Known as Dragon Quest in Japan, however when this game came to the U.S. it was called Dragon Warrior to avoid any trademark conflicts with a pen and paper role playing game at the time, which was known as DragonQuest.

By the time the game was released to the United States in August 1989, which was 3 years after it’s original Japanese release, Dragon Quest IV was about to be released in Japan on the Famicom.

Since it was released on the NES 3 years after it’s original Japanese release, the graphics were much improved.

In late 1990 Nintendo began giving away copies of the game and an Explorer’s Handbook for free with a Nintendo Power subscription. At the time the game was being sold for $50, and a subscription to Nintendo Power was $20. This lead to nearly 500,000 new subscribers, as well as many current subscribers renewing in order to get the free game. This also lead to major success of the game in the United States.

The Japanese version of the game contains different dialogue that includes swearing.

Erdrick is known as Roto in the Japanese version.

Instead of a game battery, the Japanese version uses passwords to save data.

This is the only game from the main series in which you have just 1 character, and never acquire any new party members.

Enix originally wanted to include more characters in your party on this title, but were unable due memory capacity issues.

This is the only Dragon Warrior game in which you have to hit a command “Stairs” when you want to go up or down them. In future versions your character automatically moves when walking over the stair tiles in the games.

With only 40 monsters, including 2 versions of the Dragonlord, this title has the fewest amount of monsters than any other game in the series.

Golem and the Dragonlord are the only 2 monsters in the game that you fight just once.

The Slime and Metal Slime are the only 2 monsters that have appeared in all of the main Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest games.

Monsters are divided into families in which similar sprites were used for other members, but with slight variations like holding a weapon, or a different color scheme. For example, the Slime is Blue, and the Red Slime is the same sprite, but with a red color. This monster family concept has been used on every game from the series.

Most monster families from this game consist of 3 members each except for Drolls and Druins, which are 2 members, and Skeletons, which have 4 members.

The Slime became the face of the franchise, appearing in every single title from the series including all spin-offs.

The Metal Slime has also appeared in just about every single title from the franchise.

Other Monsters from this game that have been regulars in the series include the Red Slime, Wyvern, Magiwyvern, Drakee, Green Dragon, and Golem. Some of them have undergone name changes in later titles.