The grinding is a common thread throughout all the games. DW4 seemed to have it in the smallest quantities, or so I felt as I played through it. For the others, it was like, "Well, now that I've made it to a new town, I need to stop the plot for 2 hours to run in circles and gain levels so I don't get eaten alive in the next dungeon."
And I know how you feel about Hargon in DW2. Of all the RPGs I've played, that may be the first one where I felt that beating the final boss came down to luck, not skill. It also doesn't help that the prince and princess are utterly useless by that point in the game, so only the hero is doing reasonable damage.