the addition of the bag to DQ4 was a nice touch, but you can cheat a little with it =)
remember in chapter 5, when torneko joins you, you get all the stuff that was in his bag. so theoretically you could get like 80 broadswords and then when you get him, you can sell it all...
here's another minor change:
-hoffman leaves when you enter mintos. in the NES version he doesn't leave until after you get the cure for kiryl.
it's also hard to get used to the new names for everything, new towns and items and spells. for the longest time i didn't know squelch cured poison, i was waiting for antidote. =)