While some would argue Persona 5 is more about the story than the combat, many players are fans of the game for the engaging RPG elements and highly-customizable fighters. Though the game doesn’t strive to be overly difficult as it does focus more on telling a story than offering a brutal challenge, there are some boss fights that can cause a lot of difficulty for players.
Most bosses have built in game mechanics to make things easier and there are weaknesses the player can take advantage of, but there are some bosses that require long drawn out fights and significant preparation before yielding a narrow victory.
10 Suguru Kamoshida
Being the first boss of the game he’s easy compared to others on this list but can be surprisingly difficult for players who either aren’t prepared, aren’t cautious, or are new to this type of game. It’s for these reasons he makes the cut, albeit barely.
Many players have fallen to him by simply being too overconfident, not protecting Ann better or failing to remove his healing ability via his crown. There’s no worse feeling in this game than losing to Suguru Kamoshia, the first boss of the game, because you weren’t careful, except perhaps the sting of a face palm when it happens.
9 Shadow of Yuichi Fukurai
This optional Mementos boss can be a tough nut to crack for players who haven’t prepared their team to resist brainwashing. Taking the form of Baphomet this enemy will immediately brainwash the entire team to beat the snot out of each other while using Psiodyne to drain their health even faster.
Admittedly if your party is resistant to brainwash through something like Brain Guards or you have Arahabaki who can shrug off the attack, the boss becomes a lot easier. It seems his main and only threat comes from the brainwash and if you can bypass it, he’s a piece of cake.
8 Junya Kaneshiro
Certainly one of the weirder boss battles of the game, Junya looks odd and can’t hold his own in the beginning of the fight. But players shouldn’t get too confident as his Piggytron robot can dish out some serious damage, making this a tougher fight than most.
Some would argue that this fight isn’t tough at all as Junya has a built-in exploit to make the fight easier. Apparently tossing valuable items will distract him from attacking and give the player a free shot. So long as the player has enough valuable items to toss, Junya will be a sitting duck for the entire fight, but this requires having a hefty collection of stuff the player never intends to get back. Without those items it’s back to being a tough slog.
7 Sae Nijima
The fight with Sae is an interesting one because of the gambling component during battle. Player’s who make the mistake of attacking her during a bet, trigger a health penalty, but once you realize why the house is always winning, it gets a little easier.
Once the jig is up she transforms into her monstrous form and starts bashing away at the player. This makes the fight a little easier as there are more opportunities to fight back, but getting those stat and health perks from winning bets is something you’ll be wishing was more common in the final phase.
6 Cognitive Wakaba Isshiki
One of the few fights you lose automatically in the beginning, once the ball gets rolling this can be a rough fight. Wakaba does some hefty damage that can bring your party’s health down in a couple of hits. The best thing to do is properly equip your party members with good defense, have a strong healer, and use the ballista whenever there’s an opportunity.
That ballista is actually why this boss fight doesn’t rank higher as it gives your team a nice breather to recoup and prepare for the next engagement.
5 Kunikazu Okumura
Kunkazu makes the top five for being a tough fight for players who struggled fighting through his palace to get to him. By himself he’s not much of a threat, but his army of robots and a time limit make this a tough boss fight.
Admittedly most players probably won’t die in this fight and the majority of failures will come from failing to fight off the six robotic waves and dealing him the death blow within the time limit. Cutting through those mechanical enemies can take time, especially for players who like to be methodical and tactful in combat, which is how the game is designed to be played.
4 Masayoshi Shido
This seedy politician definitely earns the number three spot for being one of the hardest bosses in Persona 5. He takes on five different forms, each one having different resistances, abilities, and special attacks with his final form being the most brutal and varied of all.
A reason this fight can be so challenging is the sheer endurance required to see it through. With five powerful forms the player will be running on fumes in the final fight as the party’s SP pool will frequently be bone dry. Player’s need to stock up on SP regenerating items and then pack in a few more if they hope to bring him down.
3 Goro Akechi
Goro wouldn’t be so bad on his own, but there’s a tough pill to swallow before going into this boss fight that complicates things. Just before the boss fight the player must slog through the mini boss Ongyo-Ki that is a brutal fight itself. After slaying this monster the player doesn’t get an opportunity to return to the safe house and heal, they must continue on to fight Goro.
Weakened from the previous battle the player must take down his pet Cerberus and his general Cu Chulainn before fighting Goro himself. Once confronting the boss you are facing an opponent with no weaknesses and some brutal abilities.
2 Ichiryusai Madarame
Boss of the second palace in the game, this foe really ramped up the game’s difficulty and caught many players off guard who weren’t prepared for a difficult fight early in the game. Madarame separates into four pieces of a painting that have their own individual attacks, resistances, and abilities each serving a separate purpose to keep each other alive and destroy the player.
The player could only truly attack Madarame after destroying these four pieces and has a small window of opportunity to do so. Some players had to go through three cycles before being able to take down this boss.
1 Yaldabaoth
Also known as the Demiurge, this boss deserved to be the final boss of Persona 5 because he is beastly. Many players had a hard time bringing this monster down and he got harder as the fight went on. In the beginning he isn’t considered that tough, dealing only a handful of moves and lacking any special abilities, but that quickly changes.
After having enough damage, he will start to sprout arms that have their own resistances and attack moves that can devastate your party. His ultimate move Rays of Control can easily KO the party if the player doesn’t quickly bring his attack down, raise the party’s defense or take out the arms in the two turns it takes to charge.