Introduction
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince was released in late 2023. Its the 7th game with the DQM name but referred to as DQM3. The ones between DQM2 and 3 are Caravan Heart and the Joker games, which are sort of spinoffs of spinoffs. DQM3 celebrates the series’ 25th Anniversary and is the first one to be officially released outside Japan since 2011.
Psaro and DQ4 Recap (Spoilers for DQ4)
Past DQM’s sometimes had you play as a young version of a past main DQ, like Terry from DQ6 being the PC of DQM1. This time, we get a villain. Psaro, the antagonist of DQ4, is our avatar.
Quick recap of Psaro’s role: he was the Master of Monsterkind and led a campaign to exterminate humanity, who he saw as evil. His hatred was driven by how humans treated his elf friend, Rose. Rose’s tears were rubies so greedy humans tormented her for them. Rose is killed during DQ4 which makes Psaro desperate to end humanity, even losing his sense of self to do so.
DQM Mechanics
Once in a battle, DQM acts like any DQ game. It’s how you build your party that’s different. Your party is made up of all monsters who you recruit and synthesize. Recruiting is done through a “Show of Force” where your party builds up a percentage chance through their Attack or Wisdom and then rolls a dice against the result. This Show of Force was introduced in the Joker games and I think it was a big improvement. So far I’ve found the odds very reasonable and I can get most of each monster type in an area without too much trouble.
Synthesis has been around in some form since DQM1 and it’s part of what makes the series fun and unique. You combine two monsters to make a new one. The new monster’s stats and skills are determined partially by its parents and by its type. Finding new types is a big part of the fun and challenge. Through this system you can get anything up to and including the final bosses of the DQ main series. But to do so you’ll have to do a bunch of synthesis as rare monsters are required to make the bosses and they have their own requirements. I’ve seen detailed recipes posted online on how people made rare monsters for this game.
The Monsters
One big change for this game compared to previous ones is the size of the party. Four-monster active party instead of three. I like a party of four but it is a bit weird now to not be so restricted.
In addition, you get a full reserve team. I keep raving about using my bench more in DQ games and this one is no exception. I’m loving hauling around eight monsters and switching them in and out. And with the synthesis and building skill lists, it means more synthesis and more skills.
The Heavy Hitters
No matter what, you gotta have some dudes laying on the hits. Some of these guys have also had status hits to inflict sleep or poison. Examples: Skeleton(has a sword), Briny Bronco (seahorse with attitude), Cannonbrawler (small cyclops riding a cannon)
The Healer
I’ve only built one dedicated healer and with only a single target moderate heal his healing hasn’t kept up. But it’s useful for long treks. And eventually I figure the healing will catch up. Examples: Healslime, Snowmangler (snowman slime)
The Buffers
Buffs are powerful in DQ and that holds true here. Oomph (single target attack buff) and Oomphle (full party version) are great. Kabuff (defense buff) keeps the team up. Oomph also raises Scout chance quite a bit to recruit new monsters. Examples: Box Slime, Slick Slime (goopy maroon slime).
The Debuffs – My debuffs have been spread among the team. Sweet Breath (AoE sleep) has been great. Early on I used lose-a-turn moves like Sultry Dance and War Cry. Use on big groups and they come in handy. Sap (defense debuff) and Blunt (attack debuff) are great for bosses.
Party Damage
These have also been spread a bit. I’ve found a lot of breath weapons. Chilly Breath did good damage early on but is starting to fade. Some spells like Woosh and Sizzle have made it in but it’s been tough to get their upgraded versions so far. I also managed to upgrade a breath weapon skill set to get tier 3 and 4 breath weapons and that’s been overpowered so far. Examples: Drake Slime, Ham Shamwitch (wizard pig), Meowgician (cat wizard).
Seasons
Every outdoors area has seasons and I’m unsure if they’re a net good or bad so far. The aesthetics part has been great. Like a fiery area where in one season it’s raining fire (no damage to you). There was a candy/sweets area where sometimes it was raining gumdrops.
Gameplay-wise seasons have different features. E.g. In winter any liquid freezes and you can walk over it to small side areas. They marked season-specific events on the map which has been a great QoL feature. Different monsters can also appear in different seasons.
My issue is waiting for seasons. If I’m done with a season or want a specific one I often have to wait. If there was an item to instantly switch the seasons that would be amazing. Maybe there’ll be one at some point.
Arenas
Past DQM’s had one arena but this one has two: the Endor Colosseum which also appeared in DQ4, and Nadiria’s Maulosseum. I haven’t noticed a huge difference between the two other than Endor’s announcer acts like a boxing announcer and the Maulosseum one clearly wants blood.
