Elden Ring or even Nioh 2 for the challenge, or even PoE if you like theorycrafting. Last Epoch if you want something that's just as engaging but accessible enough that you don't have to read guides about it beforehand. Tons of fan to be had in all of them

Elden ring if you are looking for a decent challenge apart from exploration or grind. Assassins creed Valhalla has a ton of grind which honestly felt the longest to me but has a skill tree system as well so it might fit your needs here.

Have you tried warframe? It's a free to play ARPG and for a free game it has a ton of missions and content and it's really fun imo I used to play it all the time with a friend but haven't played for a few years now as I am waiting for cross save to become available which should be very soon. It has a system where you build characters (warframes) based on blueprints you find throughout missions and then you have to collect specific resources in order to build each part of it and then build the warframe itself. The same goes for weapons, and you can hold a primary, secondary, as well as a melee, all of which you can get mods for to improve your weapons as well as your warframe. There's a lot more to talk about but honestly it would take way too long to explain everything lol I would say give it a try and see what it's like and you could even look up videos on it as well to see if it's something that interests you.

Edit: I am not entirely sure if warframe is the type of game you might be looking for exactly, but I just wanted to put it out there in case you wanted to look into it!

Monster Hunter World

Realm of the Mad God is great and also free, so no reason not to try it. It has a lot of grinding. POE and Destiny are both great choices too.

You cant progress in disgaea even before the end game without the grinds, at least in older ones

Dragon Quest, particularly the 1st one as originally released was extremely grind heavy. The whole game is: go to a new area and grind levels until you're strong enough to visit the next area.

Never got this criticism of Octopath Traveler. I never deliberately set out to grind, just explored every area and made sure to go back with another group if I needed someone’s abilities to open a chest or something. Did all the chapter ones, then chapter twos, etc. Ended up overlevelled, but never actively did any grinding.

Just depends how you play.

Ni No Kuni, on the other hand… That combat without grinding, when you’re depending on AI and poorly explained real-time elements, is HARD.

The only grinding you should have to do in the second half is recruiting your party. The gear you get from doing that should let you break mechanics and make some people completely OP. Then I'd suggest just splitting those people up and let them do all the heavy lifting in fights.

you need to grind even BEFORE endgame in DIsgaia titles most of the time- most main story missions have a pretty hefty level jump between each chapter after the item world has opened up, let alone access to the other bonus systems of the current game.

A certain boss in Yakuza like a dragon , the rest of the game is doable without grinding though

I disagree with FF1. It's grind heavy on a first playthrough, but when you know the game you shouldn't need much beyond just the regular encounters along the way.

Warframe and Path of Exile are both free and the kings, nay, the emperors, double nay, the GODS of grinding games.

Monster Hunter. The grind is literally the core gameplay

OSRS if you can fathom a sub. Most satisfying labor of love

Oldschool RuneScape. Fantasy themed RPG from the early 2000s. One of the most played games to this date.

Grinding? Let me recommend Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Good lord, I had this game in my steam library for a long time and never gave it a shot. Got my covid stimulus check and upgraded my PC, sorted !y games by metacritic score, found out this game was really hated and gave it a shot.

Game just blew my mind. Fun as hell driving, great atmosphere, perfect open world, and super gritty hard hitting combat. It's also one of the best looking and sounding games I've ever played. And it played at 90fps on an RX 470 which was supposedly not a good GPU.

9.75/10 for me. Better than GTAV and any of the Saints Row games, even though I liked those.

If you are looking for something different, which you are, then may I recommend Disgaea 5 complete?

I never played any of the past games and it was recommended to me years ago. Suffice to say I fell in love with the game and you can grind for what seems like ever.

You want a grind? Play Warframe!

Albion Online is Grindy. It was the first game I was hooked on in over 10 years.

If you're looking for something with an online component maybe check out Fallout 76. Lot to do, it's not that difficult, plenty of things to grind for, pretty robust base building system, and a mostly friendly community. And it's always highly suggested that you join a PUG every time you log on and considering the upsides it's worth it. I've played the game for hundreds of hours and always joined a group but did 99% of the content solo.

