Huh, I thought I posted in this thread already.

Kind of got into the series all haphazardly, my first one being 3 on the Gameboy Colour before going back to 1 and 2. Then I picked up 8, and most recently 4 and 5 on the DS. I also like 8 the least, the biggest reason being that it seemed a little more drawn out. One thing I dig about DQ is that the battles are pretty fast, DQ8 seemed to slow down considerably from the early games. Totally getting 9 and 6 as soon as I can when they came out.

Even though I have my issues with Japanese RPGs in general, DQ manages to do something that hooks me. Dragon Quest 5 is one of my favourite games across all genres. I don't think there's another Japanese RPG that I would consider among my top favourite games.