Do you know any RPGs where you don't have to grind?

[dolgion]

It's not that there should be NO grind. I just wanna listen to some RPG suggestions where grinding isn't the alpha and omega like for example Pokemon or Diablo. Single player please.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Mass Effect counts.... Technically.

 

[thiosk]

I never had to grind anything in mass effect, any of the final fantasy's past 1 (i did not play the X series and beyond) or in dungeons and dragons based games (baldur's gate 1 and 2)

 

[Merkavar]

what exactly do you mean by grind? im assuming you mean grind for XP

witcher. you get like 99% of you xp from doing the quests. killing monsters does give you xp so you can grind if you want but it is so small that i dont see the point in grinding.

Oblivion there isnt much point in getting XP in the first place since enemies level with you. so i guess that means no grinding at all needed.

 

[JPH330]

Depends on your definition of RPG. Deus Ex isn't a very definitive RPG, but it definitely is at least RPG-influenced and I never felt like that game had any grind in it.

 

[Archangel768]

Well, It depends on what kind of RPGs appeal to you.

The one RPG I've played that doesn't really need grinding would be Final Fantasy X. It uses random battles and I find that by the time I get from one place to another where there might be a boss, it's pretty well balanced. On occasion, I found myself grinding for a very short time, but it works pretty well, if you try to look at everything in an area before moving on, like making sure you find all the treasure chests or seeing what might be down the other path. By doing this, I found I didn't really need to grind much at all.

This is the best example of an RPG with very little grinding that I know of.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

IIRC grinding was BAD in FF8, I couldn't figure out the batshit insane assign summons and suck magic system, but maybe you can

 

[Muzzyloper]

Any Bioware RPG, really. They seem to balance the amount of enemies and experience there is so that you level up accordingly as the story progresses.

 

[Defense]

Final Fantasy and Pokemon require minimal grinding at best, with the exception of Tactics(fucking Golgollada Gallows). I'm also pretty sure that in P3P you don't have to grind at all if you choose the easier difficulties.

 

[Longshot1073]

It depends on what you consider an RPG.
I prefere any of the monsterhunter games. MHFU in particular. Medium/high difficulty, been on it for over 800hrs now.
I think you'd like some of the .hack games for the ps2. Good story. Multipls disks tho.
This one may be alittle out there but ... Paper mario to the N64 (get a rom if u dont have one)
Pokemon Mystery dungeon ... bit of nostalgia sry. (RIP maxed out mew)
Hope this helps, oh ps. Fallout 3. Played that for months alone.
None of these require online access. Good luck.
Prices for whoever cares, may be variable.
Monsterhunter games $60 USD PS2 PSP
Paper Mario 20-40 USD N64
.hack 15-20 USD PS2
Mysterydungeon 45 USD NDS
Fallout3 60 USD PS3 X360 PC
Have fun.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Sakura Wars: So long, My Love. No grind and all fun.

 

[Brawndo]

I'm not sure such games exist even outside of RPGs... with the modern obsession with XP, perks, and unlocks, you could make the argument that grinding exists even in shooters

 

[Zaik]

anc[is]IIRC grinding was BAD in FF8, I couldn't figure out the batshit insane assign summons and suck magic system, but maybe you can

Lol yeah there's FF8, everything in the world levels up with you, but there are static bonuses on summons and spell junctions and weapons and whatnot, so the lower your level is the more powerful you end up in relation to everything else.

I guess technically Star Ocean 3 wasn't either, you *could* play through the entire game at level 1 assuming you only fought bosses. Certainly didn't seem easy to pull off though.

 

[mireko]

Yeah.. most WRPGs don't really have grind[footnote]Go ahead, cite an obscure Central European RPG from the mid-90's that totally proves me wrong.[/footnote]. I don't just mean it's been replaced with level scaling either, a lot of games bypass this by replacing it with sidequests. At least, I never found myself grinding in Baldur's Gate.

As for JRPGs, you can probably get through Persona 4 and Tales of Vesperia without needing to grind, although it would probably help to turn down the difficulty.

Sakura Wars: So long, My Love. No grind and all fun.

Is that game any good? As in, worth tracking down and running on a PS2 emulator because they never released it in my region.. good?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Yeah.. most WRPGs don't really have grind[footnote]Go ahead, cite an obscure Central European RPG from the mid-90's that totally proves me wrong.[/footnote]. I don't just mean it's been replaced with level scaling either, a lot of games bypass this by replacing it with sidequests. At least, I never found myself grinding in Baldur's Gate.

As for JRPGs, you can probably get through Persona 4 and Tales of Vesperia without needing to grind, although it would probably help to turn down the difficulty.

Sakura Wars: So long, My Love. No grind and all fun.

Is that game any good? As in, worth tracking down and running on a PS2 emulator because they never released it in my region.. good?

I really like it. But it is an acquired taste. It literally feels like you are in an anime. Whether that is a pro or con is up to you. And it totally did the timed dialogue thing before Alpha Protocol.

 

[Veylon]

Chrono Cross didn't require grinding; it just leveled you up whenever you beat a boss.

anc[is]IIRC grinding was BAD in FF8, I couldn't figure out
the batshit insane assign summons and suck magic system, but maybe you can

Actually, grinding was counterproductive in FF8; being lower level actually made the game easier because every monster's strength was based on your level, which thus made the equipped magic more powerful in comparison. Then you could use Diablo's No-Encounter ability to skip every random battle and breeze through the game.

But yeah, rigging the system required understanding it, and it was pretty weird.

 

[Jfswift]

Chrono Cross doesn't have too much grinding so long as you keep the same three characters most of the game (once you have almost everyone make a hard decision and stick with those three).

 

[cgmetallica1981]

The Elder Scrolls series and the recent Fallout games from Bethesda are excellent games that last a very long time. Some people dislike the combat from those games, but I think that the poor polishing on the game (graphics, low-res textures, character models, awful engine, low amount of voice actors, glitches) hurt the experience, but you can try to ignore that. Bioware games have no grinding at all, but personally the only BioWare games I have played were Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect 2 and I hated the boring setting and environments in those games. I also preferred playing alone than with a party. Finally, I would stay away from The Witcher, it is a very boring experience and much of the quests are repetitive fetch-quests, the only thing the game has going for it is the story.