World Tribune experience - (which I've actually made fun of already in a prior post, titled "Now that's how you experience!") in which a national women's leader named Naoko describes her and her mother's brief-but-fateful 1971 encounter with Sensei (as a 2-year old) by saying "This encounter became the prime point of our practice."
2: The words "prime point" appear in the caption beneath a picture of Sensei and the missus: "Prime point—SGI President and Mrs. Ikeda in the Mentor Memorial Room of Ota Ikeda Culture Center, Ota Ward, Tokyo, Dec. 9, 2015. Ota is President Ikeda’s hometown and the place where he met his mentor, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda, for the first time at age 19."
3: Execrable Sensei poem! "The Day of the Founding! This is a day Shining with brilliant splendor On which we return To our prime point Of time without beginning."
4: Daily encouragement: "Life is a series of changes, a succession of ups and downs. But those who possess a prime point, a home to which they can return no matter what happens, are strong. To come home to the world of friendship in the SGI, to talk things over and prepare for a fresh departure--this is the way I hope all of you will live."
5: An experience: "It was the first time I noticed the wide disparity in resources among students. I couldn't see any justification for it, and this became my prime point in wishing to improve the lives of others through education. I determined to become a person who could work for social justice..."
6: From someone in SGI India: "Struggle leads to establish foundation through campaign. What is the Prime point of faith? Making the Prime point by empowering ourselves to endure this struggle now. Take personal action not wait for others with daimoku and conviction. Like Ikeda Sensei."
7: From daisakuikeda.org: "Mr. Ikeda declared that the SGI movement's prime point is "for the people and with the people." He described this orientation as a source of unlimited strength and wisdom."
8: From an Ikeda lecture entitled "Prime Point of Faith": "The prime point of our faith and practice is [the Gohonzon], and throughout the Latter Day of the Law, no other principle can lead us to Buddhahood."

1. From SGI Canada: "Helen also shared her mother’s recent struggle with cancer and her fierce determination to spread this Buddhism with her doctors and nurses imparting to all of us the prime point of faith and our vow to our mentor President Ikeda. Everyone was encouraged to the core."

