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I actually wasn't able to beat the final boss. He would kick my ass over and over again. I ended up downloading the ending movies.

I love how much of a shock the final boss ended up being. I never would have guessed... especially since the game fakes you out with no less than three major villains.

As for "From the New World", it's worth a try. I stopped playing it about four hours in (which is my break-off point, it seems) because I found the plot slow and the characters boring. The battle system is just as great as ever though and maybe it got better. I just had other games to play.

From the New World starts off kinda slow, and I felt at first that the characters were too similar to SH2's, making them kind of boring.  It takes a little while to really take off, but if you stick with it, it's worth it.  Not as good as the first two games, but the story does eventually hit a "wow, it got weird" moment and becomes interesting.  I ended up rather liking the characters (except for Natan - he was boring throughout), and the entire game is worth it for Hilda's sidequest at the end.

I just finished Covenant as well only a week ago or something, and I loved every second of it. I agree that it started out slightly less interesting than SH1, but it definitely grew on me more than the prequel. Yuri is one of the funniest Protagonists I've seen in a LONG while, in fact, the game had a wonderful sense of humor throughout.

I think I got what people refer to as the good ending, and I loved it, fitting ending for a beautiful game. SH2 has firmly wedged itself a place in my top favorite RPG's of all time.
God knows it kicks FFXII's ass in all kinds of ways.

Both the endings are pretty depressing (and open-ended). I understand that they provided pages upon pages of debate material.

While Yuri could be funny, I found him more interesting as the tragic hero. I still maintain one of the funniest moments in the game is during a fairly serious cutscene when in the background, you can see Yuri and Blanca just... dancing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A lot of the game was like that.

Joachim + Getitup! (to turn into Grand Papillon) + Coral Pendant (to slow down ring) + Eternal Key (to make the ring go around as many times as you can keep getting hits) + 4th person in a combo (for lovely combo bonus damage) = Teh Win!

I think my battle with the final boss lasted four rounds.  This technique took off about 2/3 of his hit points, IIRC.

As far as the "official" one goes, I recall reading that the game director said in an interview in the Japanese strategy guide that the "good" ending is his choice and that if the other one were continued, it would be in a game without his involvement or blessing.  Presumably that's why From the New World is a completely new storyline - it bypasses all of that completely.

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His nickname in the JP version is "Uru".

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Yuri is a Russian name too.

Also, did someone call the From the New World cast boring?!?! I guess...play-wise, maybe. But they're easily the most whacked out bunch in any RPG I've played.

Hence why that one's my favorite.

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