History YMMV / DragonQuest

* HellIsThatNoise: The little ditty that plays when you've equipped a cursed item that overrides the current music and comes at you so suddenly that it's entirely capable of making you jump out of your boots.
** And much worse, this horrible noise is also played after your save file is DELETED in 16bit era games, because the games were designed to delete "corrupted" save files at boot-up. Needless to say, this sound has traumatized many players in Japan.

* ThatOneAttack: [[OneHitKill Whack]] spells, in all the games they appear in. Spells that are reliant on [[RandomNumberGenerator RNG]] in general get this due to [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the enemy AI abusing it]], but Whack spells are especially dreaded because they can instantly kill party members in a series where revival spells are also dependent on [=RNG=] luck. If you're especially unlucky, you might end up wasting turns trying to revive your party members while there's an enemy casting Whack (or worse, its deadlier version Thwack) spells again and again.

** The concept of Psyching characters up to deal more damage actually started in ''Dragon Quest VII'', but it was only used via special moves, and there was only 1 level of tension. ''Dragon Quest VIII'' greatly expanded on the idea and Tension because a core part of all ''Dragon Quest'' games, including spin-offs, until being supplanted by the Pep system in DQXI

* PortingDisaster: The general opinion of the mobile ports of the first three games. A lot of the monster sprites are OffModel or lazily put together, the tile work is rather grating to look at and the most of the problems with the games from the original are still present.

** The concept of Psyching characters up to deal more damage actually started in ''Dragon Quest VII'', but it was only used via special moves, and there was only 1 level of tension. ''Dragon Quest VIII'' greatly expanded on the idea and now tension is a core part of all ''Dragon Quest'' games, including spin-offs.

* DemonicSpiders: Lots of examples, particularly enemies that are immune to magic, can OneHitKill you, cast Sleep, Healmore/Midheal, and/or Hurtmore/Firebane/Sizzle (Wizards), inflict poison or other StandardStatusEffects, and have high defense or speed stats (which makes them dodge and block you a lot, eg Demon Knights).

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/DragonQuestV Bishop Ladja]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVI Mortamor]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVII Orgodemir and Cardinal Sin]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVIII Rhapthorne]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestIX King Godwyn]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestXI The Gloomnivore]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestHeroesIITwinKingsAndTheProphecysEnd Fractos]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai Zaboera]]. See those pages for details.

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/DragonQuestV Bishop Ladja]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVI Mortamor]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVII Orgodemir and Cardinal Sin]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVIII Rhapthorne]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestIX King Godwyn]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestXI The Gloomnivore]]; [['YMMV/DragonQuestHeroesIITwinKingsAndTheProphecysEnd Fractos]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai Zaboera]]. See those pages for details.

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/DragonQuestV Bishop Ladja]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVI Mortamor]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVII Orgodemir and Cardinal Sin]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVIII Rhapthorne]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestIX King Godwyn]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestXI The Gloomnivore]], [[YMMV/DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai Zaboera]]. See those pages for details.

* PopCultureHoliday: An unusual case where the holiday changes with its observance. ''Dragon Quest'' games are known for releasing on Saturdays, so when a new installment releases, playing and talking about ''Dragon Quest'' is made into a weekend event.

* CultClassic: Dragon Quest, despite being the seminal [=JRPGs=], wasn't really able to gain a foothold in America during the 90s. It fared much better during the revival in the oughties, but not enough to convince Square Enix to continue localizing much past ''IX'' and the remake of ''VI'', which were only even released outside Japan because Nintendo put in the effort to. It wouldn't be until ''Heroes'' that Square Enix started localizing the games again, and some of them such as the remakes of ''VII'' and ''VIII'' only happened thanks to Nintendo once again handling publishing duties.

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/DragonQuestV Bishop Ladja]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVI Mortamor]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVII Orgodemir and Cardinal Sin]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVIII Rhapthorne]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestIX King Godwyn]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestXI The Gloomnivore]], [[Manga/DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai Zaboera]]. See those pages for details.

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/DragonQuestV Bishop Ladja]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVI Mortamor]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVII Orgodemir and Cardinal Sin]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestVIII Rhapthorne]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestIX King Godwyn]]; [[YMMV/DragonQuestXI The Gloomnivore]]. See those pages for details.

* PortingDisaster: The general opinion of the mobile ports of the first three games. A lot of the monster sprites are either/both OffModel and/or lazily put together, the tile work is rather grating to look at and the most of the problems with the games from the original are still present.

* ThatOneAttack: [[OneHitKill Whack]] spells, in all the games they appear in. Spells that are reliant on [[RandomNumberGenerator RNG]] in general get this due to [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the enemy AI abusing it]], but Whack spells are especially dreaded because they can instantly kill party members in a series where revival spells are also dependent on [=RNG=] luck. If you're especially unlucky, you might end up wasting turns trying to revive your party members while there's an enemy casting Whack (or worse, it's deadlier version Thwack) spells again and again.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The biggest fanbase for the Western ''Dragon Quest'' community appears to be in France, as it was the French fanbase that ultimately prevailed in getting Square Enix to release the 3DS remake of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'' worldwide.

