>>56962633Replaying Red recently, I was surprised how easy it is to just play through the game without grinding, all the way through the elite four. You'll easily be at least ten levels below everything in the last chunk of the game, but the way the game stacks the deck in your favor with the braindead AI, shit tier NPC move sets, the overwhelming nature of type advantages, and even stuff like the badge boosts and stat exp, you'll be cruising through most of it.
And then the Unknown Dungeon is a huge level jump even from the Elite Four and that starts to break down a bit. I wondered why I felt the need to grind so much in these games as a kid, but aside from autism about keeping pace with the levels, it seems likely Unknown Dungeon probably prompted it too.