10: A presentation about the importance of March 16, which states that "It will eternally be a day that signifies the prime point of mentor and disciple"
11: Blog post about a Gosho letter. Nichiren says: "Whatever trouble occurs, regard it as no more than a dream, and think only of the Lotus Sutra.", and later on the writer comments: "It is exactly at such times that one should go back to the prime point of faith and stand up again to challenge the problem based on faith – this is what the Daishonin is teaching here in this passage."
12: Quora answer from longtime SGI member: "The Gohonzon, such as the ones people have in their homes, is the prime point of faith, not a particular Gohonzon in a far off place."
13: Ikeda speech: "Today, at this gathering to commemorate May 3 -- which represents the prime point of the Soka Gakkai and the SGI -- I want you to understand this earnest, unwavering spirit that guides my life."
14: From BSG India: "The prime point of BSG’s growth has been the visits of SGI President Ikeda to India in the last five decades."
15: From an Ikeda lecture: "“First, the prime point for building peace lies in recognizing the absolute value of human life."
16: Message from Kaneko Ikeda to SGI-UK: "Her second son has shared that he cherishes as his prime point in faith the words that President Ikeda addressed to him as a future division member: “Treasure your mother.”
17: Ikeda Lotus Sutra lecture: "Therefore, each day we return to the point of departure at life's wellspring, and from there we begin to advance anew. Doing gongyo and chanting daimoku is the secret teaching for returning to the world of kuon ganjo. Every day, we set forth from kuon ganjo. Faith to continually set forth from this eternal prime point is faith in the Buddhism of the true cause."
18: SGI Netherlands: "I hope that you, too, will create a fulfilling and joyous summer course, which will enable you to create a renewed prime point in your faith and become a flash point for furthering kosen-rufu in your respective communities."
19: Daily encouragement: "It’s by studying Buddhism together and talking over what we have learned with each other that we develop the prime point of our faith and practice."
20: Soka Spirit lecture: "The Soka Gakkai’s prime point of eternal youth: The day on which the will of the original Buddha, Nichiren Daishonin, for worldwide kosen-rufu is passed on from mentor to disciple, from life to life. This is March 16."
21: Ikeda Lotus Sutra lecture: "Buddhist dialogue is the prime point for bringing change to people's lives."
22: From the "Fraught With Peril" blog, on the subject of why people might leave the SGI: "All too often, people leave without understanding the prime point that chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo and maintaining faith in the Lotus Sutra is what’s vital."
23: Blogger: "The concept of being a Global Citizen is not new, there have been many civil rights activists and world leaders who have made this their prime point. One organization, the SGI or Soka Gakkai International, focuses it's efforts on raising awareness of how interconnected we all are."
24: Experience: “Music and culture inspire and empower, they soothe the human heart and enlighten the spirit. I have made it my prime point to create music and live my life as an artist and a human being in a way that does just that.”
Discussion:
First of all, one thing I noticed from looking through these sources is that the term "prime point" only ever seems to appear once in a given writing - whether it be in something as short as a daily encouragement, or as long as an essay. It's like all these various writers are pleased with themselves for using the term once, but they dare not return to it, lest they invite further consideration of what it actually means. (Also, it certainly stands to mention that I could not find a single source of SGI-related discussion as to what the term specifically means.)
In the majority of these examples, the term is used to describe an abstract concept - a feeling, a motivation, a state of mind, an ethic, a sense of community, or the basis for one's personal philosophy.
The notable exceptions would be 8, 12, 13, 14, 20 and 22, in which the term "prime point" refers to something objective: The Gohonzon, the Gohonzon again, a day (May 3rd), a series of visits from Sensei, another day (March 16), and the NMRK chant itself. (3 and 10 also make reference to those days on the calandar, but in those examples the day is said to be a reminder of, or tribute to, a thought or state of mind.)
Then there are those in the in-betweener category, having to do with the community aspects of the organization itself: (#4: The prime point is the "world of friendship" in the SGI / #18: Having a nice time at the summer course! / #19: Studying together! / #21: Dialogue is the prime point!). Would they be referring to community, friendship, dialogue and study as abstract concepts - perhaps related to the feeling of security one gets from knowing there exist others who believe along the same lines as yourself? Or are those ideas meant to apply to real life, as in, "study" is when you sit down to read, and "community" is when you show up to the center, and "friendship" that rare occasion when one of your cult friends actually does something fun or helpful with you on your own time?
Lemme guess: Is it both? It's both, isn't it. It's always both. I can't actually blame SGI squarely for this particular application of soft focus, since it seems to be baked into religious thought in general. Kind of like how Christians use the word "Church" to mean either literal building (with a roof always in need of repair), or to refer to the collective spirit of all true believers everywhere? I'm not sure, but perhaps the term "Sangha" in Buddhism is used the same way.
In examples 1, 2 and 14, we see "prime" as first, primary, or original: That woman's first encounter with Sensei; The place where Sensei met Toda; Visits from Sensei as formative events.
In many of these examples, the term "prime point" seems to be used as a stand-in for "the thing that I'm willing to outwardly claim as the motivation behind my SGI practice". As mentioned above, that thing could be related to the community, friends, activities or physical meeting places.
In examples 5, 6, 7, 15, 23 and 24 - the term is directly used to describe a mission statement or basis of one's personal philosophy. (As in, "the prime point of this subreddit is that cults are immoral, and the SGI is a cult"). The examples given make vague references to income inequality, human rights, "global citizenry", the healing power of music, and some appropriately obtuse mention of the importance of struggle.
Given that this is a cult of personality we're dealing with, a perfectly acceptable prime point (1, 2, 14, 16) would be any encounter a person has had with Sensei himself. That's because he's such a God-among-mortals that even the most cursory of encounters with him would be enough to send one's spiritual life into overdrive and is worth reframing each of your subsequent life experiences as an extension of that one moment. You know, like "follow me and become my disciple"? So there's that.
