Hoping to make your life's design a bit more dynamic!

I also beat Final Fantasy Legend 2. God the bosses in that game are brutal.

Damn... i would have to say...

Final Fantasy 7 ( Never beat Ruby, etc. )
Shining in te Darkness
phantasy Star 2
Definitely 7th Saga

Phantasy Star 2 is definitely brutal, I never got past the first Dam dungeon.
I played FF7 for a long time so I pretty much smashed everything there
but I'd say SMT Nocturne is one of the hardest I've ever played.

You know, one of these I'll have to get around the Phantasy Star series. I don't really know why I haven't touched them up till now.

After you played Chaos Seed, all of you will change your mind

You know... You're really, REALLY right! I have played through the game, but I used loads of cheats. I can't imagine getting through most of the scenarios without them. It's not like you can just grind and beef up your stats. You start back at square-one each chapter and have to really manage your Enchanted Cave to a T.

I guess CS is overwhelming in a way because it blends a lot of play styles seamlessly into a single game. One has to really grasp the whole concept and meld into a unique understanding of the intricacies of the game.

If I had to put it by comparison, it would more or less be like playing Sim City lite while getting around as you would in Terrainigma for instance. That said, its the unique flavor that makes the game so highly attractive to begin with, and when blending genres so foreign to each other a game can either only turn awful or great, and CS is of the great kind.