I personally found this game to be a real treat to play and VERY easy to get sucked into. I didn't find the "grind" later in the game to be that bad. The job does a great job of helping you progress in a natural way. Here's how it usually goes: NPC "A" gives you a quest to find/make an item. NPC "B" also gives you a quest to find/make a separate item. Finally, NPC "C" comes along that helps you get the item "A" wants which then leads to you finishing "B"s quest. It keeps going like this for the whole game. The game also pushes you to automate certain tasks which I think is why some maybe view it as a grind, since the game expects you to slowly move into more and more automation. Overall I love it and I highly recommend it.