* CultClassic: Dragon Quest, despite being the seminal [=JRPGs=], wasn't really able to gain a foothold in America during the 90s. It fared much better during the revival in the oughties, but not enough to convince Square Enix to continue localizing much past ''IX'' and the remake of ''VI''. It wouldn't be until ''Heroes'' that Square Enix started localizing the games again, and some of them such as the remakes of ''VII'' and ''VIII'' only happened thanks to Nintendo handling publishing duties.

* TheScrappy: Charmles may very well be the most hated character in the entire series. He pronounces his name "[[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY Charm-LAY]]", but many ''[=DQ8=]'' fans have much less kind names to use for him. Even the other characters in the game don't like him, which makes him this InUniverse.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The movie ''Dragon Quest: Your Story'' has also come under fire, going on to become one of the biggest controversy's in the whole franchise, right up there with Sugiyama's reputation. The trailers seemed like a straight adaptation of VideoGame/DragonQuestV, and the movie did very well in its first weekend. [[spoiler: However, it turns out that the subtitle for the movie, Your Story, is quite literal, in that the movies plot ends up being nearly identical to the infamous Plot Twist of ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime", in which the movie is actually about a kid from the real world entering the video game world of Dragon Quest V. Not only was this [[TrailersAlwaysLie not implied in any of the marketing for the movie]] but it ruined the reputation for the movie as a whole, and with V being seen as one of the most iconic entries in the series next to III, fans were '''not''' happy, to say the least.]] The movie itself would go on to tank in Box office sales in the following weekend onwards. It didn't help that movie's director said this was put in because of the increasing popularity of {{Isekai}} stories in Japan and abroad, hoping it would give the movie more of a Global appeal. Despite their being no plans to release the movie outside of Japan(Though there is a Netflix listing for the movie)...
* TheScrappy: Charmles may very well be the most hated character in the entire series. He pronounces his name "[[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY Charm-LAY]]", but many ''[=DQ8=]'' fans have much less kind names to use for him. Even the other characters in the game don't like him, which makes him this InUniverse.

* OvershadowedByControversy:
** Unfortunately, as time has gone on, Koichi Sugiyama's [[https://kotaku.com/5901590/the-sad-story-of-a-japanese-gaming-legend-who-pretends-war-crimes-never-happened vociferous support of denial of the Nanking Massacre]] (going so far as to buy an ad in ''The Washington Post'' about it), as well as [[https://www.gamerevolution.com/news/415401-anti-lgbt-dragon-quest-composer-spurs-square-enix-response his support for homophobia]], has come to somewhat overshadow other aspects of the franchise outside of Japan, and has led to calls for him to be dropped as composer (even if that means losing the old themes) and questions as to why he keeps getting hired[[note]]As it turns out, he's quite a big deal in Japan as he's not just a game composer, he has a celebrity status like John Williams[[/note]].
** The movie ''Dragon Quest: Your Story'' has also come under fire, going on to become one of the biggest controvery's in the whole franchise, right up there with Sugiyama's reputation. The trailers seemed like a straight adaptation of VideoGame/DragonQuestV, and the movie did very well in its first weekend. [[spoiler: However, it turns out that the subtitle for the movie, Your Story, is quite literal, in that the movies plot ends up being nearly identical to the infamous Plot Twist of ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime", in which the movie is actually about a kid from the real world entering the video game world of Dragon Quest V. Not only was this [[TrailersAlwaysLie not implied in any of the marketing for the movie]] but it ruined the reputation for the movie as a whole, and with V being seen as one of the most iconic entries in the series next to III, fans were '''not''' happy, to say the least.]] The movie itself would go on to tank in Box office sales in the following weekend onwards. It didn't help that movie's director said this was put in because of the increasing popularity of {{Isekai}} stories in Japan and abroad, hoping it would give the movie more of a Global appeal. Despite their being no plans to release the movie outside of Japan(Though there is a Netflix listing for the movie)...

** The movie ''Dragon Quest: Your Story'' has also come under fire, going on to become one of the biggest controvery's in the whole franchise, right up there with Sugiyama's reputation. The trailers seemed like a straight adaptation of VideoGame/DragonQuestV, and the movie did very well in its first weekend. [[spoiler: However, it turns out that the subtitle for the movie, Your Story, is quite literal, in that the movies plot ends up being nearly identical to the infamous Plot Twist of ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime", in which the movie is actually about a kid from the real world entering the video game world of Dragon Quest V. Not only was this [[TrailersAlwaysLie not implied in any of the marketing for the movie]] but it ruined the reputation for the movie as a whole, and with V being seen as one of the most iconic entries in the series next to III, fans were '''not''' happy, to say the least.]] The movie itself would go on to tank in Box office sales in the following weekend onwards. It didn't help that movie's director said this was put in because of the increasing popularity of {{Isekai}} stories in Japan and abroad, hoping it would give the movie more of a Global appeal. Despite their being no plans to release the movie outside of Japan...