Each shop has new weapons and armor that enhance your ability to take on the boss of the next dungeon, but raising the gold to pay for those weapons and armor takes a repeated series of battles against the local monsters. The typical difficulty curve in Dragon Quest is focused on the equipment available in shops.
I remember spending hours exploring the game world, talking to NPCs in towns, building the skill trees for my characters, and of course battling monster after monster in the overworld and dungeons. The first experience with a Dragon Quest title that I have a strong memory of (AKA I was older than ten) was Dragon Quest VIII.
