The first dragon warrior title for the NES had worse gameplay than the first FF title did.
I've only played IV and VI. I thought the battle system was pretty boring in both of them. You pick an attack/spell that works and keep using it until someone dies (hopefully the enemy). And the random battles are annoying. I hate it when I can't take two steps without having to fight yet another bunch of monsters. I liked the plot in both games, though, but I prefer entertaining gameplay to an entertaining story.
And you might be right in saying that RPGs aren't my genre. Although I did enjoy Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana...