History YMMV / DragonQuestIV

* HoYay:

** Estark in all versions.
** 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.

*** Alena in general is considered practically the poster girl of the Dragon Quest series. It helps she's a tough princess who not only dresses conservatively, but is also a BareFistedMonk who will easily dole out the most physical damage as a character in the party. Her high CriticalHit rate also makes her an ideal party member for taking down [[MetalSlime Metal Slimes]] and all their variants.

* ScrappyMechanic: 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.

* TearJerker:
** The prologue's conclusion in the DS version, and the final boss's transformation [[spoiler:(which is the result of another tear jerker)]].
** [[spoiler:Rose's death]]. While the NES version had the scene and its dialogue too rushed, [[spoiler:and it sounded more like Rose is screaming when she dies near Psaro,]] making it less of a tear-jerker, this scene in the DS version is so much better, and the dialogue is not rushed anymore, making the scene [[spoiler:when she dies quietly in Psaro's arms]] so heartbreaking.

* {{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. [[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.

** The Magical Skirt is a relatively decent armor you can get from the Mini Medal king, 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.

** Chapter 3 can be this...depending on how much you take advantage of the valuable items the enemies tend to drop. The casino in question happens to open up near the end, where being a merchant would be most useful. The game tries to compinsate by raising the price of the tokens but due to the high amounts of money you can make, it doesn't matter. Alternatively, just buy as many cautery swords as you're willing to grind out, since they sell for a massive 2625 gold each, you can easily get them with only a little work, and ''they carry over to chapter 5''.

* {{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. 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.

** 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/ItadakiStreet'' series.

** Keeleon (NES name)/The Marquis de Leon (DS name) in all versions and Balzack in the remakes have always given veteran players trouble.

* NightmareFuel: A lot of kids were a bit freaked out at Necrosaro/Psaro The Manslayer's grotesque transformation during the final battle.

*** Alena in general is considered practically the poster girl of the Dragon Quest series. It helps she's a tough princess who not only dresses conservatively, but is also a BareFistedMonk who will easily dole out the most physical damage as a character in the party.

* EarWorm: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4qfq9-J768 battle]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO4YnLJvSSg theme]]. You will ''not'' get it out of your head.

** Chapter 3 can be this...depending on how much you take advantage of the valuable items the enemies tend to drop. The casino in question happens to open up near the end, where being a merchant would be most useful. The game tries to compinsate by raising the price of the tokens but due to the high amounts of money you can make, it doesn't matter.

* OneTrueThreesome: Maya/Solo/Meena are considerated the most popular trio shipping in whole game, also some extent with Maya/Sophia/Meena.

** The mobile port. To begin this divide, you have fans that are furious that Square Enix decided to put out a lackluster port (the game only works with the screen vertical, there's no controller support, etc.) vs. fans grateful to even have a legal way to get it/support the series after the limited print run of the DS version. (And even then, many are worried that it sends the wrong message to Creator/SquareEnix to support the series over mobile platforms since the majority of the fans want console rereleases.) Then there's concerns over whether this is a worthy port when it's essentially the DS version vs. this release being the definitive edition because it adds party chat back into the game. However, it should be noted that this port received considerably greater acclaim than the mobile port of VIII because of the featurss this port added when compared to what VIII lost (VIII lost voice acting and the gorgeous symphonic suite of the American rerelease; IV had the textures spruced up for mobile tablet screen resolutions, the symphonic suite added to the soundtrack and the aforementioned party chat restored).

*** Alena in general is considered practically the poster girl of the Dragon Quest series. It helps she's a BadassPrincess who not only dresses conservatively, but is also a BareFistedMonk who will easily dole out the most physical damage as a character in the party.

** The mobile port. To begin this divide, you have fans that are furious that Square Enix decided to put out a lackluster port (the game only works with the screen vertical, there's no controller support, etc.) vs. fans grateful to even have a legal way to get it/support the series after the limited print run of the DS version. (And even then, many are worried that it sends the wrong message to SquareEnix to support the series over mobile platforms since the majority of the fans want console rereleases.) Then there's concerns over whether this is a worthy port when it's essentially the DS version vs. this release being the definitive edition because it adds party chat back into the game. However, it should be noted that this port received considerably greater acclaim than the mobile port of VIII because of the featurss this port added when compared to what VIII lost (VIII lost voice acting and the gorgeous symphonic suite of the American rerelease; IV had the textures spruced up for mobile tablet screen resolutions, the symphonic suite added to the soundtrack and the aforementioned party chat restored).

** Chapter 3 can be this...depending on how much you take advantage of the valuable items the enemies tend to drop. The casino in question happens to open up near the end, where being a merchant would be most useful. The game tries to compinsate by raising the price of the tokens but due to the lubricious amounts of money you can make, it doesn't matter.

* Chapter 3 can be this...depending on how much you take advantage of the valuable items the enemies tend to drop. The casino in question happens to open up near the end, where being a merchant would be most useful.

** 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.

* BrokenBase: 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.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: 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/ItadakiStreet'' series.

* GameBreaker: Psaro. The ability to equip cursed items without penalties is just the start of it. He is so powerful and his spells so useful there is no reason not to have him in the party at all times.
** MUCH earlier, the Prayer Ring. One of the cheapest items in the Casino is, well, one of the "cheapest" items in the game, giving you literally infinite MP(Praying outside of battle recharges MP for free), and thus infinite grinding with only the occasional break to save the game.
* [[HoYay Les Yay]]: Elisa/Celia gets some fun dialogue in the beginning of Chapter 5 if you choose to play as the Heroine Sofia.

* ScrappyMechanic: 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.

* TearJerker: The prologue's conclusion in the DS version, and the final boss's transformation [[spoiler:(which is the result of another tear jerker)]].
** Also, [[spoiler:Rose's death]]. While the NES version had the scene and its dialogue too rushed, [[spoiler:and it sounded more like Rose is screaming when she dies near Psaro,]] making it less of a tear-jerker, this scene in the DS version is so much better, and the dialogue is not rushed anymore, making the scene [[spoiler:when she dies quietly in Psaro's arms]] so heartbreaking.
* ThatOneBoss: Estark in all versions.