Is this too grindy and confusing without walkthrough?
In order to see content, a walkthrough is kind of necessary, but mainly for if/when you're stuck.
With or without a walkthrough, it's extremely grindy and has lots of "random events" which can feel grindy due to needing to repeatedly to certain things in order for them to appear.
Not so much when it comes to levelling Krowly, more when it comes to levelling his farming and alchemy (and cooking) skills, mainly because those three are inter-dependant and require a lot of time to work on.
The only real "cheat" for the skills, is to use a save editor (search for RPG Save editor tool) after working on those skills for a bit, then jam them up to 100 to allow Krowly to make the best quality potions early on.