I am wondering what RPGs, preferably ones I haven't heard of, that take unorthodox approaches to charact er growth.

There are a few things I am explicitly not looking for:
* I do not want levels and experience points; that growth system has been overused.
* I am not looking for "improve stat/skill by using" systems either; among RPGs that forgo XP leveling, you usually see some variation of this system.
* I am not looking for games where you level up via XP, but have another secondary growth system (say, for learning abilities; most Final Fantasy games from 5 onward fall into this system).
* I am not looking for action games that are labeled as RPGs; if we were to allow those, then we'd have to allow games like Zelda and Metroid, which I am clearly not looking for.
* An RPG with no character growth *is* acceptable for this purpose, but only because such games are practically unheard of, and I would like to hear about such games.

The best example I can think of for what I am looking for would be the original SaGa. SaGa 2 and SaGa Frontier are also like this for some of their races (though SaGa Frontier suffers from being too human centric; it's impossible to get through the game, for *any* main character, without having a human forced into your party early on, and humans use a "improve stats by use" growth system).

So, any suggestions?

Don't know if this fits your criteria, but Age of Decadence doesn't have levels or exp in the narrow sense. Instead you get skill points (either of a general nature or of a more specific nature, e.g. if you win a fight you get points that can only be invested in combat abilities iirc) which can be spent to improve your skills.
I suppose you're looking for something more exotic, but I can't think of anything.

There are a number of games that primarily use equipment upgrades for growth, but I can only think of one off the top of my head:

Bionic Dues only has one character upgrade, obtained by visiting a certain type of map; the map only upgrades one character and each character can only be upgraded once. In fact, the map is rare enough that you will probably finish most games without ever upgrading. All other growth is via equipment upgrades (which as you might expect, can be completely changed on a whim, unlike say the Suikoden weapon upgrades)). However, given how those upgrades are supplied, it's really no different from gradual leveling.

Perhaps in this same vein, I would include the gear/card system of Victor Vran (which I've noted elsewhere, I wasn't super fond of, but it is different) or the somewhat similar system in Book of Demons.

I mean, if OP wants to get super exotic you could just have a skill system where skills upgrade at random. And then you could turn it into P2W by letting people buy buffs to increase the rate.

It is exotic! Also, horrible.

IDK, I guess I still like experience or use-based progression. As a general approach, they are coherent, and if done well create a sense of goals and progression.

Hmmm... Maybe Overfall
If my memory doesn't fail me too much, I think it had quite an unique and strange way to develop your characters...

SaGa 1 does this with espers. The way it works is, that, after battle, one of the following things may happen, as determined by the RNG:
* HP increases by an amount determined by the RNG.
* A random stat increases a bit. (Magic Power increases are most likely, Defense increases least likely)
* One of the esper's 4 skill slots is changed to a random Esper skill. You have no control of which skill is changed (unless you manipulate the RNG to get a specific skill), and this can result in the loss of a valuable skill. (This is the reason I find myself saving constantly while using them; after each battle, I check to make sure there hasn't been a bad skill change, *then* I save the game. It is annoying to have to do this, however.)
* Some of the esper's skills have their remaining uses changed, typically reduced to 0 or to double their base amount. (Note that this only affects current values; an inn stay will reset the uses to their normal limits.)

Note that the difficulty of the encounter does not matter, nor does the esper's stats prior to the battle. However, the esper *does* have to survive, the battle must be won (no running away), and the RNG's state does matter. (Note that the RNG always initializes itself to the same value on power-on, and this particular RNG is used solely for non-combat roles, so you'll tend to see the same stats getting growth because of this.)

The other races in that game are also rather exotic in their growth systems:
* Humans grow using permanent stat boost items that can be simply bought in stores throughout the game. (15000 kero, which is not hard to get (2 endgame battles should give you more than enough), is more than enough to raise a stat from its starting value to 99.)
* Monsters change form when eating meat; each form change gives you an entirely different set of stats and abilities. (Meat is randomly dropped by enemy monsters that you kill.)

Oh right. If I recall you had to meet some criteria and find the trainer and then just bought them?

I only played through once, but that's a pretty fun game.

EBWOP - though I would say that I didn't find the leveling to be the most interesting part of Overfall. The missions and the stories were what made it shine imo.

A few nitpicks if I may:

1. Overused things aren't bad because they are overused. Sometimes something is GOOD and that's why it is used so much(of course ALL such examples won't be gems).

Basically one shouldn't dismiss something or a category or somethings just because it uses overused ideas/tropes/etc....especially in gaming or media.

2. Action RPGs are RPGs to many people, and also not RPGs to others. Heck if we wanted to turn the term "Role Playing Game" on it's ear we could suggest that TECHNICALLY ANY GAME where one "plays a role" is a role playing game.

3. If you cannot find anything that matches your criteria the chances others will(who have less vested interest in finding such most likely) will be less than optimal/very low most likely.

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As for examples/suggestions per your OP question: Have you tried any of the card based RPGs that use cards as mechanics to do spells/make attacks/get 'stronger'?
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Expeditions Vikings has unusual character creation system. Not the same thing, but...

Anyone else?

(Also, why is my first post here low rated? What did I do wrong here?) 1. Overused things, however, crowd out other approaches, and even if the overused thing is good, sometimes it's nice to have something else for a change.

2. From the standpoint of this topic, if you allow so-called "Action RPGs" to be RPGs, you run into a problem with how to separate those games from pure Action games. Keep in mind that even a game like Super Mario Bros. has a growth system (collect a mushroom to become big and able to break blocks, collect a fire flower to start throwing fireballs), and I want to exclude such games from the topic, as such growth systems that would be exotic from an RPG perspective would be quite common there.

Wondering the same thing. I also see this post downrated as well, without any good explanation.

While I won't pretend to know why certain comments get downvoted by other people...I can give you a little hint about what irks me with your first comment:

Quote: "The best example I can think of for what I am looking for would be the original SaGa. SaGa 2 and SaGa Frontier are also like this for some of their races..."

The SaGa series seems to be THE one game series, you ALWAYS refer to.

We get it - you like those games...and you are in the process of making your own game...so why don't you just make your game with all the pros of the SaGa series?

Why keep coming back and asking us questions which you obviously already answered for yourself by looking at the SaGa games?

Simply do your new interpretion of the SaGa games and present it to us after it's done.

Again: I don't know what other people's reason to downvote may be...this is just a guess.

good explanation :)
I see different reason - OP asks for controversial things here. Character development is the base of any RPG game, without it you will get adventure or strategy game if you use turn-based fights. there's no joy to play RPG where you role playing same weak character and wear same cosmetics, tho I can understand why OP wants to list "no joy" games, they are "no joy" person themselves, without sense of humor and can't understand sarcasm. it must be the word "adventure" is too frivolous for them so they're using word "RPG" instead. that's more orthodox :)