History ThatOneBoss / Atlus

** Matador absolutely ''defines'' the trope. He appears to challenge you in the middle of a tunnel instead of a BossRoom like most others, with very little forewarning, and his fight is compulsory unlike the other Fiends to follow. The actual fight itself serves as [[WakeUpCallBoss a major make-or-break point for many players of the game]], effectively forcing players to play on his terms or not be able to continue through the game. He opens the fight with [[SignatureMove Red Capote]], which maximizes his evasion and accuracy, leading to you losing a lot of turns due to the Press Turn system penalizing misses by deducting two turns instead of one, so you'll have to compensate with Sukukaja or Sukunda to even land a hit. Making that worse, he has Dekaja (erases your buffs) and Dekunda (erases his debuffs), and if you lower his agility too far (namely casting Sukunda four times), he'll always use Red Capote again on his next turn. Once you get some headway and get him below half HP, he'll use Taunt to lower your defense and follow it up with Focus to double the damage of his multi-hit [[SignatureMove Andalucia]]. His fight needs quite a bit of preparation, and to rub it in, he appears right before you unlock the Demon Compendium, so you have to go through a lot of effort to adjust your team if it's currently not up to standard.

** [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking No surprises here]], really, but [[BigBad Zolgonark]] is ''nasty''. First off, he's got three heads, each acting independently from one another (and each having its own lifebar and attack cycles, meaning he's essentially three bosses in one!) with their own attacks and abilities, so much like the fight with [[spoiler:Leonil]] earlier in the game, the player has to get used to dealing with three different patterns from the same boss, only at the same time. His attacks are powerful and the player can find themselves cornered at times, but that isn't what really makes this boss a struggle. ''Every'' enemy in the game has a HealingFactor that lets them regenerate some of the damage you deal, but Zolgonark's is especially strong, which means that if you can't deal substantial damage continuously, it's very possible that over the course of the battle, Zolgonark may end up healing for more health than any enemy in the game! The key is taking out a specific head which boosts his HealingFactor, but that does not diminish his threat in the least, only speed up the process.

** The Arahabaki guarding the blue Will Seed in Madarame's Palace from ''Royal'' is a major pain in the ass to deal with. Not only it has the same tactic as the above Shadow Fukurai (ie. using Brain Jack on the party for Technical damage through Mapsi), but it also resists Gun, blocks Physical, can inflict Dizzy with Flash Bomb, and you likely won't yet have skills that can either cure or resist/negate the ailments inflicted on you by it. The only saving grace is this Arahabaki has a weakness to Wind and Nuke skills, but even with either Joker or Morgana hitting Arahabaki with its weakness element for an All-Out Attack, it's ''still'' not enough to finish it off quickly. And the most insulting part? The blue Will Seed is needed to complete the [[GameBreaker Crystal of Vanity accessory]], which passively negates the equipped Persona's weaknesses in its base form, and gives access to a drain barrier spell called Bleeding Dry Brush when upgraded to the Ring of Vanity later.

** One of the hardest bosses in the game is [[spoiler:Ubergestalt Gore]], fought in the Law and Chaos Paths. He has more HP than any boss in the game, even the two {{Final Boss}}es below (and the only boss that has even more HP is [[{{Superboss}} Demiurge]]), and it's made even worse by the fact the first time you deplete his 7500 HP, he will ''always'' get back up at full health, meaning, yes, that's '''''15,000 HP''''' you have to deal with. He also hits like a damn tank, doing obscene amounts of physical and gun damage and the occasional status effects. His signature attack, ''Adaptation'', will ''only'' be used [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou on the main character]], and it does enough damage to kill him if he isn't defending ''and'' resistant to physical damage, and that's ''if it is not buffed''. His absurd HP alone makes this one huge endurance test. Did we mention he reflects any physical and gun attacks?

** Black Mask (aka [[spoiler: Akechi]]) isn't too noteworthy out of context, with no special mechanics beyond hitting like a truck and [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou deliberately focusing only on Joker]], but in context, it's a three-phase fight with only extremely vague hints that it might be coming, comes almost immediately after a damage-heavy miniboss fight with no opportunity to save between the two fights, and you can't rely on your memory of Black Mask's weaknesses, resistances, and abilities while they were traveling with you. If you know the fight's on the way, it's not difficult, but if you didn't see it coming, you're in for a ''world of pain''. To make matters worse, his second form has a whopping total of '''''80''''' Strength, but has average Endurance, Agility, and Luck to compensate this, and at least his special skills have setbacks: Black Mask can use the Laevatein attack ''only'' after skipping a turn (ie. "glaring" at Joker) and his unnegatable buff skill, Desperation, turns him into a GlassCannon for three turns.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'' is regarded by some to be [[SequelDifficultyDrop the easiest of the mainline]] ''Persona'' games, largely for the number of [[GameBreaker game-breaking]] advantages only the player has over the game's demonic enemies. But really, it wouldn't be an Atlus game if there weren't some hair-pulling bosses:

*** [[spoiler:"Eikichi"]] loves to spam Mamudo -- Dark Instant Kill to the whole party which ''will'' work unless you resist it -- and when he doesn't do that, he spams ''Bloody Divorce''. On top of the same instand kill effect of Mamudo, it also deals very high Water and Dark damage. And yes, it targets the entire party.

** The FinalBoss of ''Eternal Punishment'' is just as vicious as he was back in ''Innocent Sin''. He has two forms this time around. The first form varies its strength, depending on whether or not you restore [[spoiler:Lisa's]] and/or [[spoiler:Eikichi's]] memories. If you restore both, his first form, [[spoiler:Moon Howler]], will randomly ''reduces your team's remaining HP to half'', and has an attack that deals large unblockable damage, which doubles for guarding characters. The second form is harder no matter what you did, now he has an unblockable attack that gets ''stronger'' with each use, an unblockable attack that deals random damage between 100 to ''800'', and ability to prevent you from changing Persona for 8 turns, and another skill to ''negate your buffs, shields, and recovery over time''. Don't bother crying. It's simply what [[spoiler:Nyarlathotep]] does.

