Ok... so i've never played this game before and I'm doing my first ever playthrough with a roommate. I've looked at a couple guides that mention getting this girl near the start of the game. I've been watching him play the first bit and this never happened. After beating some tentacle boss, we got this sprite girl, but that's it. Did we mess something up?

thanks

That's strange...
The girl they mean is the one that saved you from the goblins, I think. She's in the Pandora castle later on.

There's two points where you get Purim/the girl depending on what you do. If you talked to Dyluck on the way to the Water Palace and he left, she'll sve you from goblins on the way back. If you don't initiate that event then you will find her in the Haunted Forest, which is the next place you should be going after you've gotten Popoi/the sprite.

awesome! thanks claude

The sprite is a boy.

The girl is a girl.