But there have been some decent challenges in them. In particular, rounds that follow the small-large-small mold get my attention. Monsters all have a size and so far 99% have been small, which seems to be the standard size. Large monsters take up two roster spots but have great stats and seem to always be able to act twice. The first one I saw was in Endor featuring a Bag o’ Laughs and Jailcat as the small monsters and a Flython (snake with wings) as the large. On my first try the Flython poisoned my whole team with Poison Breath, which dug away at their HP as the fight went on. Its attacks and Fire Breath further eroded their HP and they didn’t have the offense to win on time.
Category D in both arenas was a noticeable step up. Monsters were doing a bunch of damage even with standard attacks. On my first try I could barely get past the second round so I left it for later. I came back with my Ham Shamwitch and its Deep Breather skillset, the one with high tier breath weapons. Blessed Breath did about 50% of their HP and confused a bunch of them.
Exploring Nadiria
Nadiria is broken up into Circles and Echelons. I’ve only been to the Lower Echelon of any area so far. The first one, the Circle of Conquest, is a swampy, dark area with lots of zombie monsters. The Circle of Temper is a fiery area with volcanos and lava. The Circle of Indulgence is an amusing area made of sweets and filled with monsters that look like pastries. The Circle of Fortitude is an industrial wasteland that I find fascinating to explore.
This part is where the usual DQ storytelling occurs. One-off bits where Psaro helps monsters or finds pieces of the Secret of Evolution. And there’s generally a boss for every Circle. One notable fight was when Psaro was getting some Penteractic Crystals. One crystal pile ended up being a Golem made out of the stuff. The fight went standard at first, we me debuffing it. The debuffs wore off and it went into Frenzy mode. That gives an attack buff and an extra turn. Suddenly the Golem was very dangerous. I couldn’t outheal its damage so all I could do was switch members in and go all out to damage race it.
***** PLOT SECTION, SPOILERS AHEAD *****
Psaro’s mother is a human and his father is Randolfo the Tyrant, Master of Monsterkind in Nadiria. Psaro and his mother have been in hiding from Randolfo’s minions. Psaro’s mother, Miriam, wants him to embrace his human side and be a good person. But she’s very sickly.
Psaro and his mother live near a human settlement. Psaro tries to befriend a boy and helps stand up to some bullies with him. The two are attacked by monsters and Psaro is forced to use his superhuman strength. The boy becomes afraid and realizes Psaro has monster blood. He goes on to lead a mob to Psaro’s house and it’s torched. Psaro and his mother escape but his mother dies soon after. So we see the beginning of Psaro’s resentment of humanity.
But greater still is Psaro’s resentment of his father. Psaro goes to Nadiria to challenge his father. But Randolfo regards Psaro as a mere nuisance. Rather than kill Psaro, he puts a curse on Psaro that stops Psaro from harming any with monster blood.
Psaro flees to a village called Roseville. The villagers, made up of dwarves and monsters, take him in. But Randolfo’s minions continuously attack the village. A villager named Monty teaches Psaro how to become a monster wrangler and train monsters. Psaro’s monsters will be able to fight for him.
Psaro begins fighting in the arenas at Endor and in Nadiria in the Maulosseum. After a bout in Endor the humans bring out an elf. They reveal that the elf cries ruby tears and begin abusing her. Psaro helps the elf. Elves don’t give each other names so Psaro calls her Rose, after the village that helped him. Rose is grateful and wants to help Psaro break the curse on him.
Psaro and Rose run into a devious human named Toilen Trubble. Toilen is the name of a minor NPC from DQ5 who teaches the hero a couple spells, most notably the Zoom spell (teleport to previously visited areas). DQ5 takes place in the far distant future to DQ4 so time will tell if this younger Toilen Trubble is the same character. Anyway, young Toilen is a troublemaker who Psaro doesn’t trust at first but after helping Psaro the Dark Prince allows Toilen to travel with him.
Psaro meets a Meowgician named Furgil who begins to guide him. He says Psaro is too weak to challenge his father but with something called the Secret of Evolution he could succeed. Furgil later reveals he’s working for Aamon. In DQ4, the Secret of Evolution was how Esturk became as powerful as he is, several monsters use it to grow their strength, and then Psaro uses it to assume his final forms. Aamon is the treacherous advisor to Psaro who gets Rose killed to convince Psaro to go all in on the Secret.
Psaro travels the Lower Echelon of Nadiria, exploring the different Circles, helping monsters in need, and gaining strength. Furgil guides Psaro to Professor Helix Helix, who is studying the Secret of Evolution. Psaro begins carrying out jobs for the professor.
Super Romo Brothers 
Pingback: Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince – Post 2 | Super Romo Brothers
Pingback: Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince – Post 3 | Super Romo Brothers