And speaking of master-and-disciple, another interpretation of the term "prime point" seems to be "defining characteristic of our belief structure". (#9: Prime point is a "vow" / #10: Prime point is the idea of "mentor and disciple" / #11: Keeping the Lotus Sutra in your thoughts)
And THEN there's the weirdness going on in 3 and 17, both of which seem to suggest that the true nature of the "prime point" is as something that exists outside of time and space. #3 refers to "our Prime point of time without beginning". And #17 is all about something called "the world of kuon ganjo" which is the "point of departure at life's wellspring", the "eternal prime point", the world to which we return when we do gongyo, as per the "Buddhism of the true cause".
So what does THAT mean? Here's what it sounds like to me: This world of "kuon ganjo" is probably analogous to that "ninth level of consciousness" - a realm of timeless perfection which contains our truest unsullied nature. When we chant, we gain temporary access to this level of energy, from which we can borrow to vitalize and purify the lower, karma-bound levels of our being. Because it is outside of space and time, any visit we make to this realm constitutes a "fresh departure" in the truest sense - not merely a changing of our Earthly minds, but an essential reset for our spiritual bodies. In other words, if only we could live in that state of mind permanently, we could be Buddhas for real! But since we can't, we should make it a goal to do regular Daimoku, so we can sip a little bit of that energy once or twice a day!
I suppose this is how the ideas of "prime point" and "fresh departure" are intertwined: wherever or whenever it is that you can escape the lower aspects of your consciousness - be it in the moment you feel inspired to take up a cause, or when you achieve warmth and fuzziness with your cult friends, or whenever you can get lost in the warm blanket of self-hypnotizing daimoku, or if you have the rare opportunity to grovel at the feet of a larger-than-life dictator type - whatever it is that gets you there, is your "prime point". That's why there are so many varying definitions of that term.
So what is so insidious about this type of glossy language? What's wrong with being encouraged to discover the "prime point" for your "fresh departure"?
Well, for one thing, as we all know, the rhetoric that SGI likes to employ is not even-handed: it tends to be heavily slanted in favor of certain concepts. "Winning", for example, is arguably the single most defining concept of Ikedaism, and the thing that sets it apart from traditional Buddhism. If you disagree with the premise that Buddhism is an earnest struggle to "win" - and especially if you are opposed to having other people define for you what that means in the first place - then you probably do not have the SGI engraved in your heart.
"Youthfulness" is another concept that the SGI leans heavily upon. Not only literal youth, in the form of highly impressionable young people, but youthfulness as an expression of perpetual enthusiasm for being a team player and a readiness for being told what to think. Which I suppose is Ikeda's way of asserting that, despite him giving young people all the press, impressionable people of all ages are still very much needed to fill out the ranks of his empire.
I believe that the SGI's penchant for overusing the term "fresh departure" comes from the same place as its focus on youth. Being born is the freshest departure of all. Being indoctrinated (in school, cult, wherever else) is a fresh departure down a new path as well. Being brainwashed, traumatized, broken down and then built up - all of these things are fresh departures as well. Ultimately, the "freshest" state of mind would be one in which no memories linger from the past, as if you were the goldfish from Finding Nemo, or perhaps the dude from Memento. They can't get you there, but they sure can get you as close as possible with a life of self-hypnosis (promoted as the cure to all of life's ills), punctuated by defining moments of high emotional pitch - such as a culture festival, a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with the leader of your cult, or even that one moment each month when you can shed tears at a twenty-five year old recording of a meeting held in Japan.
It's all emotional manipulation. Ultimately, a person "practicing" in the style of Ikedaism is paradoxically trying to build an enduring spiritual experience out of a series of momentary occurrences in which one is "refreshed", hypnotized, corrected, strung along towards the future, and generally denied the right of a mature individual to piece together a philosophy for oneself.
In the context of "getting them while they're young", the idea of something being "primary" is not at all benign. The things that get to you first - or at least when you first begin your own personal search for meaning - have a way of sinking in the deepest. The later in life a person encounters a group like the SGI, the greater the chance that something - anything - they've learned in earlier life will stand in contrast to either the spiritual perspective or the day-to-day reality of cult life. But if you were exposed to as a young person to ideas like "kuon ganjo", chanting for success, and idolizing a dictator...those ideas can be hard to unlearn.
Perhaps the "prime point" represents one's point of "departure" from the world of non-believers? It could be something as obvious as the fact of praying to a scroll, or the fact that you feel such love for Ikeda, OR something as subtle as the idea that you believe in civil rights and human equality, but partially as a function of your efforts for kosen-rufu, and not simply because those are good things to believe in. OR it could be that you are in the practice of using terms like "prime point" simply because you read them in some cult literature, and you want to signal your agreement with the whole process.
Either way it means that something has been subtly (or not-so-subtly) implanted into your identity as a human being. And that thing, in order for it to really take hold, must be 1) primary in the sense of having happened before your other formative experiences, 2) of prime importance to you for whatever reason, and 3) priming you in the sense of preparing you to see things in a certain light.
To me, all this talk of "priming" reminds me of the idea of giving an experience versus having an experience - offering a heavily censored, and sanitized and self-deluded version of your story to the cult newspaper, to earn brownie points from no one in particular, as opposed to remembering the events of your life in terms of what they meant to you. It's like going to the concert of life and being the poor soul who holds up your phone the whole time, as opposed to enjoying the show firsthand.
Let's not be those people with our phones in the air, and let's avoid giving in to groupthink via the adoption of phrases that have no clear meaning! Hai!

