The story needs to be told. Normally the companion does this. Without a companion you'll need another way to do this. A lore book (like Metroid Prime's scan log) or through various NPCs or others.
Let Capcom design the companion. Seriously the Minish Cap is was less annoying than Fi and Navi. The cap only chatted at certain story moments and when you pressed select. Apart from that it never said a word. Really well done in my opinion. The companions basically exist as Link's...