Hi everybody, Im considering playing a Dragon Quest game and Id like to know which one is the best and please tell me why...

I played the last PS2 game (number 8?) and I didnt get into it... when I was young, I played games 1 and 2 and Im pretty sure I finished the first one ....

Holy old thread, and I'm surprised no one responded. My favorite is actually the Monsters spin-off. It was incredibly engrossing while being minimal in any sort of story, which I find appealing. Second favorite is III simply because, well, it's traditional like I and II but allowing full customization of your party.

IV

I really liked Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride for the DS.  It had a lot of personality if you clicked for comments from your crew.  Nearly every dialog encounter had added unique commentary from the other people in your party, and as such, it fleshed out their personalities.  In the game, you have a human party with several to choose from (eventually) that exceed the number you can hold at once.  In other words, you can carry 7 additional members, but you can accrue many more than that.  One of the points of the game is that you can capture and add monsters to your team.  You level them up like any other character and equip them with items also like any other character.  The story is really epic, too since you start the game as a child and then grow up over the course of the adventure.  Many, many years pass.  On of the best things I found about this game is that unlike most DQ games, I didn't need to purposely level up to continue.  I can recall only 2 times in the game where I took the time to grind for levels and that was because I wanted a returning party member to be equally as skilled as my primary group.   This is the DQ V Review that sold me on the game and I am happy it did.  One of the most enjoyable RPGs I've ever played.  Incidently, I was only luke warm over DQ 8 for the PS2 because the characters didn't have enough personality and the game requires a lot of grinding for levels and gold.

DQ VI is the best, but it was never released outside Japan. I suggest waiting for the DS remake, or hunting down the fan translated ROM and emulating it if you can't wait for the DS remake. The remake is coming out this month I believe in Japan and hopefully will be out outside Japan later this year, but no date has been given for release in western territories yet. 
 
If you want a DQ that has already been released outside Japan I suggest going with either IV or VII. DQ IV can be played on the NES or the remake on the DS. DQ VII is on the PS1. VII is basically DQ I - DQ VI in one game and is pretty long just to warn you.

Haha, I actually noticed this thread like a year ago (when it was still the only thread in this forum) and considered replying to it but figured I probably shouldn't revive such an old thread.
 
Anyway, if you didn't like DQ8 it's kind of hard to recommend any other game in the series as they're all pretty much the same. They do each have a different main draw, though. DQ8's main draw, for example, was its huge expansive world to explore, and that is precisely the reason why it's my personal favorite in the series. If story and characters are important to you, however, you probably wanna go with DQ5 for reasons that PenguinDust has already given. You can't really go wrong with DQ4 either, though. It's separated into multiple chapters in which you control different characters that eventually all come together to fight the ultimate evil. 

Now, if you're a more gameplay-focused person, you might wanna wait for the English release of DQ6 as it has a job system and two different world maps (dream world/real world) which you frequently need to warp between to progress the story. It is my second favorite game in the series and I never quite got why it's supposedly the black sheep of the franchise. Maybe it's because its fans go on to kill the person they were arguing with over which DQ game is the best (true story).
 
Anyway, those are all the games I personally recommend. DQ1 and 2 aren't all that interesting (I mean, they're fun, but they don't offer anything that can't get from later games in the series and done better), and DQ3, 7 and 9 I haven't played myself yet.

Sorry for the bumb, but III remake on the Super Fami is my Favorite.