Dragon Quest IV: Final Boss Battle - Psaro the Manslayer

Fighting the last boss in the DS version of Dragon Quest IV. So far, I've beaten the first four Dragon Quest games in the same year.

[@christianboustani8284]

After playing the Dark Prince, its really sad to see him just... go down like that

[@carbonaratv1251]

There is an Alternate ending of DQ4, i suggest you to play it ! :)

[@blackheartzerotheundergrou3225]

You gotta love all of Psaro's form changes throughout this fight. Really brings the despair inherent in a confrontation against an ever-evolving opponent. First off, he begins the fight as a carbon copy of Estark. Intimidating on its own, taking on the form of the King of Hell, one of the biggest powerhouses in the history of the franchise. But a copy could never be as good as the real thing, right? Then as you continue to fight him, it happens; Psaro begins shedding. Both his arms go first, and then his head. The battle text makes it clear that you're not cleaving these parts from his body. No; he's just detaching them much like a lizard would discard their own tail. Then his horrible evolution truly begins! A new face grows from it's torso, with a maw big enough to eat entire scores of men in one bite. He grows new, bigger arms that his body looks like it could barely support. His legs bulk up to match his new arms. And finally, he grows a new head. And with each new change. His attacks become more varied and powerful. That was the end of these changes, this was Psaro's final form. But even so, I bet some players out there were still anticipating yet another change to happen after that. Still skeptical on whether or not this was really the end of the Manslayer's harrowing Metamorphosis... Was victory even possible now? Was there any end to this battle in sight? Or were they gonna fight this thing forever, with it taking on new form after new form, each more gruesome and more powerful than the last?

[@mathiasthewise]

That was well said.

[@weegeep13]

This is good

[@RhysHill-ur8lq]

I think that they wanted to leave a few remaining feature of estark e.g. His back armour so he wouldn't look too alien

[@Kojirremer]

Considering how cinematic the whole battle is, the fact that he just instantly dissapears when defeated is a bit anticlimatic.

[@MrVariant]

Damage sponges are never interesting lol I am glad I watched this over doing the final dungeon once I saw forms had nearly 1500 hp each after a couple of the 7. Insulatle and sage's stone spams are not really different from dragon quest 3 strategies, though I admit this game was far more ambitious as the sage class is too recycled (why bother if you have a mage or cleric other than maybe stats) to really count in this day.

[@apollyonnoctis1291]

I see it as his already overtaxed body simply just turning to dust, unable to evolve any further.

[@theonewhowrotethis5681]

​@@MrVariantSages in DQIII do give better stats, but they also consolidate spell caster spells so they can be attackers or defenders on the fly. As for the lengthy final boss fight here, it's like that since you have 8 party members + Sparky to use throughout the fight (unless if you forget to get that horn that gives you the wagon at the end of the game). It's designed to be an endurance fight where it's ideal to swap around party members to perform specific roles when necessary. That being said, having Kabuff, Insulatle, and a Sage's Stone does make this fight pretty easy overall with the 8 party members. It's probably why they made the Aamon/Ashtaroth (as his Psaro-like form is called in the spin-offs now) fight at the end of the post game only have 4 party members as having 9 party members would make it pretty easy as well. Nimzo with his two forms in V and Mortamor with his three forms in VI were also kinda tanky due to their multiple forms. However, they basically traded overall endurance (Psaro has seven forms) for more firepower as their attacks are more likely to kill in their respective games than Psaro's. As such, Psaro lasts for a long time and expects you to run out of resources while Nimzo and Mortamor wanna kill you ASAP with their stronger attacks.

[@MrVariant]

@theonewhowrotethis5681 but anyone can use sage's stone, which undermines the dq3 sage class as a martial artist is faster with crits, and you don't want to reset a cleric before learning kazing, and then you get half the remaining spells. And dq4 psaro is just hit hard and spam insulatle to reduce the crazy breath damage in later forms. It's more of a checklist like Lavos (haste helms, equipment immunity with rainbow sword and prismatic dress) in chrono trigger, than endurance as you'll lose with the wrong setup (torneko in chapter 3 for maximizing money to transfer to steel broadswords and casino tokens makes the game easier as casino games are awfully slow if you can't use save states to keep doubling).

[@davemillet4160]

I love his transformations here.

[@billxatzis5776]

Man kabuff back then was just so broken lol

[@Rebel3000]

I came here after Dark Prince released! :D

[@cheesus7672]

Thank you for uploading ! My game always crashed during the final fight :'(

[@paperluigi6132]

I think the Zenithian Trilogy could also work beautifully in HD-2D. And maybe give the Psaro fight presentation that rivals the final bosses of LiveALive’s last two chapters.

