@mawr I think my question would be how to make that into a gameplay loop. There are quite a few options, ranging from elements drawn from Animal Crossing, Tamagotchi, Neko Atsumi, Pokemon-amie, or even match 3 and bullet hell (ie, Undertale pacifist).
I think the reason conflict is so readily used in Stories is it’s easy to communicate. I think if I were going to do this, I’d use a befriending system like Undertale’s framed as resolution to MH-style combat?