I need the game to be single-player, preferably with no online features at all.

Did you see my post earlier? I see you're responding to others. Hope you found it helpful. Unless you absolutely don't use Steam, then I also understand that.

A persistent world without a DM is single-player. There won't be much story but you can wander around and kill random spawning monsters. I haven't logged onto one in years, but I know some NN PW's are still up.

Again, the Legend of the Super Saiyan is on the mark for your nightmarish RPG needs. Less story than Dragon Quest, battles are 99% of the content beyond buying and selling items. If the tedium doesn't kill you within two hours, consider yourself to be extremely unfortunate to see the next 22 of the same exact routine. The game is so barebones, that you can play with a Japanese cartridge and be just as confused. Extra painful if you only use the "auto" option, and deliberately ignore optional characters.

I like the game, but that is because of the Stockholm Syndrome known as nostalgia.

Not everything on 3DS is DRMed, unless you consider cartridges DRM, but that's a whole other thing that you're saying you're OK with. I don't know if anyone ever got banned for exploiting their 3ds: they just tend to make updates that break the exploits. Have you tried the riva--sister series? It's called Final Fantasy (1-9 are normal, X and up are far more experimental). And if you're really up for it, there's a crap ton of RPG-Maker games out there. Moreover, RPGs are the easiest games to make (hardest to balance, but it sounds to me like you're specifically looking for an unbalanced game if you feel you should have to grind alot).

You say you don't like isometric games, so i don't know how you'd feel about things like fire emblem or first person games like The Quest or The Bard's Tale. However, I did hear of a game called agarest , and i specifically avoided getting it because of all the reviews saying that it's really, really grindy, but first you'll have to get over it being isometric.

The way I see it, the fact that the console supports DRM is enough of a reason for me to boycott (girlcott?) it, as is the region locking.

(This is also a reason that I am not willing to use Steam, even if games are DRM-free; the platform provides DRM and encourages its use.) Unfortunately, I don't like following links to Steam, so I can't tell you whether the game would be suitable. (Note that I do not consider buying it from Steam to be an option.)

I actually have all three games in my library, though I have a feeling they don't actually match what I am looking for in this thread.

Final Fantasy series: 1 and 2 are pretty close to what I am looking for (though not the GBA and later versions of 1). 3 and onward aren't "grindy" enough for the purposes of this topic (although Final Fantasy 5 is my favorite game in the series).

Bard's Tale series I've played recently (though, as usual, I didn't actually complete 2 or 3, though I reached the end of Tarmitia in 3).

Fire Emblem: I actually have played the 8th game in the series, but I prefer non-tactical RPGs. Also, I don't like the permadeath mechanic, and in most Fire Emblem games you can't re-fight the same battle over and over to level up (where such activity is precisely what I am looking for at the moment).

eh, play the original Dragon Warrior Monsters I guess.

Maxed out the game timer grinding way before I finished the postgame.

Have you tried Knights of Pen & Paper? The world map is just a collection of way points so you don't get to just aimlessly wander around, but each location has a random chance of spawning a fight and you can even create fights where you choose from the enemy types native to each locale. The turn based combat isn't tactical and there is definitely a lot of opportunity to grind for levels and items. You also have the choice of several characters so it takes a lot of grinding to purchase and level up each one.

You realize windows itself has DRM, right? If you're using Linux (which would be a good thing), this adds alot of complications that should've been mentioned in the first post. I personally figure that if i want to make a clear stance, if something like steam sees that all or most of my games are games that aren't using their DRM, and i'm not signing into steam, that it'll send a message. Well, if you change your mind, it is one of the DRM-free games. FF3, IMO, is more grindy than FF1. FF1 isn't even that grindy, really, unless you invest poorly and make all mages or something. Alright, so then you're OK with the "dungeon crawler" (some people define this separate from others in that you literally crawl through dungeons in first person grid-based mode) types. I don't know which ones are grindy, 'cause i don't have many. The one i favor the most is The Quest, which comes in an ugly older version and a not-so-ugly but only currently on DRMed-platforms version (they wanted to release on GOG, but GOG rejected them). It's known for being one of the better games available for mobile devices, since it doesn't use the mobile games format. Keep your eye out for it, but beware how it is different from the bard's tale: there's no separate battle screen, and respawning requires you actually leave a certain region for a certain in game period of time. People say you dont' need to grind to beat it, but that's only true if you know exactly how to build a character that doesn't need grinding, which isn't going to happen your first playthrough, especially if you pick the undead race, which is strongest early on, but totally outclassed by the end of the game due to their magic weakness. Well, you'll be happy to knwo that perma-death is now optional in the newer games for when they become available for you. Nintendo listened when they asked people why only a few people like the games..

First let me say I'm sorry I can't help with any suggestions that haven't already been mentioned. I sometimes like zoning out while wandering in an rpg, except I like drops...

Anyway, just here to give you some info since I'm more of a handheld gamer and the 3DS is still my favorite since the Switch is pretty big. You're right that you may potentially be banned if you homebrew your device. Had to look it up since I had the ghost of a memory, and now I'm wondering if this is why I haven't seen certain friends for a while. I haven't interferred with mine since there are so many games I enjoy, I'm content to leave things be, but I do agree with you that region-locking is bull. At least Switch isn't. You could always just pick one up and put up with it until online services shut down, which may be as early as 2020; of course, that's not that far off, so if that's right, you could just wait it out.

As for Fire Emblem games, I would recommend Awakening (and only Awakening) for 3DS. You can set it to no permadeath. I can't recall offhand if you can redo the battles, but there are random enemies that appear in cleared areas. I did many a grinding like this early on.

Good luck finding a new game!

I hate to break it to you, but you're pretty much stuck with old consoles, then. It's rare to see RPGs of the type that you want, let alone cross platform and not focusing on a platform like android or iOS. Maybe there's a few out there, but you'll be hard pressed to find it. I wish it wasn't that way, as I, too, prefer linux, but i have to be realistic here. You're going to be using DRMed consoles, if you want anything new. My personal recommendation at this point is to go ahead and look through NES titles as a whole. There are alot of great games like Mother and such that are, unfortunately, language exclusive (and a pain to get legally), but that's essentially what you're going to be looking at. Beware, though, as Nintendo has always been the home of RPGs, but also censorship (largely NoA).

These games here all fit the bill and you can add Grandia II from GoG to this list also.

The Shining Force games could be an option. They can be aquired both on PC and PS3 as part of the Sega bundles.

Except that I am not interested in SRPGs. (Plus, there's also DRM issues with both the methods you mentioned of acquiring them.)