Psalm One hundred forty-six – Extolation [שבח, ShahBahH] to [the] righteousness of The Name [ה', Hah’]  

“This is the first of the collection of five hallelujah psalms which have been set at the end of the Psalter. Pss. [Psalms] 147-150 are clearly congregational hymns of praise. Ps. [Psalm] 146, though included in such a category, arises out of an individual’s thoughts on what he had learned about the goodness of the Lord…  
“… his style… is simple and innocent of literary pretension. A lack of originality is shown by the considerable measure of his indebtedness to other psalms for his material… Nor is it a mark of good literary taste that in the Hebrew text the half lines of vss. [verses] 7, 8 are rhymed.  
“However, in spite of these strictures on his style, the psalmist has a special place in the Psalter because like the prophets he is concerned for the lot of the oppressed in the community. With few exceptions (cf. [compare with] Pss. 10; 15; 24; 37; 72; 94; 103) the psalmists, being chiefly interested in the liturgical or the purely personal aspects of religion, do not sound the social note. For our psalmist the thing which evokes his never-ending praises to God is not God’s majesty or splendor or dominion or power, as manifested in the world and in history, but God’s concern for the hungry, the oppressed, the friendless, the blind, the widow, and the orphan.  
“The date of the psalm is late as shown by its late or Aramaic words, e.g. [for example], ש [Sh, “that”] (vs. 3b), עשתנות [`ahShThahNOTh, “ideas”] (vs. 4b), שבר [SahBahR, “attend”] (vs. 5b), זקף [ZahQahPh, “straighten”] (vs. 8b); its debt to other psalms, some of which are late; and the influence of the wisdom school on its structure… The meter is generally 3+3, with some variations such as 4+4 (vs. 4), and 4+3 (vs. 5).” (Taylor, 1955, pp. IV 745-746)  

-1. Praise YaH,
Praise me, [הללי, HaLeLeeY], my soul, YHVH.
-2. I will praise YHVH in my life,
I will perform to my Gods in my continuing [בעודי, Be`ODeeY].  
-3. Do not rely in nobles [בנדיבים, BeeNeDeeYBeeYM],
in son ‎[of]‎ ’ahDahM ["man", Adam], that has to him no salvation;  

This is the only place that I’ve seen the term son ‎[of]‎ ’ahDahM used in a negative sense; this, of course, is a term Jesus used of himself. It may be that the difference is the lack of the definite article, in other words, there may be many sons of Adam, but there is only one “The” Son of Adam, in the sense it is used in the New Testament.

 
-4. goes out, his spirit, returned to his ground;
in day the that lost are his ideas [עשתנתיו, `ehShThoNoThahYV].
-5. Fortunate that God [of] Yah-`ahQoB ["Yah Followed", Jacob] is in his help.  

“The equating of Jacob with Judah is a feature of postexilic literature (cf. Isa. [Isaiah] 65:9; Obad. [Obadiah] 10).” (Taylor, 1955, p. IV 748)  

His expectation [שברו, SeeBRO] is upon YHVH his Gods,
-6. maker of skies and land,
[את, ’ehTh, indicator of direct object; no English equivalent] the sea and [את, ’ehTh] all that is in them,
the guardian faithful to [the] world,
-7. doer [of] justice to [the] oppressed [לעשוקים, Lah`ahSOoQeeYM],
giver [of] bread to [the] hungry;  
YHVH pardoner [מתיר, MahTheeYR] [of] prisoners [אשורים, ’ahÇOoReeYM].
-8. YHVH opener [פקח, PahQay-ahH] [of] [the eyes] of [the] blind,
YHVH straightener [זקף, ZoQayPh] [of] [the] bent,  

The above phrase appears in Psalm 145:14

 
YHVH lover of [the] righteous.
-9. YHVH guardian [את, ’ehTh] aliens.  
Orphan and widow He supports [יעודד, Ye`ODayD],  

“For the royal responsibility to protect the alien, fatherless, and widow, cf. Jer [Jeremiah] 22:1-4.” (Kselman-Barre', 1990, p. 551)  

and [the] way [of] [the] wicked he frustrates [יעות, Ye`ahVayTh].
-10. King, YHVH, to [the] world,
your Gods, TseeYON ["Fortress", Zion], to generation and generation.  
Praise YaH.   An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible

