lots to avoid so far

Triple Town. I'm still trying to find out if there are Level 8 buildings to construct on your main island.

Fantastic suggestions! Didn't realise there were so many titles hiding in plain sight :)

Yeah, that seems like the pinnacle of grinding :) Tried the X3 games, but I'm not entirely sure how to begin playing properly :(

Elminage Gothic

It's nothing but walking through different dungeons fighting a wide variety of monsters to level up and develop cool skills.

Completely different genre to what everyone else is mentioning, but racing games like Gran Turismo and Forza. I just spent two solid weeks in Forza 5, racing cars around and around and around the same set of tracks. Over 400 races, and from driver level 1 to level 155 in two weeks. Bought every car I have any interest in, raced every championship there is. And loved every minute of it. Can't wait to get Forza 6 to do it all again.

If X-series is to complicated or boring you could try Rebel Galaxy.

Not that it's boring... It just seems a little overwhelming, and I don't want to end up playing for lots of hours only to realise I screwed something up and have to start over. Or is that something that should be expected when playing it first time around?

I don't think that it is "expected" but building a factory in a sector where lot of fighting is happening could either ruin you profits or mean the loss of an expensive installation.

Secret of Grindea is all about grinding but it is still in Early Access and the developement oesn't seem to be what one would call fast.

Disgaea is the grindingest JRPG series ever.

Um, your forum avatar is pointing you in a pretty solid direction ;)

Oh I know... one game is never enough for me, though haha!

I do like viper's slightly outside the box recommendations of the X Series and / or Rebel Galaxy, for a more serious answer.

Pick a jRPG, any jRPG. Now you get to grind whether you wanted to or not!

Pick a RPG, any RPG. Now you get to grind, but it's not mandatory unless it's a dungeon crawler.

Pick a Tony Hawk's, any Tony Hawk's. Now you get to grind...grind...grind.

Anway, another vote for Disgaea. Finishing the game sans the "true boss" stuff takes only a bit of grinding near the end, but between the character transfer system and item leveling, it's good for probably hundreds of hours of mind-numbing. The only problem is that the PC port is apparently shit, therefore you'll need a console version. Preferably PSP or DS for the extra content.