This is the largest game to be released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the cartridge contained one full megabyte of data.
A remake for the Playstation was created by Enix Japan, using the engine from Dragon Quest VII. Many other improvements were made including the ability to control your entire party during combat, instead of only being able to control your main character and giving general orders to the rest. However, when the group that coded it was broken up to work on other projects, the source code was lost. This forced Enix to cancel the American release of the remake, one Enix anticipated releasing, to the point of advertising it for release on the back of the manual of the American release of Dragon Warrior VII.
Although the Playstation remake's American release was canceled, a remake did see the light of day in America for the Nintendo DS. A DS remake of Dragon Quest V has followed, and a DS remake of Dragon Quest VI which completed the American releases.
First appearance of Torneko, who later starred in the Mystery Dungeon spin-off series.
Remakes of the game include an additional chapter after what was the end of the game in the original NES version.