Logic has limits, which are revealed through using sublime intuition upon intellectual content (the portrayal of frequency arcs upon the comparitively discrete conscious grasp). You cannot come to know something that you don't know; you must pass your eyes over content to better appreciate that unknown factor which will come to you. Mind gains more inertia the more that it discovers. You are left with less hyperactivity; less disused and wasted mental energies. Your knowledge and understanding becomes simplified, compacted into a higher compound form, out of view of the inferior original prize. If you didn't know consciously or unconsciously how to downgrade your thinking, as a general property and quality of existence itself;- then this presents a principle of growth and sophistication, going upwards by understanding. Your mind doesn't know how to revert to earlier states or configurations. It has no principles to do so; they are all out of possible mental consideration. The only hyperconformity that remains is that which is still necessitated. This is genuine exercised mental effort in action. This is the principal form of mind: select; appropriate; match; learn; configure; find optimizations and configure solutions; become conscious of more general principles; observe and reveal the big picture. Reflection is a specific, more abstract task of mind, and involves many more continuous visitations upon internal concepts (branching lower and farther down) in order to operate.
Thought is formed from abstract substances laid down with one another. In the continuous process of thought, these facets are interleaved one after the other, in attempt to better highlight the highly varying/variant character of such thought when composed with other, competing thought or with concepts from content. We can imagine an analogous frequency graph which displays continuously emanating wave forms, moving along time (frequency motion in the objective frequency domain of pure mind, which moves along with the objective spatiotemporal domain), interleaving common coordant patterns (concrete) and commonalities (abstract; parallel) which are then grasped as conceptual datum by unconscious mind. Consciousness directs the ebb and flow of these wave activites, by the highest order (the ruling common principles of the mind). With waves, what do you get? You get patterns, and patterns are intuitable as well as distinctly observable (if the mind is itself mathematical and is inherently using mathematics everywhere).
The content you encounter typically rarely changes enough to provoke changes from your seat of consciousness. This is the sleeping kind of life, rather than the examined life. It's all in the interpretation, and active dynamic mind concerns principles of flexing; principles of variation;- principles of (dis)continuity abound. Sensory thinkers can concern themselves with how similar a new experience is to the old regularity. Broad thinkers (conceptual thingifiers) discern intuition or rational analyses. Broad focus can be brought to bear on content ("head in the clouds"), or narrow focus can be selected (becoming aware of distinct individual component shapes in the room around you).
A selected (targeted) waveform will have further constituent constituted properties (suspended properties) to it for examination. Continuous mind revolves and convolves using concepts and appreciations thereof. It encroaches on and develops its own contexts. It traverses eternal conceptual definition and expression (objective mental schema as actualized) by its own internal mental schema (unconscious and conscious understanding; subjective mental schema as imposed characteristically).
Shape, colour, categorizing class, are all mathematical definitions. Mathematics must be ascertaining the locally bound qualities of the math it is feeling and sweeping analytically. Your thought definition is bound by the analytical clout (depth and depth of detail; sophistication; ultimately, the synthesized simplification) you can bring to bear on the thought content. Inwards, content is always constructed upwards (uplifted and upfiltered) from the visual, spatial, objective world. Temporal qualities also count as an aspect of mind. Thought content can be brought to bear on observed mental contents derived from the sensory, temporal apparatus;- mind has a certain window (objective wavefunction collapse) with which to achieve this. With continuous thoughts, you can reflect and suspend something for longer; you can take time to feel out the details, as if you would eventually know it as a large tome (the evidence mounts up). You feel out the mathematical shape (abstract form) for it. You trace how it moves and details and incurs change (modification in synthesis; meta properties of the constituent concept). This takes the time for competing thoughts to be modulated (inhibited or amplified) upon the thinking space.
The frequency with which you visit the spatial condition of things in your home is down to rational, conceptual considerations, and primarily those would be, animating principles (the soul).
"It therefore seems that all the affections of soul involve a body-passion, gentleness, fear, pity, courage, joy, loving, and hating; in all these there is a concurrent affection of the body. In support of this we may point to the fact that, while sometimes on the occasion of violent and striking occurrences there is no excitement or fear felt, on others faint and feeble stimulations produce these emotions, viz. when the body is already in a state of tension resembling its condition when we are angry. Here is a still clearer case: in the absence of any external cause of terror we find ourselves experiencing the feelings of a man in terror. From all this it is obvious that the affections of soul are enmattered formulable essences." ― Aristotle
There are far more abstract animating principles at play. Platitudes or Plato? We engage in conscious selection, which also entails and enlabours unconscious selection, within a community setting (or there is none docked to the considerations). The many flowing states of life are visited upon a consistent mind and person, which may be a prude for example. Social rational considerations are rife (in the Ego). Spiritual and rational concerns are rife (in the Self; or they are not present in some souls). All of this varies dynamically and is up for due rotation as accords a rotating, shifting princple for what issues and items should be closely visited or brought to memory (this varies with the life circumstance and the contest principle). Subject matter is in play, always. The mind has a focus and it has a consciousness principle. Mind actualizes what it sees to be the first due priority according the current task, environment, circumstance, surrounding, and the mental surroundings (the Self; the entire psyche). If we are troubled or inhibited in ourselves by some other force, we cannot reflect.
The principal cause of enmattered formulable essences on Spirit is something which is upfiltered and gained (derived) by the mind as it passes over content (embodiment and the senses and temporal activity). This is provided via various vectors of integration of contents towards unconscious principles. If we are affected negatively by something (fear of death), then this obviously overrides of normal unconscious activity; but this is a spiritual principle, not an empirical principle. You can't organize empirical principles; there is nothing to organize. You are only faced with an unchanging mass of objective content and objective form. Objectivity doesn't parse or translate aspects of objectivity. Only Spirit (subjectivity) can achieve this, and its principal necessary base for doing so is its psyche (spiritual substance). This comes in the form of Ego, persona and thinking as well as Self, archetype and spiritual conviction. In Ontological Mathematics, mind is mathematical organism (thinking substance).
"The doctrine of the Pythagoreans seems to rest upon the same ideas; some of them declared the motes in air, others what moved them, to be soul. These motes were referred to because they are seen always in movement, even in a complete calm. The same tendency is shown by those who define soul as that which moves itself; all seem to hold the view that movement is what is closest to the nature of soul, and that while all else is moved by soul, it alone moves itself. This belief arises from their never seeing anything originating movement which is not first itself moved." ― Aristotle
Reduction and skepticism are extremely important for a true thinker. In this, we get to grips with what we actually mean, via the dialectical oppositions and derivations. When the animating principle (the soul) moves, what is it doing? It's enlivening and actualizing its best base principles that it knows will help it on its journey towards universal understanding and knowledge. It seeks completion, but it doesn't know the conscious aspect of the journey and how this will best go; how best to get to grips with the highest syntheses and slingshot itself by the most insightful means possible. We are all in the interest of optimizing ourselves; do we even know ourselves enough?
The motion of the soul is simply reason. You cannot derive much from this general level of observation and analysis. What concerns Spirit and the animating principle (the soul) is how it is affected by the world through its far-reaching, long-range trials and challenges. You are always supposed to be gaining the maximum possible breadth and depth of knowledge (where breadth knowledge is learning and study, and where intuition is depth knowledge). You are supposed to touch all the most interesting story and knowledge content of the world as you age, and you are supposed to learn by analysis and broad focus of mental activity, and you aren't supposed to skim on thinking contribution. Nothing gets past you, is the idea. To get to more specific principles, we have to examine actual salient problem scenarios (really, these are problem spaces).