** Dante (Raidou) becomes tediously nightmarish during his game at the Third Kalpa. The Player is forced to navigate a labyrinth with a series of switches that must be activated to proceed, all while avoiding encountering him. The problem is Dante will pursue you across the whole Kalpa while constantly shooting at you if you are in his line of sight and within a certain range. Each shot staggers you, and he fires at a high rate and with minimal breaks, so getting too close essentially means you are already caught. When he tags you, Dante will score a free hit on you, kicking you back to the beginning, and he will reset ''all'' the switches. Fitting, considering he basically went through some similar puzzle levels in his own game, but still unpleasant. To top it off, at the end of the cat and mouse game, [[RecurringBoss it is another boss fight against him]] and this time he adds Almighty attacks (one of which comes with a chance of instant death). It's a big CatharsisFactor when you finally get around to recruiting him at the bottom of the Labyrinth of Amala, and you get to use his exact powerful skill set to sweep enemy mobs.

Yes, [[Creator/{{Atlus}} one company]] has [[ThatOneBoss enough examples]] for its own page. This is especially noticeable as typing 'Atlus' into the search bar actually generated this subpage instead of the main Creator page at the top of the list at one point.

'''Note''': {{Superboss}}es are not allowed; they're optional and have no standards for difficulty. (Yes, even the Demi-Fiend.)

** [[spoiler:Maruki]] and [[spoiler:Azathoth]] from ''Royal'' are tough customers to beat, even moreso than [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth]] himself. For starters, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] has a passive skill called Shield Tendril, which can reduce the damage he took into ScratchDamage as long as all of his tentacles (which gives [[spoiler:Maruki]] and [[spoiler:Azathoth]] free support) are present (if you remove at least one of them though, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] would take slightly less damage instead), while [[spoiler:Maruki]] is ''very'' durable and would cast Regeneration ''every turn'' to bring back [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] tentacles. Things are going to get a lot nastier in the second phase, since [[spoiler:Maruki]] can disable one of your party's actions for a turn (in higher difficulties, he'll do the action ban ''twice'' in a row), while [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] overall HP [[DamageSpongeBoss becomes doubled]], would spam the Dizzy-induced Bless-elemental Eternal Radiance skill for Technical damage (having [[spoiler:Akechi/Black Mask]] in the party is ill-advised for this phase due to his Bless weakness unless he's equipped with the Ring of Vanity accessory beforehand), and can sometimes impede your party's actions with Evil Smile. You'll also have to watch out for Piercing Strike (a single-target but stronger ten-hit Almighty version Yoshitsune's ''Hassou Tobi''), which is trigged when a message on top of the screen tells you that a specific party member not named Joker is being targeted, and Tyrant Chaos, which deals massive damage to the party after casting Tyrant Stance. And just like the [[{{Superboss}} Margaret]] fight in ''Persona 4'', if you fail to deplete all of either [[spoiler:Maruki]] or [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] HP before the 40th turn, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] would cast a Megidolaon that deals around ''[[RocksFallEveryoneDies 1300 damage]]'' to [[OneHitKill finish off]] [[TotalPartyKill the party]]. To make things a bit fair though, if you deplete all of [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] HP, [[spoiler:Maruki]] goes down in one strike after a cutscene, triggering the less difficult [[spoiler:Adam Kadmon]] fight.

** Shadow Fukurai (aka Baphomet) is [[NonIndicativeDifficulty no ordinary C-rank Mementos boss]] when you first fought him, mainly due to being at '''''Level 47''''' as well as having high Magic and Endurance, which makes him harder to bring down even with his Ice and Bless weaknesses. His main gimmick is casting Brain Jack on the party ''as early as his first turn'' so he could easily [[TotalPartyKill wipe them out]] with Technical hits through Mapsio and Psiodyne strengthened by Psy Boost as well as having Eigaon and the OneHitKill Mudoon at his disposal. If THAT wasn't bad enough, he would also use Marakunda ForMassiveDamage if he gets a One More from successfully hitting either Joker (if the equipped Persona is weak to Psy/Curse), Makoto (who is weak to Psy), or Akechi (who is weak to Curse [[spoiler:due to his Persona being Robin Hood as Crow]]) with either of his Psy/Curse skills. And to put the cherry on top, beating him is ''required'' to max out [[ThatOneSidequest Chihaya's Confidant]].

** While Shadow Okumura is quite easy in the vanilla game, he's among the most awkward difficulty spikes in ''Royal'', considering that [[spoiler:Shadow Sae]] or [[spoiler:Shadow Shido]] later on are much more controlled. Unlike in vanilla, if you do not defeat any of his robots within two turns, he will reshuffle and send back all of his robots on that wave at '''full health''' and all of the robots will pile up on a single target, and he can reshuffle his entire wave ''any number of times'' as long as you don't kill them within the turn limit. Furthermore, as a very subtle case of ThatOneAttack combined with what seems to be a move that deliberately induces player-sided negligence, he does use Rakukaja, followed by Rakunda and Famine's Scream to make sure he does stall you because most players are simply not prepared to remove something like a stray Rakukaja on one robot. That single Rakukaja actually lets him stall you without fail because a Division Manager or General Manager with a defense buff usually can't be killed in two turns. If you do not know how to use debuffs or buff removal against this, he will loop you until time runs out. Do not forget the Execurobo himself is still there unaltered and can take around 10 minutes to kill, and there's an extra enemy after him. In fact, most of his difficulty comes from absolutely ridiculous TrialAndErrorGameplay, since there is no way to find out any of his more erratic behaviors unless you trigger it. Furthermore, the robot's do not resist Gun and are very weak to a bunch of status conditions capable of inducing Technical damage, again impossible to find without trial and error. Surprisingly enough, Shadow Okumura is significantly easier on [[HarderThanHard Merciless]]. Merciless vastly increases damage done when hitting weaknesses or inflicting Technical damage, both for the party and the enemies, and the robots have elemental weaknesses while mainly using physical attacks. The Executive Director can still kill you if you're careless, but the waves of robots are overall much easier if you know what you're doing. Hope you spent time at the pool and darts club!

** Gabriel. He ''will'' destroy you. He is immune to sword attacks and demon's physical attacks (and most Chaos demons are only good at physical attacks). Oh, and if you're on the chaos path, you probably got the Bullets of Darkness, which he is immune to. And since your main character can't cast spells, ''he can't do anything in this fight''. This fight can last [[MarathonBoss as long as an hour]]. Unless you are taking the law path (in which case he joins you - only for you to have to fuse him to make an ''item'' necessary to finish the game).

