While newcomers to the series might be unaware, Psara is, in fact, a character that long-term fans of Dragon Quest have met a few times. So, who is Psaro in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, and who is he in the series at large?
One of the coolest things about Dragon Quest is that it uses a lovable roster of monsters throughout many of its games, which is why you’ll often see the ubiquitous blue slime all over the place or demons that pop up between different titles. Psaro is, in fact, one of those monsters, but he’s a little bit more complex than the standard slime. And we mean no offense by that.
Related: All Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Pre-Order Bonuses
Who Psaro Is in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, Explained
In Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, Psaro is the main protagonist. However, this is a younger Psaro than the one who appears in other games. This version of Psaro has been cursed and is unable to harm anything with monster blood in it. However, this is still a world filled with monsters, and in order to defend himself, he has to become a Monster Wrangler.
He does this with the help of a former Monster Wrangler master called Monty, who helps look after Psaro after he becomes cursed. We’re not going to explain much more about how the story progresses in The Dark Prince specifically, but we can delve into his other appearances throughout the Dragon Quest universe, namely that he’s a semi-regular final boss.
In Dragon Quest IV, he’s actually the Big Bad throughout the game, and while he initially takes the form of the elven-esque figure that you see in The Dark Prince, he eventually mutates himself into a hideous monster with too many arms and faces known as Psaro the Manslayer. Not only that, but that monsterized form appears in other Dragon Quest Monsters games as well.
In the original Dragon Warrior Monsters, which is the name of the series before it adopted the Dragon Quest moniker, Pizzaro (Psaro but with more edge?) is a boss that the protagonist Terry fights off to save humanity. Psaro then reappears in Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 as a high-level monster. Basically, the dude’s had a pretty wild run of things, which makes his appearance in The Dark Prince as the protagonist really fascinating.