I've noticed in virtually every RPG that I've played that always end up with a ton of gold (or whatever the money is) as I don't really spend it on weapons or other items.. I find I get the best items from quests or killing enemies and the items vendors sell is just crap.... Am I playing these games wrong or is it just a fact of life in an RPG?

RPGs have been severely pussified in the last decade to pave way for the piss-poor "story-telling" aspect to take center-stage over the gameplay. That said, Dragon Quest VIII was quite different. Even power-leveling as I always do, I'd have to pick and choose new items at a new town instead of being able to engulf the entire town's stores. That was one of the billion surprises in that game, in my opinion.

I was about to say DQVIII as well. That game just did so much right.

First thing that popped in my mind was DQVIII as well. I was at the end and still didnt have any gold but luckily did some good things with the alchemy pot to get the weapons and armor i needed.

Yep, in most newer RPGs anyway.

But I prefer iut that way. An RPG has to be story driven for me to enjoy it. The "gameplay" just isn't that fun when it's just picking commands from a menu and keeping an eye on your HP. That's over simplifying a bit with todays RPGs, but not by much. All the seemingly endless leveling, gold saving etc. in old school RPGs kept me from getting into them.

I'd rather just play a Zelda type game that had the same epic feel, no leveling and battles that you actually control.

But when FFVI and VII came around, the stories were compelling enough to get me to play, even though the gameplay wasn't ideal for me. Same is true today with games like FFX and KOTOR--stories were compelling enough to keep me playing. And thankfully these games have toned down the level grid and gold hoarding a bit as well.

That usually seems to be the way, but I recently started Gothic 2 and there definitely isn't a surplus of gold lying about. The first game was similar - not a lot of money ato go around and everyone wants a piece of it, so there are always people asking for bribes and church "donations" or just plain robbing you.

I'm much more accustomed to having an overabundance of gold, as I like to explore every inch of the game I'm playing.

There's an interesting balancing problem. In some RPGs you end up getting extremely rich without having to really work for it, so as you can say you can buy the best of everything [Vandal Hearts 1/2 were like this for me, iirc.]
Then in other ones you have to go out and money grind, which is poor game design imho.
I thought the money balance in Digital Devil Saga 1/2 was well done, of course, they did that by giving you things worth tens of thousands of macca, but that you could only sell outside a dungeon.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong with DQVIII. I just got the ship, and I've got about 15k in the bank. I haven't gotten to the next store yet to see how much their stuff is, but I haven't really had a problem with money yet.

Japanese-style RPGs, perhaps. American-style RPGs don't have this problem.

As for the money thing, it's been a problem since the Wizardry & Ultima days. There seems to be a point in every game where you become fabulously wealthy with nothing to spend it on. Games like Fable and The Elder Scrolls games have a decent solution in that you can purchase houses and such, but that's more fluff than anything.

I'm playing through the GBA version of Tales of Phantasia, and I seem to always be in a money crunch... the best weapons and spell books are pretty expensive.

I think there's a point in every game where you have an excess of money, mainly because you've reached the last town and you've bought all the good stuff, and you're just leveling up. At that point, you don't really need the money, and I don't see anything wrong with that. If you find you have too much gold, or that the enemies are not challenging enough, I'd recommend not spending so much time leveling up your characters outside of the normal story. Now if you're just following the story and not spending hours walking around a dungeon looking to gain experience from random monsters, and you STILL have too much money, then that's a flaw.

All that leveling and money stuff is just a way to make an RPG artificially longer. For instance, the GB version of Dragon Warrior 1 was made much easier... but I enjoyed not having to wander around leveling up for hours to make a ~2 hour game last 10+ hours.

the most recent game i've played probably since the SNES days that I actually had to manage my gold was Dragon Quest VIII, however its done in a very balanced way. FF has been made way easier in terms of the amount of gold you get, they might as well just give you all the armor and weapons free. I also needed to manage my money wisely in Grandia IIII

Yeah, the exploration aspect helps you get more money. If you sit there with a guide and do exactly what it says, you'll take a much shorter path through the game and not get as rich. The game is probably designed to allow a player to do that and not have to be forced to level up much. However, if you look for things on your own, the natural inefficiency will cause you to face more enemies and get richer. When you have to backtrack to get things you should have gotten before, and even get lost at times, you'll encounter more enemies and thus get more gold than you really need.

I ususally never have enough gold. Especially since i'm the type of person that hates ending up grinding just for gold and experience.

I'm playin Oblivion right now and it's hard as hell to find money. Enemies rarely have money on them, and I'm not nearly skilled enough as a thief to steal any yet. And while you generally find the best weapons and armor by doing quests, it costs a lot of money to buy attribute experience, as well as keeping good stocks in tools of the trade (lockpicks, repair hammers, etc.). And then you need money to start certain quests, especially with Daedric Princes. Right now I wish I had an overabundance of cash.