Musing observation: When recalling my one and only playthrough of FFXIII while playing XIII-2 I naturally thought of the party in XIII. Specifically I thought of Team Everyone Besides Me Hates Them(Snow, Hope and Vaille) and how they were my favorite characters. Meanwhile, "fan favorite" Fang was probably the worst party member to me. "Why is this?" I thought to myself. I am so decidedly meh about Fang that I would honestly say I like Lightning more than her if only because my active dislike for Lightning is still preferable to my profound indifference to Fang.
Dawning realization: And then it came to me. Fang took way too long to actually get a character or any sort of focus. By the time she showed up and did anything I can recall I was already invested in everyone else. She was an unwelcome addition. She has a cool voice and look and stuff but she was just introduced way too late for me to give a crap about her.
Profound revelation: And we can see this same sort of problem in other RPGs. Who is everyone's least favorite character in FFIX? Amarant. Eiko isn't much better, either. The end of Disk 2, Square? Really? Someone really dropped the ball thee.
Scathing annotation: And wasn't Edge the last party member in FFIV? God he was garbage, in every conceivable way. I liked every party member in FFIV except him. Well, Rosa sucked too, but Edge was the worst.
Smug proclamation: If a main party member is introduced 10+ hours into an RPG, you have done your job poorly.
What say you all, meatbags?