The only companion progression in any RPG which impressed me even a little bit was Tharaêl in Enderal.
The results of how you handle
this quest early on in his character arc determines whether he lives or dies in
this quest and the option to prevent him from committing suicide in the former quest is the option he strongly disapproves of. If you argue that the character in the earlier quest could be redeemed, which he disapproves of, then he feels that maybe he can be too, otherwise, you are out of luck.
In my opinion it is an example of character development in an RPG done well. It is still very limited, compared to what would in my opinion be the gold standard for character development (2 way approval system, which no RPGs implement because it would explode dialogue almost exponentially), but it is still a lot better than any comparisons I can think of. Tharaêl also illustrates that you can explore character development very well without at all touching on romance, which is something I feel many RPGs fail at.
