I finished the game. The highlight for me was going to the southern city to get the magic keys, and then exploring the towns near the castle again with the keys. Everything after that bored me to tears, honestly. The random encounter rate is way too high and it makes exploring a giant chore. Sure, you get the repel spell later to keep them away, but that's after hours of constant trivial interruptions from slimes and ghosts, and even after you get it, reapplying the spell every 15 seconds is another kind of tedious. Besides, it only works on really low level enemies, so you'll still get interrupted by undead and mages even after they stop being rewarding to fight. The final dungeon was too easy and there's no strategy to the final boss besides constantly healing yourself. I like how you get the option to blueball Princess Laura at the ending, though, that's pretty funny, especially since she's so horny throughout the whole game after you save her. Since Akira Toriyama is the artist, I imagine every woman in the Dragon Quest world as Bulma from Dragon Ball, IE disgusting whores. Speaking of Toriyama, I wonder if he was the inspiration behind the "puff-puff" prostitute at the bathhouse, considering puff-puffs are a running gag in Dragon Ball.
I heard that Dragon Quest 2 has multiple party members, and Dragon Quest 3 removes random encounters in favor of monsters visibly wandering the overworld. So I've got those to look forward to. But I can't see myself ever replaying Dragon Quest 1.