If you had Maria, you definitely played Red.
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I figure you had the "walk in this desolation for eternity" ending, you had to destroy a floor panel in a certain scene in order to acquire the chance to find the item for the good-ending condition. The exact scene and item, you're going to have to read the "Frequently Asked Questions" thread.
And about the ranks, I'm pretty sure they're how you handle the final turn (that was almost always the primary deciding factor for me). Believe me, every time I got mad (especially during my Jack Bauer "We're running out of time!" mode), I always soft-reset the game until I stop screwing up. (This had NOTHING to do with my ranking, it usually had to do with missing a recruitment item or bad execution.)
Played Red on Easy (all character-recruits acquired) and Blue on Normal (missed 4 recruits)... had a B- average, lost approximately 37 minutes of time on Red, 45 on Blue.
This post has been edited by Lite-Yoshi: Aug 28 2010, 05:36 AM