Been great reading through those last blog post (wohoo to potential singing contest!)
I actually had an idea, regarding the want to offer SOME grinding, while still keeping your anti-grind policies...
Why not offer NPCs for the base, that turn on grind-friendly battle mutations? Like special battles in RSPOD3, just player-controllable. To keep them fun, they could even possibly offer gameplay modifications. Examples:
Gym Trainer: He shouts out commands to you team while in mid-battle. Forcing you to perform Super Mario RPG-like button challenges, in order to get more EXP from enemies.
OBVIOUSLY STILL BAD BADGUY: He joins your party, but it's obvious to Alyssa (and the player) that he's still quite evil. If you choose to have him accompany you, he helps the enemies each round, by buffing their stats / enemy class, while making little snide remarks ("I didn't know they had evolved so FAR in this sector..." "They usually travel alone... but it seems you've found a whole pack of them!")
Obsessed Mega-Fan: As a fangirl who sells everything related to Alyssa on sciBay, she's developed a knack for spotting the most miniscule of items. Basically, rare item drops UP! Every time an enemy dies, she'd run in, search the corpse, and run off screen, all while getting surprised and confused looks from the player party (or even enemies...)
EDIT: And please, no battles in cities/towns. I want to have some safe heavens from endless battles. If you want to have some story justification for it, just give some disguise to the main protagonist(s) and that's that.
Really, over the course of an entire RPG, a town or 2 that break the normal "field is dangerous, town is safe" ideal wouldn't interfere with anything, if done properly.
Imagine a once-prosperous town, that had all it's inhabitants pushed out by the local gangs. Since the gangs have a place to go and stay, the surrounding field area has no encounters at all, and actually has all the towns stores set up at porta-shops, and selling out of their space cars. But the town itself is a death-trap.
Still get your Risky / Safety breakdown, just flip-flopped around, for the sake of gameplay and narrative interest.