Pretty sure there's not much, if any grindan in Live A Live. Mostly run-in-to-badguy style fights, too, if that.
I probably should talk more about it, shouldn't I?
Basically, Live A Live's broken into seven or so little chapters, and each plays quite differently. One plays like an adventure game - there's a final boss fight and a for-fun gauntlet battle, and that's it. There are a couple things that will
kill you, but they're not fights. Another is kinda like a fighting game, in that you pick your opponent, and then it goes directly to the fight. Then there's the cowboy chapter, which has one or two duels between the two characters, and then only one fight otherwise. The ninja chapter actually has a different ending if you don't kill any people that you don't have to finishing it.
IIRC, the chapters are:
- Caveman: A love story. I actually got stuck on this one, because there's some RUBY WEAPON sorta optional boss that I couldn't find, and due to completionism I progress without slaying he. It's cute, otherwise, and, as appropriate, there's text at all.
- Kung fu: You're an aged master, looking to train a successor. You find three promising young 'uns...
- Ninja: You're sent to rescue someone from an enemy castle. Sorta - I'm pretty sure it enables you to just blaze a trail of bodies, but you can also sneak dat shit, and you can even turn around and leave as soon as you get to the castle. It ends badly, of course, but still.
- Cowboy: You and your pardner macguyver traps together to take down a gang. Depending on how well you do, you could be fighting 16 guys (which is kinda worth it, just to see how they Tetris that many badguys onto the battlefield) or just the singular bossman.
- Modern: The aforementioned fighting game. You can learn moves from your opponents by getting hit by them! That part's kinda important. The sumo and the hulk are hard.
- Near Future: Basically anime. Has some pretty awesome music, and you get crazy mindbullets and also an oldschool mecha.
- Sci Fi: You're on a spaceship, heading back to Earth. It was the first one I played, and I'm not sure if it was a good or bad choice, but I know I'd recommend you do it first too, honk.
Battles are on a 7x7 grid - each move has a certain range and shape (ex: most of the basic attacks would be able to hit in any direction, but more powerful attacks might only aim in a + or X pattern, or a unique blast pattern, stuff like that), and powerful moves may take some time to charge up. Items and equipment aren't that big a deal, and health goes back to full after every fight. When a character's HP hits 0, they're knocked out - you can still heal them at that point, but they CAN be hit again, at which point they're removed from the battle until you win. I believe it's
sorta turn based - when I played, enemies seemed to move as you did, but if you took too long to decide where to move, they'd move on their own, including attacking you.
Also includes music by
Yoko Shimomura!
There's some HFS I didn't mention, also, honk.
I also recommend Super Mario RPG, which I am ashamed to have forgotten to recommend. Shimomura did the music for that as well.