** The second fiend in the game that you fight is Daisoujou, who's an utterly wretched piece of work if you don't come prepared. He is not as obnoxious with buffs as Matador is, but mainly because he doesn't need to. He starts with Meditation, a skill that saps your HP and MP which can run you dry unless you up your agility to dodge it. He then breaks out Preach which can inflict charm, sleep, or panic (and any of the ailments can cause you to lose control of your combatants) and as the fight nears its end he breaks out Mahamaon and Mamudoon - area-of-effect OneHitKill spells that aren't affected by buffs or debuffs. Bear in mind that the Demi-Fiend, at this time, can only protect himself from one variant while making himself vulnerable to the other. Thankfully, there's nothing stopping you from using Tetraja Stones, and once you've [[DefeatMeansPlayable beaten him you unlock him for fusion]], where his Meditation skill combined with Prayer [[GameBreaker makes the game a hell of a lot easier.]]

** Even by FinalBoss standards, the [[spoiler:Creator God YHVH]] is a menace. He starts out the fight with two Luster Candies and he also resists everything, which means you need Awakened Power or a Pierce move to deal damage initially. The fight's gimmick is that there are two parties: Nanashi's and Flynn's. Flynn has the ability to remove resistances and create weaknesses with his unique move, and he has Energy Drain to keep him using it. [[spoiler:YHVH himself]] has a few unique moves, most notably [[spoiler:''God's Mouth'']], which is a a repeat of the same move from ''II'' and guarantees OneHitKill if it connects, along with ''Divine Harmony'', which removes all status effects on the party - buffs, Doping, Charge/Concentrate, etc. He also has ''Authoritative Stance'', similar to ''Imposing Stance'' in that it cuts your Press Turn icons on your next turn, except instead of one icon he takes off ''three'', leaving you with up to two turns at best if you exploit his weaknesses and outright ''giving him free turns'' if you have so much as one empty party slot. To make matters worse, he's a SequentialBoss, and in his second form, he has the ability to buff himself fully and gain Smirk with ''Infinite Power'', or debuff the whole party fully with ''Unending Curse''. On top of all that, he also gains ''Supernova'', a devastating Almighty attack which can already inflict TotalPartyKill when buffs and debuffs are not in play.

* ''VideoGame/Persona2'' - particularly ''Innocent Sin'' - is relatively easy (for an Atlus game, of course), but that doesn't mean there aren't a handful of troublemakers:

** ''Eternal Punishment'''s "Metal Trio": [[spoiler:golden statues of Jun, Eikichi, and Lisa, who were born out of Tatsuya's guilt]]. This is a team battle, your party against them. While each character doesn't have a huge amount of HP, they are all immune to physical attacks, and possess unique high damage spells that target all party members. In addition, they have ''better'' resistances than [[spoiler:those you remember]], so there's a good chance you heal them by accident - fortunately their own healing spells aren't really effective. As for each member individually...
*** [[spoiler:"Eikichi"]] loves to spam Mamudo - Dark Instant Kill to the whole party which ''will'' work unless you resist it - and when he doesn't do that, he spams ''Bloody Divorce''. On top of the same instand kill effect of Mamudo, it also deals very high Water and Dark damage. And yes, it targets the entire party.

* ''VideoGame/Persona3'', compared to ''Persona 2'', manages to be a significant SequelDifficultySpike in it having a mere ''plethora'' of nightmarishly hard bosses and tough-as-nails gameplay - to the point it could be regarded by some as the hardest mainline ''Persona'' game. Even with the ''Portable'' version's AntiFrustrationFeatures, such as Skill Cards and the Direct Commands tactic that was first introduced in the next game, these bosses are ''still'' no pushovers. Let's count the ways, shall we?

** This game goes for the throat early on with Super Kamoshidaman, the first main boss of the game. Not only does he have excellent offense (his two main attacks deal either heavy damage to a single character - potentially one-shotting the squishier ones, or weaker hits to multiple ones) but excellent defense as well thanks to possessing an Affinity Barrier that lets him resist all damage thrown his way until you manage to deal enough damage to break it - which is not an easy task when he's resisting all of it! And then once it is broken he can cast Fire Screen to cover his weakness to stop you from spamming All-Out Attacks. Depending on your party's level and the difficulty mode it is borderline mandatory to both have someone tanking hits at all times with Line Guard and have someone poisoning Super Kamoshidaman at all times as otherwise you'll run out of SP long before he'll be taken down.

** The fifth night's ''Doom's Bride''. First of all, you fight her on an [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Ice Level]], where if you slip on ice off the edge, you die. Second of all, she is [[LightningBruiser very fast]] at climbing compared to other bosses before her. Third, she has a move that causes an avalanche - if you are caught by this ''you are swept down to a lower level until it stops'', which is potentially lethal. And lastly, she brings FakeDifficulty on with her cyclone attack. Removing random blocks from the level to hit you with ''and'' making it difficult to see what's going on.
** The ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Child With A Chainsaw]]'' is the boss after the above ''Doom's Bride''. Players who think that this boss is merely a pumped-up version of its previous, third night appearance are in for a very painful awakening. The chainsaw-child is fast and has two deadly attacks. The first throws flaming rocks onto a row of blocks, which is generally the currently highest block ''which you tend to be on'', and those all end up as cracked blocks that crumble after stepping on them once or twice. The worse attack has the baby add block-sized miniature, round chainsaws onto certain blocks, which then travel either horizontally along the row or vertically up its other axis. And they continue this for quite some time. Touching one of them spells instant death, though they are extra dangerous because the level has several spring blocks - jumping on this block throws Vincent up several rows, convenient for proceeding in the level. '''Not''' convenient when you use one and, due to lack of seeing above very well, immediately throwing Vincent into one of the chainsaws and killing him.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyNexus'': [[spoiler:Blót]], being the ClimaxBoss, serves as a sharp difficulty spike. As a Hero himself, he can [[DoppelgangerAttack generate afterimages]] which repeat his previous attacks, and those must be destroyed before they begin piling on more damage than the party can keep up with. However, he can't generate an afterimage if he can't even act, so a good arm bind or paralysis should keep him locked down for a while, right? He purges that with Clear Mind EX, which also heals him for 1750 HP. This move can't be stopped, and takes away a lot of momentum from a disable-focused party. And when he's at low health, he [[TurnsRed triggers his Force Boost]], increasing the rate at which he generates afterimages and making him use [[LimitBreak Miracle Edge EX]] to level the party every third turn. And, yes, ''every'' - [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules his Force Boost lasts indefinitely, and his Force Break doesn't terminate the Force Boost]].

