I'm going back to play SNES's Final Fantasy III (Or Final Fantasy VI if you're picky about Japanese titles).  I feel like I haven't played the game in forever and I'm going to miss out on the best ways to make the characters extremely good.  I also hate using FAQs and I like doing it all on my own.

Do you go FAQ and walkthrough free when you play big RPGs?  Are you afraid of missing out on important things?

When I start a new RPG I never use walkthrough or any FAQ's, it gives more like a winner feeling when you have finished the game only relying on your self, and when I have finished the game... I might check if there is any side-quests that I have possible missed, or I just play it again and then find them accidentally myself. I don't see point playing games if you just follow some walkthrough  guide, and say YOU finished the game.

Personally, I'm something of a purist my first time through any game.  I will try my hardest to play though the game without any outside aid the first time through, only looking up a walkthrough if I get completely stuck.  I've found that my first play through, I can usually find/complete about 80-90% of all side quests and collectibles (Some games I hit 100% easily, and occasionally, I struggle to hit 50%, it all depends on the game.)

Once I've played through a game once, all bets are off.  I will commonly read the strategy cover-to-cover before starting a second playthrough.  I will also, actively look for tips, tricks, and exploits that I can take advantage of during a second playthrough. 

If I've somehow managed to not cover everything in the game (100% quests & collectibles) then I will usually play follow a step-by-step guide for the third playthrough to guarantee a completed game (It can be a long time between playthroughs, usually a year between the first and second, and it can be significantly longer between the second and third.)

After a "Complete" playthrough, any further playthroughs will be purely for fun, and how I play at that point is purely subject to my mood.

In the end, a good game is like a good book or movie.  Its worth coming back to again and again, and we all enjoy it in our own ways.  Some of us like to rush through, getting swept up in what's taking place, and others among us like to hang on every little detail.  Myself, I don't feel that you have truly experienced everything a game has until you cant think of any new ways to play through it.

I'm with most of the other people here, I try to do my first play through without any outside help, then once I go back over in either a NG+, or just a fresh start in general, i'll start whipping out the guides and finding all those precious little gems that I may have missed somewhere off in a tight little corner.

However, i'm usually fairly good about checking everything before proceeding to the next room, or opening that next door, it was something my older brother drilled into my head as a kid, I would always run through things and he'd either get frustrated, or i'd watch him at a different sitting and see him with stuff I didn't have around the same time of progress, so now it's sort of an instinct.

It's my general rule of thumb not to use a guide for the first play through.

Though when I do a second one I might use a guide to see any of the hidden gems~  Without a guide I would  of never figured out the wonderful world of debug rooms during the Playstation 1 era!  Those rooms were awesome amounts of fun!

Sure, all the time. But I play like so that I first try to go the main stroyline through. Then again, a bit wiser I play again and try to look for things myself. After that I go for the walkthrougs and faq`s. And play again.

Even though I end up grinding and trying to find everything even on the first time.

I never use a guide of any sort on the first playthrough. I also am always worried that I might miss something, and as a result I'll literally search every nook and cranny in the game. I'll walk everywhere that my character can go, and do all that I know they can do. I'm an extreme perfectionist, but I always walk away knowing that I got the most out of the game that I could get.

I am afraid of missing stuff, but the way I do it, is that I play a game as quickly as I can just to get the story done with and then I start a new game and go through it as slowly as I need to, to make sure that I don't miss anything and that I make the best choices.

No, I'm not afraid of missing stuff.

When I go through RPGs, I tend to do everything I can find. If I miss something, it's because it is wicked obscure and isn't meant to be found by anyone without playing the game religiously or using a strategy guide. Like, we're talking raise a certain character to level 60, before doing a certain main quest, going halfway across the map back to the first place in the game, battling some obscure enemy, getting the rare item drop, and then carting it back across the map, without any prompt of where the enemy is, or what level you have to be to do the quest.

So obscure that 99% of players won't see it on their first playthrough.

On the second playthrough though, I have no reservations about figuring out what I missed, and doing what needs to be done to do it.

My first playthrough though, I just go for as close to 100% as one can get without having prior knowledge or a guide. And with how very few RPGs have those obscure quests these days, I tend to 100% RPGs on my first playthrough.

Yeah, I don't like missing stuff at all and will spend hours searching every nook and cranny of a map to ensure I get everything. Then I'll replay the game to see all the different outcomes. 

I'll never use a walkthough on the first playthrough and only use them if there's something in particular that, for whatever reason, isn't happening in that playthrough.

Not really. I only use walkthroughs if I get really stuck, which usually doesn't happen in RPGs. Though, I like to check in a lot of places.

Generally speaking, yes. I really feel awful if I miss just about anything. Whether that be a small Easter egg, item, collectible, or even some sort of achievement. When I played through Skyrim, I wanted all the Daedric weapons, but I didn't know where to go, so I ended up using a walkthrough. I was pretty disappointed when I couldn't do it myself, but I won't beat myself up over it. This doesn't only apply to RPGs either, I like collecting everything in any game, such as The Last of Us or Jak & Daxter. Missing notes left behind by old survivors or finding precursor orbs in odd places, I wanted to find them all (couldn't and probably wouldn't ever end up getting everything). Then again, it all depends on the game I am playing, if I feel decently about the game, I'll probably go after just about everything. If I don't like the game all that much though, I'll probably only complete the story-line and be done with it.

Most games I don't use FAQs or walkthroughs, though thanks to that fact, I did miss a unique materia in Final Fantasy 7 when I assumed Red XIII knew what he was talking about when he told me 'not this way' and ran off.

I will confess that when I was playing Disgaea I resorted to GameFAQs.  It seems like half of the game is grinding, and if you don't know what you're doing it could well be more like 80%!  I had to restart when I did look at a guide because it turns out that there's a part of the story you're completely locked out of unless you find and activate two switches before going out on your first mission...

Oh all the time. I go back every level, get every item, find every enemy. Sometimes RPG have different cutscenes depending on choice. Even if it doesn't effect the story in ANY way whatsoever and it's a very minor difference; I will always save and replay that part (You could imagine me playing Walking Dead =p). This is why I am very thorough and always try and get everything first go. I've pretty much become a master at RPG's now =p.

Me not using a FAQ/walkthrough on a game is like me not using a map while traveling.

I use them when I'm completely lost and on the edge of giving up. However, I don't believe I'll regret missing some stuff. Say treasure, for example. Sometimes the treasure chest is in one route, but I have to go through another to progress through a game. In RPGs, I really hate running into monsters that don't give me much EXP, and yet are hard to flee from. I encounter this a lot on BoF2. So I normally don't get all the treasure.

If it's some cut-scene, however, then I'm totally not missing any of that!