I thought the gameplay was pretty fun and addicting. The aesthetic atmosphere and monsters in the world kept me going. This is actually the first DQ game I completed ever. Coming back to the DQ games was a pleasure and made me appreciate the series
Character arc wise, it is pretty disappointing. Aside from the childhood backstory, Yangus doesn't develop much beyond being a best buddy for the hero. He does have a bit of an interesting relationship with Red though, I thought their chemistry worked a bit well.
Jessica also didn't develop as well as I thought. I thought her story of abandoning the family had the potential to go into interesting ways, but she doesn't do much character chemistry wise. Her relationship with her mother didn't go anywhere when the ending came.
Angelo is a bit more fleshed out, and I like the development done between him and Marcello. But, I wish he had more interesting development with the hero, and he didn't even become much of a lady's man with Jessica or Red. I wish there was something to flesh out his relationships with the girls beyond just the boring Consulting.
As for Red, she is my favorite character, but that doesn't say much TBH. All I like about her is her personality and design, but as with the others, she does not have much development. I am kinda pissed that she doesn't have her own marriage ending after doing research, as I would have gone for that ending myself. But it's just Jessica and Medea apparently. ;_;
With the Monster Arena dude, I liked him, if only for his tournaments and his skills of raising two levels of tensions for partners. Not much to say.
The only character I felt a close bond with personally was Medea and King Trodain (to a smaller extent). Aside from the childhood scene, the occasional talks with Medea in inn rests and springs are just her responding to the events to the story, which wasn't interesting considering her characterization, but nonetheless, she is the closest that I felt a connection with with the way her conversations are presented. It made me wanna marry her during the ending, until I remembered Red.
The lackluster character arcs made me not care much about the story and just focus on the addicting gameplay. The journey with the characters is a bit fun (when it comes to the comedic moments at least), but they are not as fleshed out as I would have hoped. It is kinda what I feared when I decided to come back to DQ, fearing that DQ8 would be a standard adventure story with a bit of charm and nothing more, as someone that pays close attention to character arcs the most in anime/manga stories. I don't regret coming back to DQ after so many years, but I definitely should have thought about the DQ game I wanted to complete first more. I should've went with DQ5, with what I heard about the characters having emotional moments and growth.