What everyone finds rewarding is different but some that I personally find rewarding are Diablo-likes. Diablo 2, Torchlight 2, Chronicon, Grim Dawn and Last Epoch are the ones that immediately come to mind.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance. You start as a wimpy son of a blacksmith but eventually learn to fight and become a knight.

Death STranding isn't a game, it's poetry. Either you like it or you hate it, but what it does, it does amazingly.

Monster hunter world, iceborne

Monster Hunter World.

Was going to drop this here https://store.steampowered.com/app/803600/Disgaea_5_Complete/ but then I read your last bullet point "a slight grind". Well depending how much time you want to burn Disgaea series can certainly provide that rabbit hole to go down. It has quite a few anime tropes but it can be quite a fun game, and level/gear definitely has progression. Plenty of loot drops and randomly generated gear too. and if you like Strategy RPG this has it by the bucket load.

Give Troubleshooter a shot. This is a game like XCOM where you claim abilities from defeated foes and can combine them into more powerful abilities and establish synergies. It's got a visual novel component to it as well.

Off the beaten path is also Chronicon.

My favorite arpg is Grim Dawn. I play it hardcore, using a shared stash as meta-progression.

Nioh 1 and 2 and Wo Long might be up your alley. You might want to consider the Dark Souls series and Elden Ring they dont have random loot but have a very satisfying progression system

I am working on exactly that right now haha

Its a mix between MMO-style combat and traditional ARPG Systems (steam page)

Apart from that i would strongly recommend Chronicon if you havent played it

Outriders

No Man’s Sky. Endless grind if you wanna play it that way and actually a pretty satisfying one as well.

Monster hunter: any in the series. The game is grinding for the joy of grinding you hunt monsters to get parts you use parts to make gear you make gear to kill bigger monsters. Sounds right up your alley. Add to that some exploration elements that make it really enjoyable.

Last Epoch is currently in Beta on steam. It's a new arpg with decent looting and gearing and the best qol I've ever seen in the genre.

Every skill has it's own little skill tree and there are 5 classes with 3 masteries each (3/15 masteries are not out yet, but probably coming this year). Another thing I like is that item modifiers go from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest), but you can only craft up to t5, so loot always stays relevant in endgame. Crafting is also a fun satisfying gamble with a fair risk.

Have you tried Monster Hunter World?

A bit different from your priors but you might dig Mount And Blade 2.

It's a bit sandbox, a bit rpg, a bit tactical, a bit strategy. But rewarding grinds and beautiful battles.

It's still early access but it's pretty great with the latest update.

disgaea has incredibly grindy post-games, would definitely recommend checking out the series

Try the Monster Hunter series. Nothing can match the satisfaction of completing an armour set after slaying the same monster 20 times for the 2% material drop

Elite Dangerous when played in solo. I know of nothing more grindy.

Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, and/or Borderlands series

Disgaea 5 is one of my favorite games of all time, pick it over 6 if you try the series. Who doesn’t want to grind a dungeon run in a candy bar to level up your healing item? Also, Rune Factory 4 if you want rpg and farming. Terraria if you want build and rpg, lots of items to find.

Elden Ring is also fun at and grindy, but hard.

I can enjoy it as long as it doesn't make it feel like the levelling itself is the main focus. Especially because of its diminishing returns at higher levels, the levelling system in DS3 really felt like a grind toward the end of my time playing it.

The best iteration of a "grinding' system I've seen was in Space Marine 2. Your character itself has no stats to level up per se, but levelling up instead expands the variety of perks you have at your disposal, which allows you to change up your play style.

I hate mandatory grind. But, I love when it’s optional. Like the koroks in zelda.

Let me stay in the world a bit longer when I want too, but don’t ruin the story flow by making me go and fight 5000 slimes to be a high enough level to progress.

Mixed feelings for me. Depends on the game. If I grind in a game, the reward must be worth my time

I generally enjoy up to the point they give diminish returns

If it:s grinding to be better than expected, or to accomplish ignorable side content, I'm fine with it. But if grinding is the primary element of game progression, I absolutely hate it. I really hate when the story is being absolutely great but first I need to go grind for XP or whatever because otherwise I can't get past the stage. It's why I dropped Elden Ring even. Just felt like I was supposed to grind away with side content and not focus at all on the main quest that the game presented me.