Planning a party

So I'm beginning to build my Asian fantasy world of Kinmura (you can read all my notes here), and I'm leaning heavily towards a party for Ash. My problem is, I'm not sure whether it should mirror one of his past parties (that I'm familiar with--I'm not that familiar with Iris and Cilan, so I don't use the BW party), play mix and match with all his parties and other characters from the games, or have his party members be brand new for the story.

I've made a poll, but when you vote, I want you to explain your answer. This way I can get an idea of what kind of party a potential audience wants to see.

Step 1) Get familiar with Cilan, put him in the group
Step 2) Put in N for the awesomeness/hell of it
Step 3) Throw in a girl so it's not a sausage-fest. Probably Dawn for the last step.
Step 4) MAXIMUM FABULOUS

N would probably play a bad guy in this, but Cilan might be able to work

Cilan is the awesomest. Use him if you can. :D

I'm still ironing out classes in this world, so any party is still in the planning stage

I'd rather see original characters with canon characters making a cameo, or even having those canon characters as a secondary group who the main group runs into frequently. Two or three people in such a group would seem ideal to me.

Whatever setup I ultimately go with, the party will not be too large, so every character gets development

Between three and five characters, with as close to 50% gender representation as possible, all OC's.
Honestly though, such a crucial decision is one best made by the author.

I understand, and I will ultimately make the final decision--but I wanted to get a potential audience's opinion first