Dragon Quest/YMMV


 * Cult Classic: Dragon Quest despite being the seminal JRPGs wasn't really able to gain a foothold in America during the 90's. It fared much better during the revival in the oughties, but not enough to convince Square-Enix to continue localizing much past Dragon Quest IX and the remake of Dragon Quest VI. The localization of Dragon Quest Heroes and Dragon Quest VII and Dragon Quest VIII remakes may be an opportunity for further Western releases.
 * Demonic Spiders: Lots of examples, particularly enemies that are immune to magic, can One-Hit Kill you, cast Sleep, Healmore/Midheal, and/or Hurtmore/Firebane/Sizzle (Wizards), inflict poison or other Standard Status Effects, and have high defense or speed stats (which makes them dodge and block you a lot, eg Demon Knights).
 * Hell Is That Noise: Put a piece of cursed equipment on, or have a save file erased in one of the NES games for failing to hold down the reset button while turning the power off, and you get treated to a creepy low-volume Scare Chord.
 * Memetic Mutation:
 * "I can CAST A SPELL!"
 * "A Slime approaches. Command?_"
 * "Thou hast done well in defeating the Slime!"
 * Kiryl cast Whack... but it missed.
 * Most Wonderful Sound:
 * The level up theme.
 * The epic victory music when a new character joins your party.
 * For anybody in Japan, as well as Western Fans who wait deperately for new games to be localized, just hearing the series theme song is enough to get the blood flowing.
 * Older Than They Think:
 * The Dragon Quest series was the first console RPG game. Due to bad localization timing, everybody outside of Japan thinks Final Fantasy came first.
 * Dragon Quest V features monster catching and predated Pokémon by a good three years. However, it's pretty undeniable that the Dragon Quest Monsters series was created due to Pokémon.
 * 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.
 * Porting Disaster: The general opinion of the mobile ports of the first three games. A lot of the monster sprites are either/both Off-Model 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.
 * The Scrappy: As stated above, Charmles may very well be the most hated character in the entire series. He pronounces his name "Charm-LAY", but many Dragon Quest VIII fans have much less kind names to use for him.
 * Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: The various casinos.
 * Woolseyism: The games released since Dragon Quest VIII have actually been blessed with a remarkably coherent localization, but contrary to popular belief, the Hurricane of Puns, Added Alliterative Appeal, and general silliness of the franchise are actually taken from the Japanese originals.