I mean, I respect the hell out of it for basically inventing JRPGs, having great music and art, and some of my favourite series are parodys of it (Earthbound/Mother).
But lord help me, I just cannot get into this series. It’s stories and world building suck. It’s so very, very chuddy in its values and characters. All about birthright and bloodlines (Something that’s putting me off the Zelda and Fire Emblem series too as I get older). It’s also got that Square Enix sexism stink that I find myself being less tolerant of the older I get.
Please feel free to roast me for this opinion, it’s just my personal preference after all.
If you like the Dragon Quest series I would love to hear why, because I want to like it. Maybe I just haven’t played the right one. I’ve only played 8 to completion on the PS2 back when I was a kid, and I tried the Demo of 11 but wasn’t really gelling with them changing the iconic presentation of their battles, if that makes sense (a nitpick, I know)
I know nothing about it as a series, but the DQM Joker games were great and I honestly still replay them sometimes. The storylines are pretty bland but the synthesizing monsters mechanic makes them like a more fun Pokémon imo - and your post is the first I’ve heard of birthrights or bloodlines even after playing all the Joker series, so if it has anything about that I missed it (luckily).
If you wanna give it a try I’d probably recommend joker 1, it’s got the best gameplay (although QoL improves in 3) and the single good character in the trilogy (she’s such a massive bitch, truly an icon). 2 is skippable but not bad, and 3 is a real change with some new and fun mechanics but kinda cursed to get it working in English.