** Even by [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss Disc-One]]]] FinalBoss standards, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] is just downright unfair. He has 8500 HP and gains access to the highest ''all'' -dyne spells, all of which he'll use at leisure to exploit your party's inevitable elemental weaknesses and, unless you block, ''will'' get a Once More and let him continue a rampage. Thinking of using [[SixthRanger Naoto]] to cast Tetrakarn and Makarakarn to repel attacks back at him? [[TakeAThirdOption He'll simply respond]] with casting Life/Spirit Drain and then Tetra/Makara Break to shatter whatever wall Naoto puts up, and up and continue spamming his elemental attacks to siphon off weaknesses and do as much damage as possible. If you manage to bring him down to 75% of his original health, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] will begin periodically using and re-using Quad Converge to boost the power of ''one'' element while ''nerfing all other magic affinities'', while keeping his pattern uninterrupted as he continues to hit you with all kinds of elemental attacks. Izanagi help you if he hits a weakness during this phase, as it's practically ''asking'' to be two-shot if not ''one-shot'' as a direct result. However, it's also safe to use Makarakarn and Magic Mirrors during this phase because [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] doesn't use Life/Spirit Drain and Tetra/Makara Break until the effects of Quad Converge wore off. If by some miracle you survive that, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] goes for the jugular with [[ThatOneAttack Control]], which ''brainwashes anywhere from one to ALL of your party members to act as his flunkies for two turns''. Even worse, your stolen party members would either attack or use a physical/elemental skill on Yu, so if you have a Persona that can block/absorb the damage inflicted by them, you can weather the storm and continue to whittle down [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri's]] HP... if not or you have a Persona that can reflect, you're in for a ''world'' of hurt. The ''only'' saving grace here is [[spoiler: Kunino-sagiri]] would resort to normal attacks after using Control the second time and your stolen party members would sometimes skip a turn by "hesitating" while under the effects of it. If you manage to get through ''that'', [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] simply begins spamming Unerring Justice, which is basically a fancier Megidola until either [[TheHero Yu]] or [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] drops dead. And the final insult to injury? [[spoiler:He's just the first of the [[DiscOneFinalBoss Disc-One Final Bosses]] and ends up being indirectly responsible for Nanako's death! If you want to have Nanako miraculously resuscitated and get to the True Ending, you need to answer the right responses or risk getting the second-worst ending.]] [[OverlyLongGag Have a nice day!]]

** Even by [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss Disc-One]]]] FinalBoss standards, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] is just downright unfair. He has 8500 HP and gains access to the highest ''all'' -dyne spells, all of which he'll use at leisure to exploit your party's inevitable elemental weaknesses and, unless you block, ''will'' get a Once More and let him continue a rampage. Thinking of using [[SixthRanger Naoto]] to cast Tetrakarn and Makarakarn to repel attacks back at him? [[TakeAThirdOption He'll simply respond]] with casting Life/Spirit Drain and then Tetra/Makara Break to shatter whatever wall Naoto puts up, and up and continue spamming his elemental attacks to siphon off weaknesses and do as much damage as possible. If you manage to bring him down to 75% of his original health, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] will begin periodically using and re-using Quad Converge to boost the power of ''one'' element while ''nerfing all other magic affinities'', while keeping his pattern uninterrupted as he continues to hit you with all kinds of elemental attacks. Izanagi help you if he hits a weakness during this phase, as it's practically ''asking'' to be two-shot if not ''one-shot'' as a direct result. However, it's also safe to use Makarakarn and Magic Mirrors during this phase because [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] doesn't use Life/Spirit Drain and Tetra/Makara Break until the effects of Quad Converge wore off. If by some miracle you survive that, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] goes for the jugular with [[ThatOneAttack Control]], which ''brainwashes anywhere from one to ALL of your party members to act as his flunkies for two turns''. Even worse, your stolen party members would either attack or use a physical/elemental skill on Yu, so if you have a Persona that can block/absorb the damage inflicted by them, you can weather the storm and continue to whittle down [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri's]] HP... if not or you have a Persona that can reflect, you're in for a ''world'' of hurt. The ''only'' saving grace here is [[spoiler: Kunino-sagiri]] would resort to normal attacks after using Control the second time and your stolen party members would sometimes skip a turn by "hesitating" while under the effects of it. If you manage to get through ''that'', [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] simply begins spamming Unerring Justice, which is basically a fancier Megidola until either [[TheHero Yu]] or [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] drops dead. And the final insult to injury? [[spoiler:He's just the first of the [[DiscOneFinalBoss Disc-One Final Bosses]] and ends up being indirectly responsible for Nanako's death! If you want to have Nanako miraculously resuscitated and get to the True Ending, you need to answer the right responses or risk getting the second-worst ending]]. [[OverlyLongGag Have a nice day!]]

** Even by [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss Disc One]]]] FinalBoss standards, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] is just downright unfair. He has 8500 HP and gains access to the highest ''all'' -dyne spells, all of which he'll use at leisure to exploit your party's inevitable elemental weaknesses and, unless you block, ''will'' get a Once More and let him continue a rampage. Thinking of using [[SixthRanger Naoto]] to cast Tetrakarn and Makarakarn to repel attacks back at him? [[TakeAThirdOption He'll simply respond]] with casting Life/Spirit Drain and then Tetra/Makara Break to shatter whatever wall Naoto puts up, and up and continue spamming his elemental attacks to siphon off weaknesses and do as much damage as possible. If you manage to bring him down to 75% of his original health, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] will begin periodically using and re-using Quad Converge to boost the power of ''one'' element while ''nerfing all other magic affinities'', while keeping his pattern uninterrupted as he continues to hit you with all kinds of elemental attacks. Izanagi help you if he hits a weakness during this phase, as it's practically ''asking'' to be two-shot if not ''one-shot'' as a direct result. However, it's also safe to use Makarakarn and Magic Mirrors during this phase because [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] doesn't use Life/Spirit Drain and Tetra/Makara Break until the effects of Quad Converge wore off. If by some miracle you survive that, [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] goes for the jugular with [[ThatOneAttack Control]], which ''brainwashes anywhere from one to ALL of your party members to act as his flunkies for two turns''. Even worse, your stolen party members would either attack or use a physical/elemental skill on Yu, so if you have a Persona that can block/absorb the damage inflicted by them, you can weather the storm and continue to whittle down [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri's]] HP... if not or you have a Persona that can reflect, you're in for a ''world'' of hurt. The ''only'' saving grace here is [[spoiler: Kunino-sagiri]] would resort to normal attacks after using Control the second time and your stolen party members would sometimes skip a turn by "hesitating" while under the effects of it. If you manage to get through ''that'', [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] simply begins spamming Unerring Justice, which is basically a fancier Megidola until either [[TheHero Yu]] or [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri]] drops dead. And the final insult to injury? [[spoiler:He's just the first of the {{Disc One Final Boss}}es and ends up being indirectly responsible for Nanako's death! If you want to have Nanako miraculously resuscitated and get to the True Ending, you need to answer the right responses or risk getting the second-worst ending]]. [[OverlyLongGag Have a nice day!]]

