What I always liked best as an RPG is the way it used to be, e.g. World of Warcraft Classic has gameplay / animations / game speed / controls / skill bars / combat speed and content-wise games that are restrictive in terms of classes and convey this in a very motivating way. So you really fill a role and see this one character as who you are, but still find yourself in a group RPG.
The NPC companions, however, have their own souls, i.e. in combat, with their own character trait including history. But I don't just take it with me, but it develops from the game and the story, around its charac