But it's only a chapter. Is it that the characters don't develop at all after the first chapter?
About 20-plus hours of content should be enough to screen companions, see if their characters fit ours character and of they are annoying. Now if we commit to a party and they develop in unexpected way which creates tension with PC or companions, its IMO good.
What about the potential of party balance? Does that just not matter and I'm stuck with obnoxious characters because otherwise I'd have 3 rogues and a wizard? It paints the player into a corner. I'm not sure I agree or understand when you say that the game is about choices when this is clearly something that removes a lot of that choice and flexibility.
I don't believe that with limited companion size there will be much overlap with roles (like 3 rogues) and even of there is some hopefully multclassing system is flexible enough to make things work.
And yes, I would hope for game to be designed well enough to provide paths for the party you will choose. Best RPGs are those where you don't have access to everything - your path choices and story tailors to character/party you have built. Yes, if actual amount of valiable parties we can built were limited, it would be a problem. If the choice of our party would meaningully alter our play through - that's good.
