I'm not bashing anyone. I just praised Fang and Sazh. How is that bashing? Sorry if it wasn't strong praise, I'm doing my best here, okay?

Xenogears was actually pretty bad about this, with characters being added after more than halfway through the game, but while some were really negligible, like Maria, Emeralda was actually pretty cool and is pretty popular with the fanbase, even if (or maybe because of the fact that) her sidequest got reduced to a single scene.