Tom Foolery is a temporary playable character in Dragon Quest IV.
Characteristics[]
In his original appearance, Tom Foolery bears a resemblence to both traditional jesters and contemporary circus clowns. He wears a white and red jacket with a frilly collar and wrists. He also dons bright green pants and a yellow sash is wrapped around his waist. Dark green shoes cover his feet and a small cape is draped behind him. He wears white makeup, a bright red nose and a red fez.
His redesign in subsequent remakes is closer to a historical jester's appearance, now wearing a buttoned red tunic with a frilly white collar and wristguards, ending at a black belt around his waist into a patterned frill decorated with bells. He dons baggy red breeches tucked into curved yellow boots. He retains his curly blonde hair and has blue eyes and a mustache.
Appearances[]
Dragon Quest IV[]
Tom Foolery is first seen in Laissez Fayre in Chapter 4, as a replacement act for Maya.
When the party travels to Canalot in Chapter 5 in search of the Zenithia Equipment, the king says he will only give the equipment to the person who can make him laugh. The party runs down to Laissez Fayre and recruits Tom for the task, but upon arrival to the king's court, Tom has a realization on the king's true motivation behind his search for laughter, and instead of performing his comedy act he makes a sincere speech on the necessity of assisting the Chosen. The king is convinced and gives up his treasure, after which Tom leaves the party and begins travelling the world, hoping to one day return to Laissez Fayre's stage.
Dragon Quest VI[]
In the Lower World version of Clearvale, it's mentioned by a town resident that many entertainers visited. One of whom went by the name Tom Foolery. He can be found in an underwater shrine southwest of Graceskull, having lost his memory and uses the bartender sprite.
The IV version of Tom will appear in the near-future version of Reaper's Peak, using his sprite from the DS version of the game instead of a generic NPC. He is seen in the inn, and explains that he needed a bodyguard to reach the village. However, it took five days for the pair to make it Reaper's Peak and Hardie left as soon as they got there, leaving Tom to make a pun at his expense.
Dragon Quest IX[]
Tom Foolery appears as a NPC minstrel ghost in Alltrades Abbey who assigns some quests to the player. He has a son locked up in the prison of Stornway.
Equipment[]
Spell[]
Remake[]
- In the NES Version, Tom will depart upon leaving the castle entirely after the Zenithian Helm is obtained whether through exiting the castle town or using the Zoom spell. In the remakes, he leaves the party after they exit the King's chamber.
Trivia[]
- Thanks to many optional party chats, it is revealed that, despite their time together being short, all members of the Chosen did find some level of endearment towards Tom, either for his comedic skills or his battle ones. Also Tom himself accidentaly reveals that, despite being an overall good person, he isn't above occasionally steal other people's jokes for his acts.
- Tom Foolery and Healie are the only NPC allies to completely disappear later in Dragon Quest IV.
- If someone is engaging in an act of tomfoolery, they are acting funny, or often trying to make others laugh. This goes along very nicely with how the party recruit Tom to make the king laugh.
Other languages[]
| Other languages | |
| French | Tom Foolery |
| German | Alberich von Übermuth |
| Spanish | Ben Irrie |
| Italian | Unknown |
| Dutch | Unknown |
| Norwegian | Unknown |
| Greek | Unknown |
| Portuguese | Unknown |
| Russian | Unknown |
| Chinese | Unknown |
| Korean | Unknown |