The Higher Self coordinates the general, abstract efforts of the Person in locating the best possible outcomes. Alma Deutscher taught herself to play piano at 6. Different minds have different skills and abilities (really, reasoning power) that accord best rational and psychological principles. Highly skilled minds can visit the Higher Self in much more focused, narrow, local/recent, distinct ways than just a general abstract organizing principle (long-range; long-term). The Higher Self need not be convoluted to the conscious mind (this would adapt and modulate through your connection to your unconscious and your soul). The more conscious the mind is, the more powerful and adaptive it can be (owing of course to hard raw unconscious mathematical power). The more active and dynamic and conscious the mind is of itself, the more the Higher Self can grow inwards and towards tighter spots and reaches of near, close, recent mental activity. The soul is the Self of a psyche schema, where the Higher Self furnishes its Ego as well (spiritual Ego; spiritual Ego animating principle); the Higher Self is mostly built of Self concept. The Higher Ego soothes you relating to spiritual conditions. The Higher Self ultimately concerns the Hero Archetype, the (Sublimated) Archon and Phoster archetypes and the God Archetype (all of these present interpersonal and communal qualities, with universal psychology). When your soul selects things for you, you have achieved Soul Contact. Principally this only happens in the rarest of transcendental dreams. Soul Contact concerns the incessant, relentless chasing of the highest animating principle; the profound (robust) motion principle. There is always room for improvement, and Spirit is always seeking out potential in front of itself. It has the best holistic frequency processing means to achieve this. You will only find sustained Soul Contact by breathing the dialectical life onto yourself and undergoing radical change (spontaneous adoption of new opinion and new motion principles). The connection with the unconscious is the most vital and telling part of this. The unconscious houses the Spirit, the soul, the Self, and every potent archetype and libido generation mechanism within it. The soul's resurgence form emanating out of our unconscious contents has to be distinguished for exact purpose, and must be sifted from the rest of unconscious priorities/procession, and this is only possible via the highest symphony of Self, conscious, unconscious, soul, reason, will, intellect, Shadow, libido, and so on. In fact, you don't want consistent Soul Contact; you want optimal Soul Contact frequency. Though you can enjoy the ride of the increased unconscious communication envelope. (And it would be wrong to have transcendental dreams every night; even vivid dreams every 2 nights for extended periods of time. Dreams are motivated by psychodramatic concerns). You are trying to reach the soul on its own; the soul in its essential quality. You are trying to help organize (actualize) it. You are trying to breathe life to its principal condition, but in the conscious self consistently for extended periods of time (pattern; form). Your frequency Self does not have the means to constantly provide support in suggestions, but rather we would prefer better broad form (this is a principle of economy). The soul is a highly abstract principle, whereas left brain mind must accord highly nuanced actualized form (conceptual conscious thinking) which must be folded in from frequency observations and insights. From there, we get personality. When you stop attempting the highest animating principle, the unconscious libido is freed to visit you with prompts and frustrate you. (If we were adventurous we might call this a Call to Action; is this passion, classically considered?). Wake up the underside. Reunite (recouple yourself) with the hinterland.
It takes a lot of effort to break out of common unconscious disruptions and distractions (frequency patterns), through to your soul and its true revealed character and apex appetite/concerns. One principal means you have to perform this is reason. Your consciousness is your base of regenerable reason, and it is furnished by heavily leveraged, repackaged unconscious functionality (where else is it coming from, that would be consistent? It's certainly not coming from consciousness' innate quality!).
The soul doesn't perceive. That's what the left brain conscious self does. The soul intuits, as must the Higher Self. Once you've intuited what you've repressed, you can begin to work with the material, in an elongated reflective process. The soul concerns Higher Superego issues (the state of the world/nation). This is inextricable in forming an overarching life principle of the highest order (broadest meaning and definition).
Satan himself must be absolutely haunted by the intuition of potential constant loss of power. He can't grasp how this would be represented syntactically, because he lacks consciousness. He doesn't anticipate he has any free time to spare. He can't confirm anything, and must rely on pure extroverted intuition; evening thinking (the world of appearances). This is his only basis of measure of any progress. Satan is incredibly insane, with his internal mind movie (more like humming -- "unconscious music"; unconscious hubbub) having him act hurriedly. He is pure Will to Power (unsublimated) without any conscious intellect (what the intuitions pertain to; how they pervade). He is unconscious will incarnate. Phosters all know this.
"Here, the Self is definitely depicted as unconscious, with the Ego as its conscious emanation, but how is the more powerful entity (the Self) able to produce something that seems even more powerful and wondrous (consciousness)?" ― Jack Tanner
Angels produce unity. "An angel in alchemical treatises symbolizes sublimation or the ascension of the volatile principle". This is to produce Soul Contact, or principally the direction of contact between conscious and unconscious; destination (holism) and source (thesis). The more unconscious power (libido) you are able to draw upon, the better the pedal to the metal; the better examination of light thrown upon the problem space. This is a principle of economy. The soul learns to align itself to best principles, where needs allow. The soul eventually becomes conscious. The Self is striving, after all, to be the center and the whole of the psyche (its knowledge; its grasping power). In motivation you will find self-interest predominates to a reliable degree;- as do other major psychic principles.
Consciousness strictly speaking, is a quality of mental focus. It must be rallied around the organizing animating point. The visuals you produce are part of the monadic individual wavefunction collapse (consciousness function collapse). But in there, is all the weight and splendor of the unconscious. The conscious is vaulted upwards by its unconscious. The soul concerns potential.
"The alchemists believed that these secret chemicals could be combined in the Arcanum Experiment, the single laboratory experiment that would demonstrate the archetypal forces and evolution of the universe. Ideally, such an experiment should succeed on many levels, not only corroborating the deepest philosophical and psychological principles, but also providing concrete evidence of their veracity. The Arcanum Experiment exposed the hidden principles connecting heaven and earth, offering a framework in which to explain both microcosmic and macrocosmic events. [...] Ascending birds indicate the volatilization of compounds or their sublimation. Descending birds indicate the fixation of compounds or their condensation and precipitation. Birds shown both ascending and descending indicate the process of Distillation. [...] The caduceus is the magical staff of Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods and revealer of alchemy. The staff is entwined by two serpents representing the solar and lunar forces. Their union is the Conjunction of alchemical principles and their offspring, if it lives, is the Stone. This Stone is represented as a golden ball with wings at the top of the caduceus. ... A naked child symbolizes the innocent soul. In alchemy, the child is the offspring of the King and Queen, the result of their marriage or union. ... Conjunction is the fourth operation in alchemical transformation. It is the coming together of the opposing archetypal forces of the Sun and Moon or the King and Queen. ... intercourse ... The crown symbolizes the successful completion of an alchemical operation or the achievement of a magisterium. It also signifies chemical royalty or the perfection of a metal. ... The dove is a symbol of renewed spirit or infusion of energy from Above. ... Jungian Alchemy | Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung rediscovered the images and principles of alchemy surfacing in the dreams and compulsions of his patients and began a lifelong study of the subject. He concluded that alchemical images explain the archetypal roots of the modern mind and underscores a process of transformation leading to the integration of the personality. ... The King in alchemy represents man, solar consciousness, or Sulfur. The King is naked in the early operations of alchemy and regains his royal robes at the end of his transformation. The King united with the Queen symbolizes Conjunction. ... Mercury’s all-encompassing properties were exhibited in other compounds too. ... The Queen symbolizes woman, lunar consciousness, and Mercury. The Queen is naked during the early stages but regains her royal robes at the end of her transformation. The Queen united with the King is the operation of Conjunction. ... The Quintessence is the fifth element with which the alchemists could work. It was the essential presence of something or someone, the living thing itself that animated or gave something its deepest characteristics. The Quintessence partakes of both the Above and the Below, the mental as well as the material. It can be thought of as the ethereal embodiment of the life force that we encounter in dreams and altered states of consciousness. It is the purest individual essence of something that we must unveil and understand in order to transform it. ... Symbols of Separation include swords, scythes, arrows, knives, and hatchets. [like a cleaver, then;- "a butcher's knife"] ... Soul in alchemy is the passive presence in all of us that survives through all eternity and is therefore part of the original substance (First Matter) of the universe. Ultimately, it is the One Thing of the universe. Soul was considered beyond the four material elements and thus conceptualized as a fifth element (or Quintessence). ... Spirit in alchemy is the active presence in all of us that strives toward perfection. Spirit seeks material manifestation for expression. Ultimately, it is the One Mind of the universe. ... The Stone is the goal of the Great Work. It was viewed as a magical touchstone that could [would] immediately perfect any substance or situation. The Philosopher’s Stone has been associated with the Salt of the World, the Astral Body, the Elixir, and even Jesus Christ."
Cake - The Distance
The Fifth Element: Music Video
The Answer - Never Too Late
Gorillaz - Dare
In alchemy we start with the basic and end up with the purified Philosopher's Stone (the revealed Spirit, and ultimately the face of god). This is a highly abstract journey. You are trying to unite both will and intellect, not one. Similarly you need to draw both from feminine and masculine principles, as in Jungian alchemy.
The song there explicitly drops "lost your way, a fallen knight".
Reductio.