[@PKpanzerkrieger]

What a show!

[@mrsmith1938]

That cockroach looking thing is the Dark Prince?

[@LovelyCinccino]

Honestly, I see this as the bad ending. Because even though you saved the world and your town and Eliza were restored, Rose (who was innocent of what Psaro had done) remains dead and forgotten by her lover and the truth behind her murder is never revealed. And it’s very likely that Aamon, the one who was behind Rose’s murder,is still alive and is in possession of the Secret of Evolution, ready to become the next Master of Monsterkind like he had planned which could cause problems in the future.

[@ianlodge3318]

I think that is the canonical ending. Since it's implied Aamon becomes the founder of the order of Zugswang, and aims to free Grandmaster Nimzo from the underworld

[@chriskeeble7756]

I usually use 4 magic users at the start and use the spell that takes all 4 to cast. keep going until all the limbs fall off then switch to heavy hitters

[@sweatify4662]

The fact that Psaro looks like Estark from dq5..

[@sadsatan1814]

Yeah it's supposed to be cause he "also" used the Secret of evolution, so it seems Estark was a regular demon before as well. Though it makes us wonder if he's as strong

[@nichoudha]

Not just that, Psaro says the same thing as the "Estark" of Dragon Quest V. The dialogue is a mix of Estark of DQIV's who disturbs my slumber and a comment about being unable to recall anything like in this video. Psaro also fully completed the secret of evolution, whereas DQIV Estark did not. Since Zenithian Triology is now a canonized trilogy, it implies "Estark" of DQV is an amnesiac Psaro. @@sadsatan1814

[@baronkarza2939]

@@nichoudha Wowowo so Psaro is estark?

[@mr.j3rs3y]

@@baronkarza2939 Estark is his own being. I don’t know if it’s the same Estark each game he appears in or different people who also underwent the process of the secret of evolution but not fully evolved. Psaro on the other hand managed to fully evolve into a separate form and is killed at the end of this battle in this video as you can see. And I’m not sure how Canon the post game content, but Psaro survives in that ending, but he has de-evolved from his Estark-like form back into his original humanoid form.

[@welshlout3400]

I prefer not to think of the superboss ‘Estarks’ as bad timeline amnesiac Psaro. Rather they are incarnations of the original being, the sleeping lord of the underworld who is fought 3/4 the way into DQIV.

[@shadow2v1]

Im 23, I started iv again 3 days ago, last time i played i was 11/12yo, just got to psaro I was curious to see my build on the other save that i have with 12yo and holyyy ou eu sou dono ou brave, only got garbage equiped and still have the godess silver statue so it means i farm 30k gold to unlock the underground passage

[@umyum3858]

To be fair the guy your suppose to sell it to is kinda easy to miss.

[@sweatify4662]

⁠@@umyum3858I agree

[@federicobarreri7639]

I like to consider DQ4 as 2 games in 1: one for the male protagonist, and the other for the female. The differences are minimal, sure, but given the fact the choice is goven at the beginning it's cool you can choose the version of the game you prefer to play.

[@theonewhowrotethis5681]

3 is similar in that regard (as are 9 and 10).

[@walkdontrunplz]

he's packing some junk damn

[@Palamedes2009]

Final boss 2

[@cesarmarroquin9930]

Yo wtf!? You can change your party?! I have been doing this boss dying for hrs and I'm around level 33's...And I see you change party members 😑 My team is Solo,Meena,Alena and Maya..wtf man

[@waqarali-hk6yo]

To change party members you need a special item that you need to use before the actual fight. I remember the item looking a horn.

[@trancenova7799]

The yellow dude is ESTARK. not Psaro

[@theonewhowrotethis5681]

Funnily enough, Estark was blue at first while Psaro's first form was an orange pallete swap. From there, Estark became orange in DQV and remained that way in all of his other appearances. The in-lore reason for this is that his blue form is him not being fully powered up due to his early awakening. When he's orange, he has the power. Hence, Psaro at this point would be more powerful than Estark. Zoma has weird pallette swap shenanigans in his original appearance on the NES. That version had his default colors at the start of the fight and then had him go darker after the Orb of Light was used. All subsequent versions reversed it by having his initial form be dark and his weakened form be his usual color pallette as the Orb of Light lifted his cloak of shadow.