Honestly, outside of the idle game genre and possibly some games with microtransactions, I don't see this being the case that much.

As I've said, there's times that I actually *want* to play a game where I just want to watch numbers grow while playing (mostly) mindlessly.

The only time I ever grinded was getting my athletics to 100 in Oblivion. Just... running in that park for an hour to get the last bit of athletics to 100. Not worth it. Not that grinding matters when the game has the most well thought out level scaling ever that you throw the difficulty slider all the way to easy peasy just to get over any hump. Take that ogres and minotaurs tag teaming me!

You raised an interesting point.

I'd honestly like to know your opinion on this video, if you have the time and patience, since it's a long video and I understand if you don't want to see it.

https://youtu.be/PGv4ixLllWo - Meta microvideos, Mathewmattosis, 33:14 duration

For most RPGs, you just need to explore whatever areas you have access to that are appropriate to your level, talk to NPCs to look for quests and complete any quests that you can for extra EXP. Most RPGs work like this to some extent where you won't need to specifically grind for EXP.

However almost all JRPGs are grindiy by their nature just for the fact that they will level-lock you into a small area where you cannot progress further until you defeat some boss-level monster, which you're probably too low in level for so go grind out some levels. (EDIT -- Take this with some grain of salt as I haven't played a JRPG newer than 2008.)

Also rogue/rogue-like/rogue-lite games are all going to be grindy by nature as the whole point of these is not so much character development and story, but the acquisition of increasingly better loot to kill harder monsters.

If you play a game requiring to grind and you don't want to grind but just progress in the story, just use cheats. Either built in, if the game has them, or Cheat Engine.

I've edited my prior post to clarify that I haven't played a JRPG newer than 2008, which might explain why I perceive them all as being grindy. Zelda is the only exception I can think due to the game not having experience levels to gain, but the ones I was playing tended to be grindy - especially if it was your first time playing the game and didn't really know what you were doing.

Zelda I don't see as being an RPG in the first place.

(Also, there do exist non-RPGs that could be considered "grindy"; Cookie Clicker might be a good example of this, for example.)

And considering that a valid argument could be made that Zelda is not an RPG at all in the first place is something that would only contribute to that perception I have about JRPGs being grindy when all I've played are the old grindy ones. (I wouldn't mind some suggestions of ones that are not.)

I've played games like A Dark Room and SPACEPLAN, but I never understood the appeal of something like Cookie Clicker or Clicker Heroes that are just grinding for the sake of grinding with no real purpose to it.

Suggestion: Try Candy Box 2 and Universal Paperclips. Those two games are among the better incremental games, and both games have endings. (Candy Box 2 is faster paced than the original Candy Box once you get past the initial wait of a few minutes to get the first sword, though you will likely have to wait for the cauldron a bit later.)

Grinding is always a choice.
In RPGs where skills and attributes need to be raised to improve your abilities you will usually want to raise them as quickly as possible if you are a min maxer.
It's more about your personality and goals than the game requiring you to grind.

You can always stumble around aimlessly in a game but I suspect you would not enjoy that.

This sort of gameplay can be made interesting, where figuring out the best way to raise skills and attributes ends up being part of the challenge.

For example, in Dragon Quest 1, the ultimate armor is guarded by a powerful monster. Getting it would make leveling up a lot safer and easier, but if you try to get it too early, you will likely die and waste time. The sword is in the final dungeon, and going there at a low level involves a lot of luck, and hoping that you won't fail to run away at a bad time.

I could also mention Disgaea here.

Or, incremental games like Cookie Clicker (and the others I mentioned earlier) have a lot of this going on.

For someone who loves math, this sort of gameplay I actually do find to be quite engaging and challenging.