History Main / GuestStarPArtyMember

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' have the three pets. You can get one to join you permanently, while the others will only appear in the quests in which they're introduced in each game.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', using the Link and Midna amiibo from ''Twilight Princess'' will let Wolf Link accompany you. In a more traditional sense, Link is accompanied by differing companions when challenging the Divine Beasts -- [[WarriorPrince Sidon]] against Vah Ruta, [[ActionDad Teba]] against Vah Medoh, [[AChildShallLeadThem Riju]] against Vah Naboris, and [[LovableCoward Yunobo]] against Vah Rudania.

** Tthe Spathi can be recruited as allies by doing an optional quest. However they all leave after only a couple months. Fortunately, you do get to keep any Spathi ships you happened to build during that time.

* In ''VideoGame/UnleashTheLight'', Bismuth joins the party in Demantoid's World to help them capture Demantoid's Prism with her Prism Containment Chest. [[spoiler:But after the team defeats Demantoid, Bismuth gets poofed while trying to block Demantoid's Prism beam long enough for Steven to retrieve the Chest. Bismuth's gemstone is then kept in your inventory as a Questy Thing, and you won't be able to add her to your party until she reforms.]]

** [[Spoiler:Caelar Argent]] can be one in ''Siege of Dragonspear'' for the final battle.

* In the obscure but high quality Sega Genesis RPG ''Traysia'', soon after starting the game the main character acquires a party of three followers who will follow him through trials and tribulations for the rest of the game. Well, all except the [[FourIsDeath fourth party member]], [[spoiler:Floyd, who turns out to be TheMole after a few dungeons, and manages to end up as the BigBad by the end of the game.]]

* In the PC version of ''VideoGame/GhostRecon: Advanced Warfighter'', the ''President of the United States'' himself carries a pistol and follows you around (very briefly) after you rescue him from rebel soldiers.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXVI'', the player's party typically consists of Clive, Torgal, and a rotating stable of NPC companions. Wade, Tyler, and Murdoch both accompany Clive during the prologue, Gav and Byron both accompany the party for overworld gameplay segments throughout the game, and Jill and [[spoiler:Joshua]] can be recruited permanently into the party for the final overworld part (although Jill doesn't accompany you to the final battle and [[spoiler:Joshua]] does not see any combat during said final battle). [[spoiler:Wade]] and Theodore also accompany you for a couple of sidequests and actually occupy a specifically mentioned "guest" slot.

*** Wallace joins you near the end of the prologue; he's a very powerful [[MightyGlacier Knight]] and CrutchCharacter for the enemies you face at the time. Not only is he available for only two chapters in the prologue; he also rejoins you late in the main game, when the enemies are tough enough to outclass Wallace easily. And that's assuming that he rejoins you at all; it's fairly easy to play well enough to skip that chapter. Fortunately, SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear doesn't apply to him... any more than it applies to everyone else in the Prologue, at least.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsJudgment'': The [[LightNovel/FullMetalPanic Tuatha De Danann]] would be a regular member of the team if it could. Sadly, it is a [[CripplingOverspecialization simple submarine]], and thus can only fight with you on certain oceanic stages.

* ''VideoGame/{{Absinthia}}'': Ruthea is temporarily playable during Freya's flashback, the Typh Village quest, and [[spoiler:during Lilith's final phase]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Absinthia}}'': Ruthea is temporarily playable during Freya's flashback and during Lilith's final phase.

*** Party members include Hercules in Olympus, Woody and Buzz in [[Franchise/ToyStory Toy Box]], Rapunzel and Eugene in Kingdom of Corona (though Rapunzel leaves permanently after reaching the festival), Sulley and Mike in [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Monstropolis]], Marshmallow in Arendelle, Jack Sparrow in Port Royal, which has now been renamed "The Caribbean", and Baymax in San Fransokyo.

** Edmund Duke starts as an enemy, but after you rescue his downed ship from the Zerg swarm surrounding him, he joins the rebel cause and you even get to control him in battle two missions later, before you leave the rebels.
*** He appears also in the prequel ''Loomings'' campaign, which was part of the Starcraft demo and could be downloaded and put in the custom maps. Furthermore, he should have been featured in a cut mission too, along with Tassadar.

