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)
They're some of my favorite games, but there's no reason to force yourself to play them. I like that the combat is still the classic simple JRPG format. It's satisfying to just run around and check every drawer, closet, and cupboard in a new town. They're structured so you can play for like 30 minutes a day and always feel like you made some progress.
Ooh, good point on playing in little chunks. Unlike FF games where you can spend literally 30 minutes in one cutscene/dialogue vortex, DQ games move you along pretty quickly.