Thoughts on the Dragon Quest heroes? Is switching characters constantly fiddily or annoying? How complex is combat?

Hi all,

Thinking of picking this up as I was recently introduced to the universe through Dragon Quest Builders.

I watched some gameplay videos and noticed there is a good bit of character switching mid-combat. So I was wondering if I could get some opinions and insights on it.

Also how hard is the game in general and combat?

I am talking about the original and not II / 2 but I'd love to hear thoughts on the latter if you've played both! But the original is very cheap right now so I am leaning towards that one.