11 or 8 probably. Those are usually considered the best ones. I liked the DS remakes of 4-6 and the SFC remake of 3. I’d stay away from PS1 version of 7, though the 3DS version is a little better. I haven’t played 9 and 10 is an MMO which has a single-player only release but it’s Japan only and I never was motivated enough to mess with fan translations.

Tbh if you like any DQ, you’ll probably enjoy the others. Every game has it’s unique aspects but they’re all kinda the same game too.

Also if spin-offs are on the table, I recommend Rocket Slime and Dragon Quest Builders 2.

I really liked DQ1 on the NES DQ2 was pretty much the same but it felt a bit easier. I haven’t played any of the others.

I’ve been playing through 11 as my first DQ and I’m loving it

If you can handle a lot of anime cliches, 11 or 8 are usually considered the best. Quite a lot of the ones on the DS have crazy intense anti-piracy stuff, so working roms of those can be hard to find. The series isn’t really linear or anything, you don’t miss out on anything by “skipping” a game in the series. I wouldn’t say any are bad, but the older ones do certainly feel like NES and SNES RPGs for sure.

Another game that is pretty fun is Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. It’s a creature catching/collecting game like pokemon, but with Dragon quest monsters.

Imo XI because it was the only one i played. Though my conclusion was to better play it on console since PC version have BOTH controller and keyboard controls FUBAR.