My wife loves games with that sort of gameplay loop, where you have a main gameplay style/loop within a world of people and places you get to know for both flavor and gameplay benefits. Persona is a series and SDV a game that we have put a lot of time into together. She was talking about playing P4 again, but I crave novelty. What are some other fun games with a little community for us to get to know?
Fire Emblem has relationships you can maintain, as do Mass Effect/Dragon Age though to a somewhat less gameplay impacting scope