Sounds boring. Even with hands on controls Jade Empire felt like a major step backwards because you only had one rather useless NPC and that NPC didnt do much (in fact it was most useful when it was sat on its arse).
Rather than less, you want more NPCs in combat , and more things to fight against. Dont see it being as much of a problem with the muscle of the next gens behind it.
If you want an idea just how insipid KOTOR could be with only two characters, play the first few levels of EPIII where Anakin and Obi Wan are fighting side by side (then imagine that without actually having to control him in real time).