Yoshi-P said in a live letter that they are looking to bring our path companions back, but they'll be revamped with a fully customizable system similar to Adventuring Fellows from XI or current Chocobo companions. They haven't given us any more details though, only that they're looking to bring them back in some form in a later patch.

MagJam, I agree that the majority of content in MMOs should be done with actual people (That's why we can't use companions in dungeons after all). But one thing our path companions did that other player characters can't do is become very involved with the main story with a nicely fleshed out bg. It was my favorite part of our path companions in Ver 1 and I hope I can bring my partner back to finish her ver 1 story as well as go on new adventures with.