** [[spoiler: Ren and Tlachtga]], while they aren't too hard in the original, becomes this in ''The Millennium Girl'' due to the changes to the boss battle itself: First, [[spoiler:Tlachtga]] starts in the back row which means melee attacks from your frontline party members do half damage while backline party members can't even reach with melee attacks, and not only that, has a new skill, Revenge Curse, a [[DesperationAttack HP-based attacking skill]] that proportionally scales with HP lost from the max HP, which means if [[spoiler:Tlachtga]] has lost a large portion of HP, Revenge Curse will very likely OneHitKill a party member, in addition to Chaos Curse (which can inflict basically almost any status effect in the game) that is also in the original, as well as Sapping Curse (which debuffs your entire party's ATK, meaning it's even harder to burst one of the duo), Cranial Curse (attempts to binds head on all party members) and Abdomen Curse (attempts to binds arms on all party members). On the other hand, [[spoiler:Ren]] has Drawing Stance, which increases evasion (the original equivalent, Iai, increases AGI by 200% while reducing DEF to 75%), the Hyosetsu / Frigid Slash (which is single-target in the original, but becomes party-wide hard-hitting attack in the remake), Kubiuchi / Beheading Cut that can OneHitKill a party damage (and still does very high damage if it doesn't proc Instant Death), and Kesagiri / Slantwise Cut which attacks random party members up to 6 times with each hit being almost as strong as a single attack (and it uses legs, not arms, meaning it can still happen with Arm Bind). Also specifically in the remake, [[spoiler:Tlachtga]] [[TurnsRed at below 50% HP or if their partner is killed]] will start spamming Chaos Curse every other turn.

** [[spoiler: Ren and Tlachtga]], while they aren't too hard in the original, becomes this in ''The Millennium Girl'' due to the changes to the boss battle itself: First, [[spoiler:Tlachtga]] starts in the back row which means melee attacks from your frontline party members do half damage while backline party members can't even reach with melee attacks, and not only that, has a new skill, Revenge Curse - yes, the same [[DesperationAttack HP-based attacking skill]] that your Hexers can use in the remake that can likely result in a TotalPartyKill when used at low HP, in addition to Chaos Curse (which can inflict basically almost any status effect in the game) that is also in the original, as well as Sapping Curse (which debuffs your entire party's ATK, meaning it's even harder to burst one of the duo), Cranial Curse (attempts to binds head on all party members) and Abdomen Curse (attempts to binds arms on all party members). On the other hand, [[spoiler:Ren]] has Drawing Stance, which increases evasion (the original equivalent, Iai, increases AGI by 200% while reducing DEF to 75%), the Hyosetsu / Frigid Slash (which is single-target in the original, but becomes party-wide hard-hitting attack in the remake), Kubiuchi / Beheading Cut that can OneHitKill a party damage (and still does very high damage if it doesn't proc Instant Death), and Kesagiri / Slantwise Cut which attacks random party members up to 6 times with each hit being almost as strong as a single attack (and it uses legs, not arms, meaning it can still happen with Arm Bind). Also specifically in the remake, [[spoiler:Tlachtga]] [[TurnsRed at below 50% HP or if their partner is killed]] will start spamming Chaos Curse every other turn.

** [[spoiler: Ren and Tlachtga]], while they aren't too hard in the original, becomes this in ''The Millennium Girl'' due to the changes to the boss battle itself: First, [[spoiler:Tlachtga]] starts in the back row which means melee attacks from your frontline party members do half damage while backline party members can't even reach with melee attacks, and not only that, has a new skill, Revenge Curse - yes, the same game-breaking skills that your Hexers can use in the remake that can likely result in a TotalPartyKill when used at low HP, in addition to Chaos Curse (which can inflict basically almost any status effect in the game) that is also in the original, as well as Sapping Curse (which debuffs your entire party's ATK, meaning it's even harder to burst one of the duo), Cranial Curse (attempts to binds head on all party members) and Abdomen Curse (attempts to binds arms on all party members). On the other hand, [[spoiler:Ren]] has Drawing Stance, which increases evasion (the original equivalent, Iai, increases AGI by 200% while reducing DEF to 75%), the Hyosetsu / Frigid Slash (which is single-target in the original, but becomes party-wide hard-hitting attack in the remake), Kubiuchi / Beheading Cut that can OneHitKill a party damage (and still does very high damage if it doesn't proc Instant Death), and Kesagiri / Slantwise Cut which attacks random party members up to 6 times with each hit being almost as strong as a single attack (and it uses legs, not arms, meaning it can still happen with Arm Bind). Also specifically in the remake, [[spoiler:Tlachtga]] [[TurnsRed at below 50% HP or if their partner is killed]] will start spamming Chaos Curse every other turn.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyI'' has Iwaoplen, the boss of the fourth stratum. While it's hard enough on its own (unless you have Immunize, your strategy is hoping that it doesn't use a certain attack, regardless of your level), the challenge comes from the requirements of permanently killing it. In order to do that, you need to take out ''every F.O.E.[[note]]F.O.E.s are essentially minibosses.[[/note]] on the floor'', which is simply flooded with them, and if you take too long to kill all of them, they just respawn. While you ''can'' kill Iwaoplen without clearing the floor of F.O.E.s, all it does is have the bird respawn and act like you didn't even fight it. It got a reincarnation in [[VideoGameRemake Untold]] ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS this time called "Iwaoropenelep"]]): while you don't HAVE to kill all the F.O.Es in order to put it down for good, it's still highly advised you kill all of the ones in the room he starts in, as they can ambush you during your fight and dealing with them on top of the big bird is a very, VERY bad idea. Unfortunately, if the boss or any of the F.O.E.s spot you, ''every single one of the '''sixteen''' F.O.E.s'' respawns. It ultimately boils down to either an unholy race against time or a StealthBasedMission where you [[TrialAndErrorGameplay warp out of the Labyrinth whenever you're seen]] until you find a path that lets you sneak up on each enemy without the other ones seeing you while you fight it. Thankfully, just leaving the Labyrinth doesn't make beaten F.O.E.s respawn and [[ZipMode Floor Jump]] lets you get from Etria to the 20th floor almost instantly, letting you save right before fighting the boss itself.

