Dragon Quest VI/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Terry. Is he a selfish asshole who only comes around after being beaten silly by the party, or is he a Hurting Hero whose desire to become the greatest swordsman is fueled by the trauma of seeing her sister kidnapped, and only acts like a jerk in an effort to push potential friends away so he doesn't lose them too? Also, was his Deal with the Devil with Dhuran a selfish act of spite just to gain more power, or an act of desperation after the party unknowingly crushed his lifelong dream by finding the Sword of Ramia before he could?
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Is Ashlynn an interesting character who displays some of the greatest character development in the entire series? Or is she a Canon Sue with a bland personality and an unfair amount of story importance compared to the rest of the cast? Also, is she one of the most useful party members in the game with some help from Magikarp Power, or is she a subpar mage in a party with two other mages readily available?
  • Terry is also one. Some people find him to be a compelling, Badass character with some of the best lines in the game, while others find him to be an obnoxious Jerkass with no redeeming qualities. Combat-wise he's either a versatile fighter who functions like having a second hero in battle, or an absolutely worthless character who adds nothing to the team that others can't do better? The fact that both these characters are popular for Shipping doesn't help matters.
• Complete Monster: If it weren't for Ladja and Rhapthorne, Mortamor would most definitely be the single most vile villain in the series. His dragon Blackmar is just as vile.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Dhuran appears to be the most popular member of the Dread Fiends by quite a bit. Being a Noble Demon and not bad looking certainly help.
  • Due to his rather unique character and circumstance, even among the rest of the party, Amos is this for some, at least the some who bother giving him the time of day, that is.
• Game-Breaker: The vocation system allows the creation of unbelievably broken characters, since you keep all the spells and abilities learned from that vocation. Your Gladiator with five tons of HP doesn't need much MP, only enough to be able to cast Fullheal (from the Priest vocation) every once in a while.
• Jerkass Woobie: Terry, given his and Milly's backstory.
• Moral Event Horizon: Mortamor proves just how depraved he is by manipulating a town full of innocent people into slaughtering each other over a single chest just for kicks. And then time reverses itself and it happens over and over again...
  • An empty chest, no less. Nobody ever figures it out until the player gets sneaky and opens the chest themselves while the townspeople are all distracted.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The hilariously over-the-top trumpets-and-drums Fanfare that happens whenever you hit the jackpot in the casino.
• Player Punch: When loyal guard Rusty is sent to his death over vouching for your identity early on... because he was right, but you didn't remember enough to convince others of that. Especially later, after you regain your memories and get treated to Flashbacks making it clear just how close you were.
• Ruined FOREVER: Some people were/are crying about the option to recruit monsters having been taken out and replaced with "Slime Buddies" in the DS version. Nevermind that there were only 20 monsters to recruit, the best ones were kept (Slime family and Lizzie, the Battle Rex/Hackasaurus), you could learn all of their skills through Dharma, the good few had abysmal recruitment rates, a majority of mons sucked anyways (both their stats and some of the monster choices were just lame), your party was too big (compared to Dragon Quest V) to make extensive use of them, and the Beastmaster is pretty much the worst class in the game, which "made up" for its abysmal stats and skills by recruiting.
  • The worst part? Said people DON'T like the fact that it is now easier to recruit the best slimes in the game by removing the chance factor.
• Strangled by the Red String: Because it's only alluded to a few times, you can actually get pretty far into the game without realizing that something's going on between the main character and Barbara/Ashlynn.
• That One Attack: Thin Air is absolutely devastating to unprepared parties. The wave enemies have a tidal wave attack that hurts like a mother though it fails a lot, but tend to cast it simultaneously...
• That One Boss: The real Murdaw, part 2. His attack was actually reduced in the remake, although he's still a pain.
  • Jamirus. He's lightning fast, he has devastating attack power, and he can attack twice per round. Your two caster characters can both be minced at the same time in a single round.
  • The "hard" version of Demon at arms. Attacks twice per turn, has devastating spell power and can easily deplete your defenses. The way to get the easy version of this boss (attacks once per turn, has less spell power and the hero has a hard hitting spell at his disposal) requires you to talk to the other Ben, which the game doesn't tell you.
• Woolseyism: A lot of names have been changed, but compared to the English translation of Dragon Quest V or Dragon Quest IX, the punny names and silly accents aren't as heavy. There are a few head-scratchers, though, such as Barbara (a perfectly acceptable English name) becoming Ashlynn.
  • It may be because Barbara is a "perfectly acceptable English name"; see Tina/Terra. The keeping of "Terry" might've been because of Dragon Quest Monsters.