You really have to like JRPGs and turn based strategy games in order to enjoy it.

If you liked the wild area in Pokemon Sword/Shield, where it's an open area to explore and you can see pokemon roaming around in the grass, then you might like this game.

It's definitely more of an adventure than pokemon, I'd say. Pokemon is pretty simple. It's basically "follow the route from your mom's house and defeat trainers/pokemon until you reach the elite 4," but the entire dragon quest game is more like, "here are 50+ wild areas like in Pokemon shield... go explore them, defeat wild monsters, find loot, explore dungeons, do quests, visit cities/towns, buy/sell/forge equipment, level up, and defeat all the bosses."

But yes, there are cartoony looking monsters like pokemon. You fight monsters as well as people. So it's kinda like an "open world" pokemon, except instead of using monsters to fight other monsters, you recruit people to fight the monsters. You also don't "catch" the monsters. (There are Dragon Warrior Monsters games which are a spinoff that's a lot like pokemon, but that's different.)