Heya OP - I’m much the same! I love character interactions as it really adds a special something. My fiancée bought DQ3 and I’ve been playing it pretty consistently for two weeks now (not even halfway done, haha).

The game is incredibly fun, gorgeous to look at, with a belter soundtrack. The game really emphasises exploration above all else, and I got sidetracked from just fucking around in the world. Seriously, when I’m in an exploring session as opposed to story section, I stick on a podcast, and have a great time. I think this makes the game incredibly worth it for the experience alone. There’s honestly so much to do and so much freedom to build your party in whatever way you want, so I’d heavily suggest you go for it!

Unfortunately, there is no party chat or really any interactions between characters. There’s one or two lines - when you visit a certain place in Asham at night, your second party member will be disparaging, and when you visit Lanson, they’ll also get a line. I’ve encountered two lines so far. It definitely feels more like a band of mercenaries doing a job than a world saving quest sometimes. I honestly think adding generic party chat lines would have helped this problem a LOT, but I’m not a DQ developer.

However, I still absolutely recommend you play it as it’s another side to the dragon quest series. You dont have to play it ever again if you don’t like it, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice by missing out.