A “best RPGs of all time” list will inevitably include Baldur’s Gate 2, and likely other Infinity Engine games, most of which are definitely not games without difficulty spikes or required side content.
The Wolf Among Us, and I imagine other Telltale games (but that’s the only one I played so far). It felt a lot like Life is Strange in gameplay and storytelling, even though it’s also a lot different.
In a similar vein, point and click adventure games like The Whispered World, The Book of Unwritten Tales, or Syberia. The modern ones usually don’t have a failure state (as opposed to the infamous Sierra games), but unlike LiS you may get stuck on a puzzle.
A “best RPGs of all time” list will inevitably include Baldur’s Gate 2, and likely other Infinity Engine games, most of which are definitely not games without difficulty spikes or required side content.