Persona 5 and the Royal version of the hit RPG gave us the loveable rogues that are the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and their quest to change the hearts of corrupt adults in order for them to confess to their crimes. Atlus brought the Persona series into a mainstream eye with a number of changes to the series. To invest the player in the Phantom Thieves, the developers gave players worthy villains to fight in the form of palace rulers.

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Palaces in the game are when their rulers distorted desires take form in a real-world location in the mysterious metaverse that is traversed via an app on a phone. Each ruler is represented by their shadow, their true self that they hide from everyone, has something that makes them despicable in some way and TheGamer is here to rank the rulers from least to most despicable. Spoilers for both versions ahead.

8 Futaba

Shadow Futaba in Persona 5: The Animation

Futaba is different in the fact that she actually reaches out to the Phantom Thieves to change her heart. Her palace, a pyramid, takes form due to her guilt over her mother's apparent suicide that comes from a suicide note that was later discovered to have been a forgery.

The player is meant to feel bad even as she puts the Phantom Thieves in apparent deathtraps ranging from trap doors to rolling boulders. This comes from the fact that she always unintentionally pushes away the people trying to help her out. Not too much is despicable about her, which leads to her realizing the truth about her mother's death and eventually joining the Phantom Thieves.

7 Maruki

Maruki uses his persona in an animated cutscen of Persona 5: Royal

The twist villain of the Royal's third semester, Maruki awakens to his persona on Christmas Eve should his confidant be maxed out and eventually changes reality to reflect his ideal world. That world being where everyone is happy, their deepest desires are fulfilled, and one free of hardship.

The party sees what led him to this point which makes the player sympathetic to his cause. But in creating his ideal reality, he takes away humanity's room for growth. People need some hardships of some kind in order to better themselves. His reality takes this away, which leaves humanity in a spot in which it will never grow and better themselves.

6 Sae

Shadow Sae in Persona 5: The Animation

Even the most well-intentioned of motivations can become corrupted. Sae Niijima, Makoto's older sister, is a prime example of this. Sae is a public prosecutor who works at a courthouse in Tokyo which takes the form of a lavish casino in the metaverse. The reason for this is because she comes to view her cases as win at all costs, even if it means rigging the odds in her favor, in order to support herself and her sister.

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Over the course of the game the player sees what this mindset has done to both Sae and Makoto, even leading to the former lashing out at Makoto by saying "all you do is eat away at my life." In the palace and in Sae's boss fights, she is always trying to rig things in her favor, showing how far she has fallen. She does eventually though change her ways after the palace is beaten and reconciling with Makoto in the process.

5 Kunikazu Okumura

Shadow Okumura about to take on the Phantom Thieves in P5R

The father of Haru, Okumura is the CEO of Big Bang Burger which is a fast-food chain in the game. He is the usual businessman who cares only about money and furthering his own ambitions. Not exactly original but it still makes the player hate the guy.

He also cares little for Haru's wellbeing, even arranging an engagement with another man who has high political standing just to start his political career. His boss fight even involves him throwing others at the party so he does not have to do anything himself to achieve victory, much like his business empire in the real world. The sad part though is that he would have eventually changed his ways, had he not be killed by the black masked assassin a.k.a. Goro Akechi.

4 Madarame

Shadow Madarame in Persona 5 and P5R

The second ruler in the game, Madarame is an artist who plagiarizes the works of his pupils as his own and reaps the benefits at their expense. This has led to his pupils failing in life and even committing suicide in one case. His palace takes the form of an art museum where his pupils are the paintings on display.

His most despicable act though is letting Yusuke's mother die of a seizure after seeing the Sayuri for the first time and seeing what it could do for him. He does take in Yusuke so he is not left an orphan, but it is only to use Yusuke's talents for his own gain, much like he did for all of his pupils.

3 Kaneshiro

Shadow Kaneshiro prepares to fight the Phantom Thieves in P5 and P5R

It takes a certain kind of deviousness to use unsuspecting high schoolers as drug runners and then blackmailing for every ounce of money they can, but that is Junya Kaneshiro in a nutshell. A crime boss who rules Shibuya with an iron fist and has others do his dirty work for him.

The worst part though is that his shadow actually defends his actions saying the same was done to him and that society made him this way. It shows just how far the man has fallen that he blames those around him for his failures instead of looking in the mirror.

2 Kamoshida

Shadow Kamoshida holding his treasure with his cognition of Ann in P5R

Boy did this guy set a high bar for all the other palace rulers. Kamoshida is Shujin Academy's gym teacher who is basically king of the castle since he brings a lot of glory to the school through the volley ball team he coaches. Beneath this though is a tyrannical monster who abuses his students in all manners of speaking.

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He physically abuses the male students who do not meet his expectations and gets uncomfortably close with some of the female students. Shiho, Ann's best friend, is seemingly assaulted for Ann not engaging in a relationship with her. Not to mention he goaded Ryuji into striking him, breaking his leg, and leaking Joker's criminal record just because he did not like him. It is so satisfying to finally take this guy down so he answers for his crimes.

1 Shido

Shadow Shido in Persona 5

The game's true villain, players hate the guy even before they know his name since he is the one who frames Joker for an assault the latter did not commit. He manipulates Akechi into being his personal hitman by silencing anyone who might be a threat to him through the metaverse and ordered his men to make Futaba believe she was at fault for her mother's suicide just to keep her from interfering. He was even willing to betray Okumura just to frame the Phantom Thieves for it to turn the public against.

Shido ultimately plans on using everyone and everything around him to become prime minister of Japan and to launch his schemes on an international scale. The man truly has no redeeming qualities and no regard for any life but his own. This makes him the most satisfying ruler to take down in a memorable boss fight sure to stick in the minds of Persona fans forever.

Next: 10 Things To Know Before Starting Persona 5 Royal