grindiest RPG

runescape in my opinion

 

I don't know about Diablo 3, but Diablo 2 was already really grindy ...

 

I think WoW, when you are starting playing and Runescape because some features are for members so free players have to grind for better items

 

Hmm final fantasy series . Tho even youre high lvl some monsters will wreck you xd

 

RuneScape for sure! And if we talk about grinding rares, we can consider AQ3D too.

 

Depends on what part of the game, and what grinding actually entails (are you trying to level up where there's a huge gap in the progression of the story, are you trying to earn difficult-to-obtain resources, are you trying to complete every mission). But in a lot cases, grind isn't too heavy for main story progression, but you'll often see it ramp up on the post-game and for side missions.

I think the most difficult category for grinding is completing 100% of the game, but that's sometimes difficult to define for certain RPGs (does completing DLC-related content count towards 100% completion or is that optional, what about RPGs where you collect items or maybe even creatures, what about special variants of those items/creatures, what about RPGs with caps/restrictions that makes it impossible collect everything, what about unlocking things that are purely for looks (e.g. hairstyles, clothing, etc.) and don't affect the gameplay, and does the existence of optional shortcuts count). In a lot of cases, the "completionist" grind is poorly defined, and it's up to gaming communities to explain the full detail of a 100% category.

Generally, I think when it comes to grindiest, at least for mainstream RPGs with a popular series, the Final Fantasy series is regarded as being grindy to complete, and you could probably see why from watching longplays of different Final Fantasy games, or a 23-hour 100% speedrun (sometimes dubbed "slowrun") of some games.

But if you delve into the sub-genres of RPGs, then I would say that most roguelike / dungeon-crawler RPGs involve a ton of grind. Combine that with 100% completionist categories and it's even more absurd.

For instance, with a 100% category, I could say something like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is the grindiest RPG if the objective is a "Recruit 'em all" category. Something like that would take several months, or even years, for an average player to complete (depending on how invested the player is). And because that game has a feature called "Wonder Mail" which is practically a shortcut, it presents choice of play style for the player (the choice of grinding longer towards achieving the goal, or a bit less). But what makes roguelike / dungeon-crawler RPGs like Mystery Dungeon ridiculous to grind is that sometimes you have to traverse through several floors of a dungeon, and if you die on a floor, you have to restart all over again. And for a "Recruit 'em All" category, it's the most absurd category ever, because you have to take in consideration of the recruit rate of a Pokémon (some Pokémon's rates are in the negatives that it requires you to use a special item called a Friend Bow), and you may have to go through 100 floors just to recruit a legendary Pokémon (which doesn't even guarantee you a 100% chance of recruit, so you might have to do that 100-floor dungeon several times until you recruit that Pokémon). And to describe even more how ridiculous this grinding is, if you recruit a Pokémon at some random floor, you need to keep that Pokémon alive (until you complete the dungeon) to actually recruit it to your Friend Area.).

So if you want a grindy RPG to play, I would consider looking at roguelike / dungeon-crawler RPGs.