Latecomers

[Fynn]

Except she isn't really a replacement. Her story is cool, but it really comes too late in the game. i didn't expect that to bother me, except the next dungeon turned out to be the final dungeon and I'm like, ???? Why did you give me Gen now, then?

And she had the potential to be a cool character in baddle, kinda being a cross between a bard and a time mage, there just wasn't enough time to raise her to the point of usefulness. And at that point I kinda stuck to using my main character with the Big Guy at all times because that dealt with things the fastest

[Forsaken Lover]

Kain wouldn't count either, Wolf, according to your little distinction. He's basically the Magus of the game as we see tons of him and he's features prominently in the story before he joins later in the game.

It's the same thing with Rikku. We see and play as both of them very early on and that was clearly intended to make us give a crap about them when they returned later on.

Leon from FFII is a weird case as he sorta kinda fits the same area as Kain and Rikku but he's gone for much longer and as the Dark Knight he's still not around very much. Then again,FF2 was clearly Square still trying to find their way in terms of writing so you can expect some missteps.