
I have only played the DS version. The Famicom version apparently did max out the abilities of the Famicom.
That said, I still stand by my assertion that Dragon Quest was a much better series than Final Fantasy on the NES/Famicom. My favorite NES FF was actually FF2, which is generally considered the worst of the series. It had the closest thing to a story of the NES FF games, and I liked its soundtrack better.