Oh damn, my bad for not seeing that! Really need to frequent that thread more...
I really liked Kain and Rosa! Kain's design and generally somber-yet-stoic demeanor is one that I'm generally a sucker for. The way he was fleshed out in Dissidia 012 (particularly his exchanges with Tifa) sealed the deal for me on him being one of my favs from 2D-FF. Rosa is also just charming and I really appreciate that they allowed her to stubbornly tag along and actually provide help to Cecil's squad throughout the game. Would have been easy to sideline her or make her more or less useless, but they didn't and I'm so happy for that.
there's like 30 pages now over there. and i'm sure that i'm responsible for help with 10 of those pages easily. not surprised that you missed it.
he was fantastic in 012. i found a mod that gives him a goku skin and it was pretty cool.
a lot of rosa's contribution to the story is easy to miss, since the writer knows what subtly is. she cares deeply for cecil, to the point of traveling across a desert by herself, and coming down with a fever as a result, and after being cured of it for about 5 seconds, immediately wants to join the party to help save the world. cecil is fortunately able to convince her to rest up for a night before heading off, letting her get her strength back for the journey.
i wouldn't say it would be easy to sideline her or make her useless. she is the main white mage of the group. tellah dies, rydia loses white magic, porom works best with her twin and not too much on her own. and when the game does decide to try and remove her from the party, it's after enough time that the player got used to a dedicated white mage who also can deal some decent damage when healing and buffing isn't required. you understand cecil's reasoning, but when you get to that scene, you're thinking to yourself: "come on bro! let rosa and rydia come along. they ain't weak little bitches like princess peach. they're wonderful, refined badass ladies who can hold there own. and, cecil, my boy, my dude, my man. your white magic spells suck, and edge is worse. we ain't setting foot on that gray rock without our wonderful loevly babes tagging along."
and then rydia gets a little mischievous and they sneak aboard the lunar whale, and the dread of going through the final dungeon with 3 party members fades away instantly as cecil hugs rosa and they all vow to stop zemus together.
perfect storytelling. 10/10