History YMMV / DragonQuestIV

* ValuesDissonance: Alena has a reputation for being a tomboy, but outside of her specific predilection for martial arts and adventure, her design (and her personality as revealed in party chat) are fairly feminine--what makes her a tomboy is the fact that she lacks the docility and elegance seen as a feminine ideal ''in Japan''. (A similar example of this can be seen in Akane of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', who is likewise quite feminine but lacks docility and so has a reputation in-universe as a tomboy.)

* ValuesDissonance: Alena has a reputation for being a tomboy, but outside of her specific predilection for martial arts and adventure, her design (and her personality as revealed in party chat) are fairly feminine--what makes her a tomboy is the fact that she lacks the docility and elegance seen as a feminine ideal ''in Japan''. (A similar example of this can be seen in Akane of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', who is likewise quite feminine but lacks docility and so has a reputation as a tomboy.)

* HarsherInHindsight: The hero's slaying of Estark is this as of the events of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV''. To avenge his death, [[spoiler:the monsters started killing off any of Solo/Sofia's descendants, fearing that another legendary hero could rise]].

** Fans who remember the original straight-forward NES translation were generally disappointed with changes made in the remake's localization: the addition of 'regionalism' which brought ridiculous broken accents in the dialogue, and the changing of most names of people and places to make cultural references or bad puns. But plenty of new players enjoyed them and found the humor charming.

** Chapter Six. A [[BonusDungeon welcome]] [[BonusBoss expansion]] of content, including being able to recruit [[EnsembleDarkhorse Psaro]], or is it a FixFic that ruins the tone of the first five chapters, as well as the original game?

* TierInducedScrappy: As mentioned above, Borya gets no love in terms of equipment, stat and spell choices. Ice is quite underwhelming in this game due to how many monsters resist Ice. If you're playing the NES original, Brey is a liability at best due to ArtificialStupidity because he'll cast ice spells on monsters who fully resist ice. Somewhat remedied in the [=PS1=] remake onward, as the player can finally control him and make him somewhat useful with party buffs.

** Sofia, the female version of the Hero, who was popular enough to receive an appearance in the arcade crossover game ''Monster Battle Road'' alongside her male counterpart, in contrast to the other heroines who didn't get so much as a nod. There were many fans who lamented her exclusion in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' when Solo appeared as an alternative costume for Hero and not her.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Beginning with [=PS1=] remake, there have been some features that addresses some of the flaws that the original had:
** You can finally control the characters in Chapter 5.
** Spells and attacks that target a recently-defeated enemy will now automatically redirect to the next monster who is alive.
** Several characters got new weapons and armor. Torneko Taloon can now use some field spells.
** The maximum items a character can carry is now 12 instead of 8.
** With the addition of the Bag, the player doesn't have to travel to Endor every time they need to deposit items they no longer need. In addition, the item vault has been removed in remakes.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Beginning with [=PS1=] remakes, there have been some features that addresses some of the flaws that the original had:

** Several characters got new weapons and armor. Taloon/Torneko can now use some field spells.

** Psaro, who gets his HeelFaceTurn moment in the DS remake; Alena, who has a manga feature her as a main character and a game loosely based on her and her two helpers; and Torneko, who has his own series of ''[[{{Roguelike}} Mysterious Dungeon]]'' games. Every main character except the hero and Borya has appeared at least once in the ''VideoGame/FortuneStreet'' series.

** In the NES version of the game, the Sword of Lethargy. On a successful attack, it has a chance to put enemies to sleep, and bosses are not immune to this effect.

* HarsherInHindsight: The hero's slaying of Estark is this as of the events of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV''. To avenge his death, [[spoiler:they started killing off any of Solo/Sofia's descendants, fearing that another legendary hero could rise]].

** Elisa/Celia gets some fun dialogue in the beginning of Chapter 5 if you choose to play as the Heroine Sofia.
** In Femiscyra/Gardenbur, the elderly priest thinks Sofia is jealous of his being the only functioning man in the whole queendom, and asks if she or one of the other female characters is one of those 'modern women'.

** The Shimmering Dress is a relatively decent armor you can get, it has an added benefit of occasionally deflecting enemy spells and flinging them back like the Bounce Spell. The bad part is that it has a nasty tendency to do the same when trying to ''heal or revive the wearer'', instead bouncing back at the caster making Zings completely worthless and wasting healing on a most likely healthy character.
* {{Squick}}: Psaro's growth of limbs and a second head/face is pretty icky in the NES game, but is just gross looking in the DS game. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools In a good way]]. Made even cooler as the DS version shows this from multiple angles. It really shows just how "not right" his transformation is.

** Estark in all versions. He starts off asleep, which doesn't sound bad, right? Instead, he opens up with a party-hitting attack. When he wakes up, he will occasionally nullify your buffs every couple turns or so, meaning you'll have at best a turn or two of buffs before they're removed. Much like all story bosses, he gets two moves per turn. He also hits very hard too, meaning your squishy characters aren't going to be alive very long.
** Keeleon (NES name)/The Marquis de Leon (DS name) in all versions and Balzack in the remakes have always given veteran players trouble. Not just because of his sheer power and the ability to hit twice, but also of his another skill, Cold Breath, which deals just as much on the whole party. If you're underleveled, you're facing a total party kill no matter what.
* TierInducedScrappy: As mentioned above, Brey/Borya gets no love in terms of equipment, stat and spell choices. Ice is quite underwhelming in this game due to how many monsters resist Ice. If you're playing the NES original, Brey is a liability at best due to ArtificialStupidity because he'll cast ice spells on monsters who fully resist ice. Somewhat remedied in the [=PS1=] remakes onward, as the player can finally control him and make him somewhat useful with party buffs.

* MoralEventHorizon: Aamon murdering Rose, thus ensuring that Psaro the Manslayer crosses the DespairEventHorizon and goes along with his plan to destroy humanity.

** Several characters got new weapons and armor.

** In the NES game, in the Hero's chapter (i.e. the main story segment) the combat actions of everyone in the party except the Hero are controlled by the game's A.I., with the player only getting to select vague "tactics". Unfortunately, this often resulted in a ''huge'' amount of ArtificialStupidity, such as your healer wasting all their MP trying to repeatedly cast instant death spells on enemies that were immune to them, rather than, you know, ''healing your party''. Fortunately the DS rerelease included an option for more traditional manual control.