I would like an option like this. I'm not keen on the EB thing. Requirements for many of those seem counter to my way of things. So something else would be nice.

A neat idea/concept for maybe a future thing, (since the newest FF series seem to have a pairing of main charas, no?) perhaps making an NPC central to an expansion storyline at least our pair. Saved or being saved by, an NPC we can name and create akin to our retainers (sans perhaps the personality thing, SE can deal with a single one perhaps. Though people can be hit or miss with most of the NPCs we do have.) And we can deal with that NPC through an expansion storyline, growing closer and so on.