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Dragon Warrior IV (NES)/Regional Differences
This is a sub-page of Dragon Warrior IV (NES).
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Contents
Title Screen
When the Japanese version boots up, it shows the names of some of the main staff members, then the numeral "IV" appears on-screen, and then the title and castle with the red background appears on the screen. In the US version, a traditional copyright screen appears first, then it goes to the castle with a blue background. After the title appears, the background changes to red just like in the Japanese version.
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Graphical Differences
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The churches became "Houses of Healing", with their symbol changed from a cross to a five-pointed star, and the priests became "shamans" and lost their crosses.
In the Japanese version the priest needs dedicated sprites for his back. These don't exist in the North American version: since the cross has disappeared, the same sprites as for the front could be re-used for the back and only the head changes.
As for the side frames, the Japanese version uses two sets of sprites: facing right, a first set of sprites showing the cross due to the right hand being visible (note that the animation for this side is incorrect: the top pixel of the cross does not move with the rest of the cross, this is due to that pixel belonging to a sprite from the head which itself remains unchanged during the animation). Facing left, another set of sprites without the cross. The North American version uses one set of sprites but mirrored depending on the direction. Interestingly, on top of the detailing of the cloak being different, the priest had a haircut for the North American version losing 3 pixels at the back of his head.
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Grave markers were changed from crosses to tombstones.
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The entrance to the Royal Crypt lost its cross, leaving it rather nondescript.
The surrounding unreachable area graphics were also changed from grass and trees to plain grass, better matching what the area looks like on the overworld map.
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As with the previous entries in the series, the coffins for dead party members have been replaced by ghosts. While the coffins are still, the ghosts are animated.
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The overworld tiles used for shrines all over the world as well as for the Royal Crypt is entirely different and lost its cross.
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The symbol on Cristo's hat was edited, and for some reason he was made to blink constantly.
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The icon used next to the name of characters when they are dead was changed from a cross to a tombstone.
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The casino girls lost their bunny ears and tail, had their hair color changed, and their legs shortened by a pixel.
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Vivian, one of Alena's opponents in the Endor tournament, also lost her bunny ears and tail.
Gameplay Differences
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In addition to preventing random encounters on the world map, Fairy Water (called "holy water" in Dragon Quest 4) can be used in combat to inflict a small amount of damage to one enemy. In Dragon Quest 4, it works on any enemy, including metal slimes and their ilk. In Dragon Warrior IV, like in Dragon Warrior III, it only works on enemies that are vulnerable to the Expel spell--mainly undead and demonic enemies.
Chapter Titles
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In the Japanese version, chapter title and end screens are written with ornate borders and large, unique text graphics. This visual flair was removed from the US version, which just has plain text on a black background using the game's default 8x8 font. At least it's multicolored.
Ending
The Japanese version showed "The End" in cursive written by a quill pen. As with the chapter titles, this visual touch was removed from the US version in favor of plain blue block letters.
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Bugs
A number of bugs in Dragon Quest 4 were fixed in the US release.
Terrific Blow Frenzy
If you try and fail to run eight times in the same battle, then all physical attacks by all of your party members will become terrific blows for the duration of the battle. In random battles the fourth attempt to run always succeeds, so this is only possible in boss battles. The reason it happens is because the counter for how many times you've tried to run and failed is packed into the same byte as several other battle flags, and in Dragon Quest 4 there's no check to prevent the run-attempts counter from overflowing its bitfield. When you try to run eight times, the run counter overflows into the bit corresponding to the "party's morale is boosted" effect of the Chance spell.
Casino Price Overflow
If you try to buy an amount of casino coins that would cost more than 16777215 gold, the price will overflow and wrap around. Most famously, this bug makes it possible to buy 922747 coins for only 24 gold in Chapter 3 or 838861 coins for only 4 gold in Chapter 5. In Dragon Warrior IV, the price of casino coins caps at 9999999 gold (which is more than the game lets you carry) and does not overflow.
Invisible Balloon Sequence Break
If you sail to world map coordinates 0, 0 (in the ocean northwest of Stancia) before obtaining the balloon and press A, you'll board an invisible balloon, enabling massive sequence breaking. The invisible balloon will return to its original location when you enter a town, castle or dungeon.
