What is the best hangout media? Stories where the primary appeal is spending time with the characters and getting to know them and their relationship dynamics.
Pictured: Persona 5
@lmichet's chost is extremely on point. FFXIV is great for that. It is one of the main reasons I keep playing.
I can think of several JRPGs that depict cool/interesting/touching relationship dynamics (and mechanics)--Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Atelier game, Xenoblade 2, etc. But sticking close to @bruno's wording ("primary appeal"), I gotta go with Nihon Falcom's Legend of Heroes series--esp. Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel.
Yeah, there are huge robots and magic and ancient artifacts and big bads. But Sky, for example, is about watching Estelle grow up as much as it is about watching a sprawling cast of characters interact, grow close, grow apart, fall in love, betray each other--whatever--over a number of years, across generations and countries. The Big Anime Shit, villains included, mostly matters because it's personal.
Those personal stakes exist (and matter) because the games are loaded with (not-so-)quiet hangout moments--characters just talking, meals among friends, drinking, fishing, shopping sprees, coming home, villages/cities with uniquely named NPCs that characters (and you) remember, someone who's been away for 100+ hours suddenly popping up with a dumb grin on their faces. People actually miss each other. It's all networks of relationships.
Play the Trails series. You got 200+ hours, right? Right.
