Beyond superficial similarities like Toriyama doing the art, Blue Dragon doesn't play at all like a Dragon Quest game. It's a love letter to SNES era final fantasies, especially V because of the job system.
That being said, it's fantastic if you yearn for that kind of era. Story is simple and has that 90's anime aesthetic of kids in an adventure, the visuals are bright and colorful, the music is great (Uematsu <3), the job system is fantastic. While I do think the formula has been improved with bravely default, there's something very charming about the jobs intertwined with the dragons. I think my main gripe was with the protagonist being annoying and his shtick being obvious from miles away, but funnily enough I found Marumaro endearing.
Also it's stupid easy on normal mode, I don't get at all where the grinding comments are coming from. Make sure to get the free dlc hard mode (if that's still an option) if you want a nice challenge and a chance to engage with the battle / job system's quirks.
People also always tend to bring up Lost Odyssey in these discussions because it was Sakaguchi's other project at the time. Almost everyone will tell you LO is better but imo that's a bit unfair since LO and BD are aiming for different goals. If anything LO is more reminiscent of PS / PS2 jrpgs while Blue Dragon wants to recreate the more whimsical feel of older jrpgs. I (re)played and beat both this year and they're absolutely deserving of your time if the above sounds good to you. Play them then join us in lamenting the fact that there haven't been jrpgs quite like them since they came out.
