So. GAF. Let's fucking do it. Give me your Top 5 Dragon Quest games.
My list might be a bit controversial with the top ones, and I am sticking with mainline titles but:
1. Dragon Warrior VII (I know it's Quest but my PS1 copy is still labeled as Warrior lol) - This game finally got me to look back at DQ after years of ignoring the series since last playing DQ IV on NES, and honestly not being able to play DQ V or VI at the time without knowing JP (fan translations for the games weren't available at that time). I really love this game despite how huge it is, and the flexibility of the class system is awesome.
2. Dragon Quest XI - Fantastic game with one of the better stories for this series imo. It feels like a big budget JRPG but still retains the spirit of DQ.
3. Dragon Quest VIII - Another fantastic title with great characters. Dhoulmagus is a joy to hear speak in person. I do miss the class system, but there is still some customization with your characters.
4. Dragon Quest VI - I really feel like this title deserves much more love than it gets. It being a late SNES title where the devs knew how to take advantage of the hardeware let it look gorgeous, and once again there is a great class system with a plethora of vocations to choose.
5. Dragon Quest IX - Despite being weaker on the story side than the recent prior entries, I love the gameplay in this, between an awesome class system, creating a party from scratch and sharing dungeon maps online with other people, this game felt like a direct evolution of DQ3's design.
"Where the fuck is DQV Sojiro"? I know this is a fan favorite and I do really like the game, but it doesn't quite make it to the top five for me. The story is amazing in it, especially for the time and if you have played it you know what I mean. My biggest hurdle with it is I personally don't like that monsters fill your party for a good part of the game, yes you can have a full human party at some point, but I wasn't super keen on having monsters for a good part of the game. DQV also lacks a class system that I really value with most of these games. Thankfully, they also added 4 person parties in the DS release, that always bugged me for it originally (I really don't care for just 3 person parties in JRPGs).
The only two titles I haven't played are DQ II and DQ X. DQII seems to be a bit of a mixed bag with impressions due to its difficulty, but I would like to try it out one day. DQ X is of course the online one that WE NEVER FUCKING GOT GOD DAMMIT SE! Man was I completely bummed this never got released over here since it reminded me so much of Final Fantasy XI, and I would be so down for that. I wouldn't mind trying the offline version if SE were to ever grace the west with it's presence, but even if the offline is great I will always be disappointed in the missing online it was meant to be.