So I'm readig TV Tropes because its better than doing dishes and I read this:

Rinoa is a Mythology Gag to the job class and a shout out to this trope: She's a crossbow-using fighter who fights with a dog and lives in a city built in the middle of a giant forest.

I hadn't even thought of this! I did think she was some kind of take on an Archer class, but I wasn't specifically thinking the ranger as far as having the animal companion

Did you think of her as a Ranger?