** Arteline and Wilhelm, fought at the midpoint of the 15th floor, can do what your party members of the same class can do [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard and more]], but the biggest difficulty stems from the fact that they can also use [[LimitBreak Force skills]] at low health. Their [[DesperationAttack Force Break]] will knock them out after they are executed, but possess enough power to level the entire party, and it's still a GameOver if both sides are knocked out. Ideally, the party has to do a quick burst of damage once they unleash their Force Boost in order to knock them out before the Force Break happens. You ''can'' NoSell those attacks with the correct class' Force Break, but a Force Break can be used once per battle and there are ''two'' enemy Force Breaks to block.

** The Arahabaki guarding the blue Will Seed in Madarame's Palace from ''Royal'' is a major pain in the ass to deal with. Not only it has the same tactic as the above Shadow Fukurai (ie. using Brain Jack on the party for Technical damage through Mapsi), but it also resists Gun, blocks Physical, can inflict Dizzy with Flash Bomb, and you likely won't yet have skills that can either cure or resist/negate the ailments inflicted on you by it. The only saving grace is this Arahabaki has a weakness to Wind and Nuke skills, but even with either Joker or Morgana hitting Arahabaki with its weakness element for an All-Out Attack, it's ''still'' not enough to finish it off quickly. And the most insulting part? The blue Will Seed is needed to complete the [[GameBreaker Crystal of Vanity accessory]], which pssively negates the wearer's Persona's weaknesses in its base form, and gives access to a drain barrier spell called Bleeding Dry Brush when upgraded to the Ring of Vanity later.

** Shadow Madarame is where many players encounter their first real obstacle in the game. To even get to his main body the player needs to defeat four different paintings, each with their own turn and access to all of the main four elements (at this point in the game all of your party members are weak to one of said elements), a powerful physical attack, and stat buffs/debuffs. To make it worse, the four paintings don't have a common damage vulnerability, meaning every available HerdHittingAttack will heal at least one of the paintings. Even when the paintings are defeated and the main boss appears, the party only has 3 turns to damage him before he re-enters his painting form. From the second time onward, the paintings begin to use his signature move, The Artist's Grace, which renders one party member weak to all elements (including physical). This is always followed by a defense debuff on the same party member, forcing them to waste their turn guarding or risk being killed instantly. The paintings also gain the ability to revive one another, which given their elemental resistances will invariably happen at some point in the fight. To top it off, [[HarderThanHard Merciless difficulty]] makes the paintings even more deadly, as they can easily OneHitKill multiple party members in a row by attackng their weaknesses. Thankfully though, ''Royal'' downgraded him into a GoddamnedBoss: while his portrait form can use The Artist's Grace and Restore from the start, once defeated it does not regenerate; instead, Madarame will summon clones of himself that use a certain element but are weak to the opposite element and the attacks themselves do scratch damage. Combined with the buffed Baton Pass mechanics it's easy to rack up One Mores and then have an ally unleash a powerful attack for massive damage at no cost. What's more, near the end of the fight he'll start summoning clones that spawn with random ''status conditions.'' Plus, the aforementioned Merciless difficulty lets you turn the tables in this phase by inflicting the same triple-weakness-damage misery on the clones.

** The Judgement Swords on the 171st Floor are relatively unique compared to previous group bosses, because they wouldn't be too hard by this stage as a singular boss... but as the plural name implies, they're a WolfpackBoss, and all other group bosses before it at least had the mercy of possessing an elemental weakness that can net you an All-Out Attack. Well, [[OhCrap that is NOT the case for these guys]] because similar to the above Hell Knights, they don't have any weaknesses ''at all''. They can also resist physical and Fire attacks, absorb Electricity, have third-tier Zio spells, Marakunda, Matarukaja, and Tempest Slash. Yukari and Aigis (who has Dekunda) are total deadweights for this boss fight due to their Electricity weakness. Even worse, Mitsuru is not available until November 14 and the ''only'' party member who can tank Electricity, Akihiko, has very little in the way of damaging them, leaving him to Heal/Support duty. Unless you have a Persona/accessory that blocks Electricity, Dekaja, and/or Dekunda, either the boss fight becomes dragged down to a slog of gradually whittling each one down or you begin trying to experiment with Ice/Wind/Almighty attacks to fight back. They are, however, susceptible to Panic, which shuts down most of their attacks and opens them up to {{CriticalHit}}s despite resisting all Physical attacks.
** The Stasis Giants on the 180th floor are another painful trio that appears not long after the Judgment Swords. They possess strong a variety of strong Slash attacks of both single- and all-target varieties, and they can each use Power Charge to massively amplify the damage of their next attacks. It is not impossible for two or even all three of them to use Power Charge into Blade of Fury or Deathbound back-to-back, which is very likely to cause a TotalPartyKill unless multiple party members can dodge, counter, or nullify Slash attacks reliably. But if you thought that blocking Slash attacks would wall them, then you would be mistaken; they also pack Gigantic Fist and Double Fangs, which gives them access to all 3 Physical attack types and makes them hard to completely resist at this point. They also resist all Physical attacks themselves, have strong resistances against Fire and Wind, have no elemental weaknesses, greatly resist most ailments, and are capable of curing each other of said ailments if you manage to inflict them. Virus Breath and especially Thunder Call can speed up the fight if you have them, but the giants can rip you a new one just as quickly if they feel like it.