That, not by elucidating of what was suppressed, but by re-connecting ego with its fully autonomous, vital and par excellence transformative source, which unconsciousness – as Jung has shown us – is. In this sense terms metanoia, matamorphosis, transubstantiation, rebirth and transformation through which individuation proceeds are synonymous. Transformation is the goal of therapy. (Jung, CW 17, par. 904)

You don't live in the ideal world (everyone wants to fight with you at all places of disagreement, lifting you up). You live in the practical, objective world. So, you must rely on yourself then, and develop your own unconscious Ascension Program.
Consciousness is predisposed to best organizing principles. That's why it's evidenced so pronounced, capable and competent. It only evolved that way though, through specifying organizing principles (which had to be met in unconscious consideration and rotundity). The capacity of consciousness is furnished with an evolved unconscious. This includes both the Personal Unconscious and the Collective Unconscious. The soul and world soul ("anima mundi") is implicit in this consideration. In fact, the soul envelops the world soul; it has overlap with it. The soul is interested in exigenesis (development from the outside; the onset). Exigenesis is tangenitally related to transubstantiation. It is the Sublima Miracle (The Holy Grail).
Only the Higher Self can give the Person a spiritual name. (Spirit identifying itself and addressing itself consciously). In fact, you can have multiple spiritual titles, to distinguish different roles and contexts.
Automatic writing (autosuggestion) can go like this, on consideration by principle:

