[quote="MSG Commander" post=5232]How convenient for me, Covenant of Solitude is next on my play list (one of 8-10 games I still haven't played yet.)
Not as dark, but other games that stand out as being not so "cookie cutter" were Eclipse of Illusion and Destiny Fantasia. I thought they both had some surprising moments. On the other hand, Link of Hearts has some truly funny dialogue and some interesting twists (and bosses that made me say bad words...) :whistle:
Biggest surprise ending for me though was Crystareino, though a lot of people complained about the menus in that one I think it's great.
Anyway I'm now way off topic

so I'll leave off now.[/quote]
One thing to know about Covenant: That game does not mess around. Boss fights can be absolutely brutal because, like Chrome Wolf, they tend to be a boss and two sidekicks, but they are scaled up difficulty-wise from Chrome's. I had to do a bit o' grinding to beat a few of them (and more than a bit for the final one, which was a tooth-and-nail battle even after that).
And Link of Hearts was a game I didn't really think was good, but it had some memorable bits. Since on other consoles, I'm playing Grandia and Lunar the Silver Star, that game reminded me of a small-budget version of those (because the kid, Daichi or whatever, was kind of an expy of Justin and Alex mainly). I loved the early-game twist that led to both parties meeting each other, as well as the endgame twist. Kind of one of those examples where they had some great concepts, but just didn't have enough time to make a legit good game around them. But it did give me one of the greatest enemies of all time: THE SEIZURE WIZARD. Seriously, look at the animation for the wizard-type enemies. They look like they're convulsing or something the way they twitch.