** [[spoiler:Maruki]] and [[spoiler:Azathoth]] from ''Royal'' are tough customers to beat, even moreso than [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth]] himself. For starters, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] has a passive skill called Shield Tendril, which can reduce the damage he took into ScratchDamage as long as all of his tentacles (which gives [[spoiler:Maruki]] and [[spoiler:Azathoth]] free support) are present (if you remove at least one of them though, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] would take slightly less damage instead), while [[spoiler:Maruki]] is ''very'' durable and would cast Regeneration ''every turn'' to bring back [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] tentacles. Things are going to get a lot nastier in the second phase, since [[spoiler:Maruki]] can disable one of your party's actions for a turn (in higher difficulties, he'll do the action ban ''twice'' in a row), while [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] overall HP [[DamageSpongeBoss becomes doubled]], would spam the Dizzy-induced Bless-elemental Eternal Radiance skill for Technical damage (having [[spoiler:Akechi/Black Mask]] in the party is ill-advised for this phase due to his Bless weakness, unless you give him the aforementioned Ring of Vanity before the fight), and can sometimes impede your party's actions with Evil Smile. You'll also have to watch out for Piercing Strike (a single-target but stronger ten-hit Almighty version Yoshitsune's ''Hassou Tobi''), which is trigged when a message on top of the screen tells you that a specific party member not named Joker is being targeted, and Tyrant Chaos, which deals massive damage to the party after casting Tyrant Stance. And just like the [[{{Superboss}} Margaret]] fight in ''Persona 4'', if you fail to deplete all of either [[spoiler:Maruki]] or [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] HP before the 40th turn, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] would cast a Megidolaon that deals around ''[[RocksFallEveryoneDies 1300 damage]]'' to [[OneHitKill finish off]] [[TotalPartyKill the party]]. To make things a bit fair though, if you deplete all of [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] HP, [[spoiler:Maruki]] goes down in one strike after a cutscene, triggering the less difficult [[spoiler:Adam Kadmon]] fight.

** After the first bosses you fight manage to be challenging, but not enough to really qualify as ThatOneBoss, the Intrepid Knight on the 59th Floor reminds you just ''what'' kind of game it is you're playing and [[Creator/{{Atlus}} who published it]]. Boasting Magarula and Garudyne, the Intrepid Knight does ridiculous amounts of damage due to having spells that you probably won't see until you're at Level ''40s''. On top of that, the Intrepid Knight has Hama (which may be a low-level Light insta-kill, but will still be a nasty surprise to anyone who doesn't expect it), Makarakarn (where it reflects ''all'' magic attacks), '''''[[ThatOneAttack Mind Charge]]''''' (which makes the next magical attack do 2.5x times more damage. Keep in mind he has [[OhCrap Magarula and Garudyne]]), Heat Wave (second-tier all-hit Strike attack), and Wind Break (which outright nulls any resistance one may have to Wind spells). And the worst part is, he resists Charm, Distress, Panic, ''all'' physical attacks, and absorbs Wind. That said, the Interpid Knight is moderately susceptible to Rage, so casting Provoke or Infuriate would turn him into a GlassCannon for a few turns and lessen the difficulty to a reasonably managable level, but good luck not to get finished off in a few hits by his Rage-inflicted normal attacks.

** Archangel, a miniboss encountered inside Kamoshida's Palace. He uses Charge before attacking, doubling his damage and almost guaranteeing a OneHitKill against your party on higher difficulties, sometimes even if they're dodging. If he attacks Joker, then you're almost certain to lose. Luckily, ''Royal'' has him occasionally waste his turns, so he only delivers a charged up attack once every third round, rather than every other round.
** Shadow Madarame is where many players encounter their first real obstacle in the game. To even get to his main body the player needs to defeat four different paintings, each with their own turn and access to all of the main four elements (at this point in the game all of your party members are weak to one of said elements), a powerful physical attack, and stat buffs/debuffs. To make it worse, the four paintings don't have a common damage vulnerability, meaning every available HerdHittingAttack will heal at least one of the paintings. Even when the paintings are defeated and the main boss appears, the party only has 3 turns to damage him before he re-enters his painting form. From the second time onward, the paintings begin to use his signature move, The Artist's Grace, which renders one party member weak to all elements (including physical). This is always followed by a defense debuff on the same party member, forcing them to waste their turn guarding or risk being killed instantly. The paintings also gain the ability to revive one another, which given their elemental resistances will invariably happen at some point in the fight. Thankfully though, ''Royal'' downgraded him into a GoddamnedBoss: while his portrait form can use The Artist's Grace and Restore from the start, once defeated it does not regenerate; instead, Madarame will summon clones of himself that use a certain element but are weak to the opposite element and the attacks themselves do scratch damage. Combined with the buffed Baton Pass mechanics it's easy to rack up One Mores and then have an ally unleash a powerful attack for massive damage at no cost. What's more, near the end of the fight he'll start summoning clones that spawn with random ''status conditions.''