They're not interested in it
This is not the way to do it
That confounds the purpose
It does not invite them
It does in ; but mishap pay to do it

(These start as dialectical theses presented for the unconscious to thusly choose from;- to point to conceptually).
You have to pay attention to your unconscious and invite it into the process, which is a mixing of conscious and unconscious contents. The woman within the man (Anima), or the man within the woman (Animus) is a living mental entity borrowing from sexual principles in the Other and with energy (libido). It is mathematics in organ (life; mind; energy; ultimately, Spirit). Repressed contents will resurface if you do not duly engage them and accord their wills! What is mistyping words and sentences? They are of the "must be undersought" category. You must fish it out. The Anima/Animus is your continual underbelly across your life. This is your soul. The soul is neither masculine nor feminine; conscious nor unconscious; Apollonian nor Dionysian; home nor away; waxing nor waning; Shadow nor light; oversoul nor undersoul; world soul nor private soul; sound nor unsound (together they make a sound castle or principally strong foundation/structure; built up in both directions as it were).
"Audacity, and again, audacity, and always audacity." ―Georges Danton
"Boldness, more boldness, and perpetual boldness!" ― Georges Danton
These were the wills of a Spirit (thinking of the world; the anima mundi).
"Chutzpah (/ˈxʊtspə, ˈhʊt-/) is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. It derives from the Hebrew word ḥutspâ (חֻצְפָּה), meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity". Thus the original Yiddish word has a strongly negative connotation but the form which entered English through Ameridish has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in film, literature, and television. The word is sometimes interpreted—particularly in business parlance—as meaning the amount of courage, mettle or ardor that an individual has."
You can have self-referent thoughts while talking or reacting. Intuition is delivered in a flash.
You are aiming for content to cross you with threaded purpose: empowers you or is water off a duck's back.
The soul comes focused by doing. Every thought is backended (bookended) with dialectic. Transubstansive metamorphosis is a process. It is the process.
"Atoms themselves are just information. And information is mental, not physical. There is no physical world at all, only the idea (the collective idea) of a physical world, which is a wholly different concept" ― Mike Hockney
There is no world independent of its actualized expression and the minds which generate it such. The collective is the world. Imagine how small a body you wield in the full scale of things. Now imagine that your mind has docked to the collective's bodies (brain atoms), with the body atoms as your extended mental expressions within such a meta-realm (which could not come into creation without minds reaching towards sentience/consciousness). All your experiences are built atop the body-content of the collective.
Mathematics is about the inside and out, freely feeling in between the creases, with independence.
Have you ever had the thought of your own soul in a body of the opposite sex?- As if all the actions across your life had been done by someone else? This is related to Metempsychosis. You soul is forever.
The soul wants to sing with you and be loud. Unconscious contents crave expression. Vocabulary is an example of tonal range. In fact, you have spoken segment vocabulary as well (quotes from music and movies). This is implicable (pliable) by the frequency Self/mind.
Morpheme
We are also at some instances making direct concord with the Shadow, which has its priorities of engagement. This is still limited. You can still be unaware of things you have done (you need ordering principles brought through the examination). You have to identify with the Shadow fully in all its filth and extreme pole of absolute human darkness; i.e. actually undergo complete Ego death and identify with Satan, then absolve it of moral wrongs, then take it back to reason (leadership by unwavering Higher Self means). (You may meet Lucifer archetypally first upon Ego death). You are interested in the true unification of all opposites (the Divine Child; the Trinity; the godhead). In earlier points of development this would be prescribed by Archon and Phoster templates. You must come to accept your dark side or it will be forever repressed in a protracted war for libido. This is an incredibly important pattern and permeation. Nothing could be more key to self discovery than activating the highest or most pronounced archetypes of ontological existence. The only prime limit is your intelligence. Meet your Shadow or be limited.
"Can’t usually experience the Wise One consistently until we undergo a kind of inner death and lose all certainty. Things seem meaningless, hence the archetype of meaning appears".
"Also, it can be difficult to identify characters in dreams—"all the contents are blurred and merge into one another ... 'contamination' of unconscious contents"—so that a character who seems at first to be a shadow might represent some other complex instead. ... Jung also made the suggestion of there being more than one layer making up the shadow. The top layers contain the meaningful flow and manifestations of direct personal experiences. These are made unconscious in the individual by such things as the change of attention from one thing to another, simple forgetfulness, or a repression. Underneath these idiosyncratic layers, however, are the archetypes which form the psychic contents of all human experiences. Jung described this deeper layer as 'a psychic activity which goes on independently of the conscious mind and is not dependent even on the upper layers of the unconscious—untouched, and perhaps untouchable—by personal experience' (Campbell, 1971). [...] Nevertheless, Jung remained of the opinion that while 'no one should deny the danger of the descent ... every descent is followed by an ascent ...enantiodromia'; and assimilation of—rather than possession by—the shadow becomes at last a real possibility. [...] 'The integration of the shadow, or the realisation of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage of the analytic process...without it a recognition of anima and animus is impossible.' Conversely 'to the degree to which the shadow is recognised and integrated, the problem of the anima, i.e., of relationship, is constellated', and becomes the centre of the individuation quest. Carolyn Kaufman wrote that 'in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity'; so that for some, it may be, 'the dark side of his being, his sinister [at times narcissistic; deflective; evasive; arrogant; insincere; overbearing; selfish; filthy; depraved; infatuated; abrasive; ridiculing; nonchalant; grandeur delusory; silent; hateful; jealous; irrational; but also incisive and expressive and observant, and by no means limited to one principle or quality; plays with myriad forms and desirous aims, and lives in the sear(ch)ing Will; it can reach the apex of the sublime via full integration, after passing through psychological complexes and irrationalities which arrest its progress] shadow... represents the true spirit of life as against the arid scholar'."
"Just spit balling here, but it seems to me maybe Elliot's personalities are compartmentalizations of Jung's psychological model. Elliot is the persona, Mr Robot is the ego that protects the persona... And the third personality is the shadow, which is why we've been unaware of it."
Mental principles flutter in between everything during a thought. The distinction is the detail (the sophistication of the thought). This is "where" the Anima/Animus live, and "where" ultimately phosters and gods are arranged.
The Shadow is in the Ego! It has encroached upon it (there is contamination;- overlap; the Shadow has encrusted the Ego).
You must turn your back on your darkest most troubling throughfare, redirecting energy as spiritual and rational growth; there must be a healing process for navigating the most hurtful, painful preoccupations and triggers that you're suffering from. Principally reason is the best cure. You may have to work through Sublimated understanding (empathic modelling) of individuals, groups or societies to arrive at a resolution to gain closure for something which happened to you, or a loss, or a sense of misdirected life purpose, or the feeling of missing out on life's experiences. You may have to reason yourself through your emotions, rationalizing them as you go along, and holding your own hand. This is now the domain of self soothing and self examination. What is your inner sanctum? Where is your solace?
The Shadow and the Others' shadow is not the arbiter of what's right, but you have to teach it/them. Shadows can be cast down collectively. Isn't there always an interpersonal Shadow? The ultimate Shadow (sublimated Will to Power) is the one that can detail you all about itself;- the cooperative and counterbalancing one.
"A gonad, sex gland, or reproductive gland is a mixed gland that produces the gametes (sex cells) and sex hormones of an organism. In the female of the species the reproductive cells are the egg cells, and in the male the reproductive cells are the sperm. The male gonad, the testicle, produces sperm in the form of spermatozoa. The female gonad, the ovary, produces egg cells. Both of these gametes are haploid cells."
The animating principle (the soul) is thick in frequency and light on spacetime.
"If you could read in dreams, you would be able to directly read the thoughts of the unconscious. In fact, it would speak directly to you, as it did in bicameral times, but in those days its messages were extremely simple and archetypal." ― Dr. Thomas Stark, The Stairway to Consciousness
Picture flowing waves going upwards and downwards, and another set going across. This was a sign received.
The frequency mind/Self is where the wisdom goes. Think of Daniel Tammet and his being annoyed with a disruptive Pi language/landscape.
"So, we have two centres of consciousness, one in the left brain and one in the right brain. The right brain consciousness – associated with dreams, hallucinations, fantasies, intuitions, psychic abilities, internal emotional preoccupations, internal teleology, and so on – was once dominant, but now left brain consciousness has taken over. The more rational you are, the more left-brain dominant you are. Philosophers, scientists and mathematicians are left-brain dominant. All people of faith are right-brain dominant, and only have a veneer of left-brain consciousness." ― Mike Hockney
There is a phase, sort of 5 minutes before "sleep" (wake), (but possibly much shorter!), where the Higher Self can inject salient thoughts exploring the resurgent mathematical themes of concern. This is as the Persona is landing but has not yet fully made the phase transition with its mental schema. (These are highly abstract conceptual scenes, instantiating the Person (exemplification of a higher order agent principle), which do not exist in waking -- "privation"). This affords/efforts conveyance via mental schema but without fully imposing the mental schema of the waking (waning) self. This is hypnopompia "unleasher".
Portmanteau
"The notion of hieros gamos does not always presuppose literal sexual intercourse in ritual, but is also used in purely symbolic or mythological context, notably in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology. Hieros gamos is described as the prototype of fertility rituals."
We are most primarily interested in dialectics and transcendent meanings. prompt. B side. Identifying fundamentals is key. What is the guiding principle?
"Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are dissociative, liminal states between sleep (dreaming) and waking. The boundary between these states is rendered unclear and blurred. An enormous amount of human history may have been decided by such states. These mysterious “boundary” states are where prophets, oracles, gurus, mystics, mediums, clairvoyants, spiritualists, psychonauts, and so on, set up home." ― Jack Tanner
"“Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep: the hypnagogic state of consciousness, during the onset of sleep. In opposition, hypnopompia denotes the onset of wakefulness. The related words from the Greek are agogos ‘leading’, ‘inducing’, pompe ‘act of sending’, and hypnos ‘sleep’." ― Mike Hockney
"Ghosts operate at liminal frequencies, right at the edge of our awareness. Human beings, with their restricted, primitive senses, with their consciousness reducing valves, enormous sensory and extra-sensory filters, and intuition and intellect blockers, don’t have a clue what’s truly out there. Science – the perfect subject for people with no imagination, for the sad, autistic, empiricist clowns who want to believe that what they personally experience and perceive is all there is – is the most incredible brake on human evolution, on a par with Abrahamism and Karmism. We need a New Humanity – rational, logical and mathematical – that transcends our primitive perceptions and experiences and accesses the universe in its fullest majesty … the universe viewed by the Gods." ― Jack Tanner
http://www.songlyrics.com/to-leave-a-trace/fight-your-evil-side-lyrics/ (Early bi-conscious camerality; bi-counting; precipitation; precocious. As is Billy Meier's work).