I went with Guile again because I had forgotten about CC's Ranking System or whatever it's called.

I know some people like how FFXIII "capped" you to prevent overleveling and grinding and it's cool CC did that too back in the day. But it also means that the game that is already making you use only two characters out of a cast of 40 or 50 also ensures you use only the same two characters to gain all those Ranks.

So Pierre could be amazing in the endgame but I'd have to reliably use him for most of the game and I don't want to.

Incidentally, it's interesting that I and many others didn't even realize there was a choice in this matter. I thought Guile was the only way in during my first run and I've seen others say similar about Pierre and Nikki.

I also had forgotten Guile had such a great design.