Companions?

[Frozen Esper]

Do you get a choice of companions to choose from that will follow you around and help in battle?

[EmpressMelanie]

At some point in the game, I forget where, you get a new item unlock. Its a scroll that lets you move town members around all the islands. You can use that scroll to choose your party too. You can pick three people to follow you around and fight with you. You can use any npc you recruited into your towns as well as the story characters later on.

[lilisaur]

You get the Resident's Register pretty quickly after returning from the second major story island. You can assign three to follow you, but Malroth is stuck as one until you complete the game. Note that NPCs will only go to Explorer Shores and and their home island. They won't go to other story islands and will stay at the dock if you try. Post-game, some of the NPCs that don't follow you back to IOA during the game (like Saffron) become available to join you.

As far as who makes good party members... Britney (raw strength and high critical rate) is easily the highest value NPC early. Anessa (raw strength) and Zara (Multiheal caster) being other good choices later. When you gain ability to recruit monsters, getting a Great Sabrecat (for mobilty) and/or Golem (for soaking up damage) make great choices, too. Having a larger party can really help against the superstrong monsters (especially late ones like Dread Dragon, Pocus Puppet, and Boss Troll)

[Frozen Esper]

Thanks for the information guys.

[Gnarl]

Sometimes during the big chapter islands you'll have extra followers. But even then it's not like a classic rpg experience where there's healers and ranged and wizards.

The game is awesome though, and there's lots of great dialogue and characters to meet.I didn't feel alone at any point in the game.

Like others mentioned at some point you can put a couple extra people in your group and go farm. But it's not like there is party choice for the big story parts.