** The Arahabaki guarding the blue Will Seed in Madarame's Palace from ''Royal'' is a major pain in the ass to deal with. Not only it has the same tactic as the above Shadow Fukurai (ie. using Brain Jack on the party for Technical damage through Mapsi), but it also resists Gun, blocks Physical, can inflict Dizzy with Flash Bomb, and you don't have skills that can either cure or resist/negate the ailments inflicted on you by it. The only saving grace is this Arahabaki has a weakness to Wind and Nuke skills, but even with either Joker or Morgana hitting Arahabaki with its weakness element for an All-Out Attack, it's ''still'' not enough to finish it off. And the most insulting part? The blue Will Seed is needed to complete the [[GameBreaker Brush of Vanity]] accessory, which negates a Persona's weakness.
** While Shadow Okumura is quite easy in the vanilla game, he's among the most awkward difficulty spikes in ''Royal'', considering that Shadow Sae or Shadow Shido later on are much more controlled. Unlike in vanilla, if you do not defeat any of his robots within two turns, he will reshuffle and send back all of his robots on that wave at '''full health''' and all of the robots will pile up on a single target, and he can reshuffle his entire wave ''any number of times'' as long as you don't kill them within the turn limit. Furthermore, as a very subtle case of ThatOneAttack combined with what seems to be a move that deliberately induces player-sided negligence, he does use Rakukaja, followed by Rakunda and Famine's Scream to make sure he does stall you because most players are simply not prepared to remove something like a stray Rakukaja on one robot. That single Rakukaja actually lets him stall you without fail because a Division Manager or General Manager with a defense buff usually can't be killed in two turns. If you do not know how to use debuffs or buff removal against this, he will loop you until time runs out. Do not forget the Execurobo himself is still there unaltered and can take around 10 minutes to kill, and there's an extra enemy after him. In fact, most of his difficulty comes from absolutely ridiculous TrialAndErrorGameplay, since there is no way to find out any of his more erratic behaviors unless you trigger it. Furthermore, the robot's do not resist Gun and are very weak to a bunch of status conditions capable of inducing Technical damage, again impossible to find without trial and error. Surprisingly enough, Shadow Okumura is significantly easier on [[HarderThanHard Merciless]]. Merciless vastly increases damage done when hitting weaknesses or inflicting Technical damage, both for the party and the enemies, and the robots have elemental weaknesses while mainly using physical attacks. The Executive Director can still kill you if you're careless, but the waves of robots are overall much easier if you know what you're doing. Hope you spent time at the pool and darts club!
** [[spoiler:Maruki]] and [[spoiler:Azathoth]] from ''Royal'' are tough customers to beat, even moreso than [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth]] himself. For starters, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] has a passive skill called Shield Tendril, which can reduce the damage he took into ScratchDamage as long as all of his tentacles (which gives [[spoiler:Maruki]] and [[spoiler:Azathoth]] free support) are present (if you remove at least one of them though, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] would take slightly less damage instead), while [[spoiler:Maruki]] is ''very'' durable and would cast Regeneration ''every turn'' to bring back [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] tentacles. Things are going to get a lot nastier in the second phase, since [[spoiler:Maruki]] can disable one of your party's actions for a turn (in higher difficulties, he'll do the action ban ''twice'' in a row), while [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] overall HP [[DamageSpongeBoss becomes doubled]], would spam the Dizzy-induced Bless-elemental Eternal Radiance skill for Technical damage (having [[spoiler:Akechi/Black Mask]] in the party is ill-advised for this phase due to his Bless weakness), and would sometimes impede your party's actions with Evil Smile. You'll also have to watch out for Piercing Strike (a single-target but stronger ten-hit Almighty version Yoshitsune's ''Hassou Tobi''), which is trigged when a message on top of the screen tells you that a specific party member not named Joker is being targeted, and Tyrant Chaos, which deals massive damage to the party after casting Tyrant Stance. And just like the [[{{Superboss}} Margaret]] fight in ''Persona 4'', if you fail to deplete all of either [[spoiler:Maruki]] or [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] HP before the 40th turn, [[spoiler:Azathoth]] would cast a Megidolaon that deals ''[[RocksFallEveryoneDies 1300 damage]]'' to [[OneHitKill finish off]] [[TotalPartyKill the party]]. To make things a bit fair though, if you deplete all of [[spoiler:Azathoth's]] HP, [[spoiler:Maruki]] goes down in one strike after a cutscene, triggering the less difficult [[spoiler:Adam Kadmon]] fight.

** Coming on the 110th Floor is the Natural Dancer, who packs both Garudyne and Magarudyne to pulverize anyone vulnerable to Wind (which Junpei is weak to) and Hamaon to randomly finish off anyone in one shot. It also has Sexy Dance backed with Charm Boost to cause discord within the party, and at this point your only means of curing Charm only affect one member at a time. Bringing Yukari, Ken, and/or a Persona/accessory that can resist or outright block Charm are almost mandated for this fight. At least it doesn't have Mind Charge and is vulnerable to Distress, though God help you if anyone in your party gets Charmed.

** The Judgement Swords on the 171st Floor are relatively unique compared to previous group bosses, because they wouldn't be too hard by this stage as a singular boss... but as the plural name implies, they're a WolfpackBoss, and all other group bosses before it at least had the mercy of possessing an elemental weakness that can net you an All-Out Attack. Well, [[OhCrap that in NOT the case for these guys]] because similar to the above Hell Knights, they don't have any weaknesses ''at all''. They can also resist physical and Fire attacks, absorb Electricity, have third-tier Zio spells, Marakunda, Matarukaja, and Tempest Slash. Yukari and Aigis (who has Dekunda) are total deadweights for this boss fight due to their Electricity weakness. Even worse, Mitsuru is not available until November 14 and the ''only'' party member who can tank Electricity, Akihiko, has very little in the way of damaging them, leaving him to Heal/Support duty. Unless you have a Persona/accessory that blocks Electricity, Dekaja, and/or Dekunda, either the boss fight becomes dragged down to a slog of gradually whittling each one down or you begin trying to experiment with Ice/Wind/Almighty attacks to fight back.

** Coming on the 110th Floor is the Natural Dancer, who packs both Garudyne and Magarudyne to pulverize anyone vulnerable to Wind (which Junpei is weak to) and Hamaon to randomly finish off anyone in one shot. It also has Sexy Dance backed with Charm Boost to cause discord within the party, and at this point your only means of curing Charm only affect one member at a time. Bringing Yukari, Ken, and/or a Persona/accessory that can resist or outright block Charm are almost mandated for this fight but at least it doesn't have Mind Charge and is vulnerable to Distress, though God help you if anyone in your party gets Charmed.

** ** Dante (Raidou) becomes tediously nightmarish during his game at the Third Kalpa. The Player is forced to navigate a labyrinth with a series of switches that must be activated to proceed, all while avoiding encountering him. The problem is Dante will pursue you across the whole Kalpa while constantly shooting at you if you are in his line of sight and within a certain range. Each shot staggers you, and he fires at a high rate and with minimal breaks, so getting too close essentially means you are already caught. When he tags you, Dante will score a free hit on you, kicking you back to the beginning, and he will reset ''all'' the switches. Fitting, considering he basically went through some similar puzzle levels in his own game, but still unpleasant. To top it off, at the end of the cat and mouse game, [[RecurringBoss it is another boss fight against him]] and this time he adds Almighty attacks (one of which comes with a chance of instant death). It's a big CatharsisFactor when you finally get around to recruiting him at the bottom of the Labyrinth of Amala, and you get to use his exact powerful skill set to sweep enemy mobs.