** Even buzzier, Fenix, who was one of the main charaters of the original Protoss campaign, only makes a very short scripted appearance in a cutscene of the ''Brood War'' Protoss campaign, only to join your forces for a mission in the Zerg campaign.

** ''VideoGame/Mother3'' similarly has characters that follow you around like this in the first few chapters, however straighter examples are [[spoiler:Salsa and Flint]], who are the player controlled characters in two early chapters, but do not participate in most of the game. [[spoiler:Salsa does come back for a short time, but leaves permanently afterwards.]]

* ''Fanfic/CobysChoice'': During the Fishman Island Arc, [[spoiler:Kaku, after being outed as a [=CP9=] defector and forced to leave his life as a Water 7 shipwright]], tags along with Merry and the other Straw Hat Pirates. He does tell the other pirates that this is temporary.

* In ''VideoGame/StarControlII'', the Spathi can be recruited as allies by doing an optional quest. However they all leave after only a couple months. Fortunately, you do get to keep any Spathi ships you happened to build during that time.

** In general, the entire party in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' gets well-shuffled over the course of the game. Cecil is the only character that [[CantDropTheHero you must have in your party]], and only a few (Rosa, Rydia, Tellah, and Edge -- out of 11 characters) stick with Cecil for more than three dungeons at a time. Kain and Rosa function as guests when they first join the party, departing again fairly quickly. [=FuSoYa=] sticks around for only a single dungeon near the end. Edge is the only party member who permanently joins when you first get him (and Cecil, though he does change class and gets his level reset to 1). In the GBA remake, as well as the mobile and PSP versions (but not the DS version) most characters are available for the final dungeon and the bonus dungeons, making Tellah and [=FuSoYa=] the only real guests in those games.
*** The PSP exclusive Interlude does a similar thing, shuffling members in an out as the story goes on. Here the final party is slightly different from the first game, Cecil, Palom, Porom, (the two replacing Rosa and Kain) Rydia, and Edge.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' both have the demon beast Kerberos joining you early on for a brief time, only to leave after certain plot development. Both cases violate the "demons can't join you if your level is lower" rule (Kerberos is very overleveled compared to you), but with some justification - in the first case, he's made from fusing your dog and thus naturally loyal, and in the other he's on retainer from someone who's earned his respect already. [[spoiler:Both may also join you much later, when the level gap has been filled.]]

** ''VideoGame/WildArms4'' has [[spoiler:Kresnik Ahtreide]] join you for about half of a dungeon, when one of party members is captured. You just know that the character won't stick for long, because they do not get any EXP, and you can't enter their GC Graph or edit skills.

** [[spoiler:Shinjiro Aragaki]] is this in a roundabout way in ''VideoGame/Persona3'', as he's only available for one in-game month [[spoiler:before his PlotlineDeath]]. This is covered up by the fact that his Persona, [[spoiler:Castor]], can learn a full list of skills up to Level 70, whereas your other party members will learn their last skill in the mid 40's, and cannot learn more [[spoiler:until they obtain their Ultimate Personas]], but chances are he won't learn them unless you deliberately go and level grind him.

** The first chapter places Jin, Malos, and Nia in your party. The former two are both higher leveled and much stronger then the latter of three, which makes it fairly apparent to a savvy player that they aren't going to be around for along.
** Vandham is only part of your team for the duration of Chapter 3. He takes on the role of Rex's [[TheMentor mentor]], teaching him how to use the Anchor Shot art to topple enemies and regaling the youth with his philosophies about the nature of war and of the relationship between Drivers and Blades. This, coupled with the fact that he refuses to resonate with any other Blades than Roc, ought to ring some alarm bells. [[MentorOccupationalHazard Doesn't take a genius to see where that's going.]]
** During Chapter 8, [[spoiler:Jin becomes a temporary party member again, except this time you can actually control him if you want to see what has to say about doing quests, gathering items, or falling into bottomless pits.]]