So, you can't review something you don't own on steam, although I played and beat this game on the Switch, and even started a second play-through. For some context- I've always loved Pokemon, haven't played them much in recent years (I've played about half of Sword, but IMHO Black / White 2 was the best, mechanically speaking), but I went back and played the old DQM games a couple years back, being curious how I missed them as a kid.
I really enjoy DQ, but this game feels so minimalist. The system for acquiring the higher end monsters seems like a method of breeding to get A and B to make C, then breeding to get D and E to make F, and then using C and F to make G (I know, the grades are letters, so this is a confusing way of putting it), so you have secret combos to make monsters that are superior. I enjoy the breeding aspect of these types of games, but genuinely didn't get attached to the creatures beyond the unique DQ designs. Worse than that, if you really like a monster, it probably isn't viable, 'cuz its not the right "Grade" of monster, and therefore inferior, so you'll need to abandon it and move on to better ones, even if their design, mechanically or aesthetically, is not something you like.
I like playing games so old that I need DOSBOX to run them. I still play games that make PS2 gemstones look modern by comparison. But this game looks like dirty buttcheeks bro- it runs poorly somehow, so the engine isn't even well optimized, and it STILL looks bad. Weather or open fields can have shoddy FPS drops, and while the overall design is interesting visually, it genuinely has this lack of effort feel, like their budget was half of what it should have been.
And you figure this would be made up for with mechanics, like their design focus might have been story and making the systems more.... well, good. But it feels uninspired on both fronts- the mechanics are simplistic. The story is pretty mid, very basic with one central plot twist that felt more disheartening to continue, almost frustrating, more-so than interesting.
Anyway, for anyone considering buying this, I don't recommend it really. I wanna support the dev, in the hopes that they make another one that is bigger, better, and qualitatively something that puts in the work with its story and tries to innovate more mechanically. This game feels like a small team was tasked to re-use engine parts to build a game, and they followed a specific recipe and got it done. Not much love or ingenuity to be found here, just... Dragon Quest and its unique monster designs, and very much a "this is the old Gameboy Game but we made it today!" kind of thing.


TL;DR-
Looks like a budget game, doesn't really innovate much. I don't recommend it, even on a sale, unless you genuinely love Dragon Quest for its character design or are incredibly nostalgic for DQ and DQ:M.


"Well okay moron, how would YOU have done it better anyway?!" Thanks for asking me, me. I think a system of improving monsters could work better. Make me work to make a tiny blue slime into a god or something- give me access to better breeding mechanics, like changing bad abilities out for better ones, and the ability to improve the base stats of monsters at a heavy cost. I love the design of specific monsters, so let me use the ones I like, please.
The story needs to have a world. This game is literally a bunch of portals attached to a hub, usually with a auto-battler fight as a gateway to get to the next area. I don't HATE that aspect, but it feels empty, like I'm exploring a zoo if I'm not doing a dungeon. And that sort of feeling of going into a dungeon to complete a quest is... well, very Dragon Quest, so we're on theme I guess? But the discordant feeling of an empty world doesn't help at all. Even your "party members" are thoroughly uninteresting, and contribute basically nothing, except dialogue to the story and cutscenes. There were maybe two story moments that got more than a "meh" out of me, and several moments that were actually kind of annoying, because I don't like the characters.
Mechanically, there's not a lot to dig into here. I'm sure you could break a couple of things over your knee to make exceptional parties that destroy any challenge easy, figuring out the right combo of monsters and breeding them with specific abilities, but a goal like that would be tedious at best, incredibly boring, and without much payoff in actuality. It feels tired conceptually before it gets halfway through the game, and trying to get the best monsters without looking up a guide seems improbable, and highly illogical, like figuring out that the recipe for dynamite is a stick of butter and a roll of toilet paper. A lot of parts of this game feel boring and unrewarding, like you're marching through a swamp to reach a goal, except the goal just isn't that satisfying after all the work.
I had fun with the game. I don't really regret my purchase, because I genuinely love Dragon Quest and its monster designs. The game bored me a lot, and the story and characters were frustrating. It looks old, like, I bought it on release and it seriously looks bad. If it looks like I'm arguing with myself it's because I am, because I want to like it more than I do, and see potential where it feels lackluster and uninspired.