The Shin Megami Tensei series, in addition to its share of challenging bosses that give Atlus its "We get off on your tears" reputation, also has bosses that aren't likely to crush you into human burger in one turn but can still be tests of patience and sanity.
Shin Megami Tensei NINE:
- During Chapter 3, you fight multiple groups of Gaias [sic] and their Legions. The first one is fairly straightforward, but the second one can get annoying fast. You have 8 targets to defeat, and while they don't deal much damage on their own, they make up for it in stunlocking capability — the Gaias use Happy Trigger to inflict Panic on the entire party, while the Legions spam Panic Voice and Fool's Voice. It's entirely possible to end up spending entire turns with a majority of your party immobilized.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne:
- Mara. Once you hit him, he'll use Diarahan EVERY SINGLE TURN unless you can kill him before he uses it. That means you have to burn through his 2300 HP in one turn. Hope you have Bright Might or can steal Mara's MP because unlike most RPGs, bosses in this game don't have infinite MP!
- Mada in the Diet Building. Mada absorbs physical attacks, is not weak to ice (though his appearance suggests otherwise), is easily able to inflict panic on everyone with his Intoxicate skill, and can summon two Pazuzu demons who heal him. His main attack also deals huge physical damage to the party and he can lower your party's combat performance with Debilitate.
- If you prepare for the fight, Noah becomes this. He's a Barrier Change Boss that changes what element will affect him every turn (Not his weakness, which element doesn't get nullified), followed by a high damage elemental attack (One enemy at a time for the first phase, full party spells during the second phase). And you can't get around this by using Almighty spells, as he's one of two bosses in the game that resists it. If you have all the elemental spells, the battle merely becomes a test of endurance and how much MP you can conserve. If you don't have all the elemental spells, well...
- Should you decide to complete the Labyrinth of Amala before entering the Tower of Kagutsuchi, you are locked into the True Demon Ending but you can get Pierce on the Main Character. Freikugel is a Physical-based Almighty attack that can benefit from Pierce's passive effect of going through resist, Null, and Drain physical like it's non-existent. Combine the two and you have an attack and passive skill combination that Noah cannot defend himself against.
- The Devil May Cry/Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha cameo battles, both times (International versions of the game get Dante while the Japanese Special Edition has Raidou Kuzunoha). The first battle with either cameo is mandatory regardless of which ending you're going for and the cameos love using a Physical skill that not only has an insanely high crit rate, but is also impossible to dodge!
- Matador can be this if you have a party of demons that is resistant to force and have ingested the Force-resistant Hifumi Magatama. The good news is that Matador is unlikely to do much damage to your party with Mazan, and if he hits any demon that nulls the element, his turn will end. The bad news is that his Red Capote skill immediately buffs his hit/evasion to his maximum possible level, making it more likely that you'll miss him and not only do no damage, but lose two Press Turn icons, and is rather difficult to counter even if you try to debuff him. What you have left is a boss that will do minimum damage to you but is rather difficult to hit himself.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey:
- Captain Jack. If you can't deal damage fast enough between his rounds of healing roughly 1,000 HP, you might as well reset and either rearrange your demons or go grinding.
Shin Megami Tensei IV:
- The optional Fiends, which require nothing short of sheer determination to summon. Even if you know where they appear, they still have a measly 1/256 chance of appearing every time you enter the area they're in. It can take hundreds of attempts over hours or even days just to get a particular Fiend to show up. Additionally, Fiends are absolutely brutal bosses, and if you get clobbered, you have to either pay Charon to revive you on the spot (which guarantees their reappearance), or if you can't afford that, have to slog through the process of summoning them all over again.
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse:
- Izanami. She isn't particularly hard to defend against even if you immediately go after her as soon as her respective sidequest opens up; as long as you have a good demon composition and use your secondary partner Hiroshi's abilities strategically (his attack can remove Smirk), she's not terribly hard to defend against. The main issue is that she has Diarahan, a fully-healing spell; if you can't damage her fast enough, she will eventually use it and undo all of your efforts.
- In the main storyline, Azrael. Not too terrible a boss on his own, but simply getting to him is a pain. After the last point where you can save before him, you have to watch a four scene long cutscene. After that, there's a two part Horde fight. Only after beating the second Horde can you fight Azrael, who has two phases, gives no Assist Gauge for your party for plot reasons, and switches between reflecting physical and magic each turn, and not following his pattern can easily cost you a set of turns. If you do lose, you start over at the cutscenes and Hordes.
- Some of the Fiends try to stall the fight so they can kick you out after ten turns, forcing you to got through their sections of Twisted Tokyo again. Three take the cake:
- David, the first Fiend. In his second phase, he keeps using Makarakarn each turn, covering his weakness. Couple that with his unique debuff Haunting Rhapsody, and it might take numerous trips to beat him.
- Black Rider, the fifth Fiend. His unique Stance move takes off two Press Turns instead of one, and he comes with Calibrate, which buffs hit/evade rate by three, and Dekaja, removing all buffs. If you let him Smirk, he uses Antichthon, dealing heavy damage and debuffing your party.
- The DLC Fiend: En no Ozuno. Unlike the rest of the Fiends, En no Ozuno is a Puzzle Boss that remains annoying each fight. He hits hard and can counter attacks with Peacock Incantation. Also, in his second phase, fully buff his defense and hit/evade rate with Goki's Water Wall. Finally, he has Dekaja. He's weak to Physical, but countering his buffs and resetting your own buffs will waste your turns, forcing you to trek through the longest part of Twisted Tokyo numerous times.
Shin Megami Tensei V:
- The boss battle in "The Compassionate Queen" quest on the Law route has you fighting against Maria. On one hand, she only has one Press Turn and one skill she can use. On the other hand, the said skill is Diarahan, which is guaranteed to heal her to max HP whenever she uses it. The battle against her is less of a battle than a drawn-out test to see if you can kill her in one given turn, generally requiring multiple rounds of buffing your party and debuffing her until you are sure that you can deal enough damage to her. If you can do so, then its probably the single easiest fight in the entire game, but if you can't, it becomes practically unwinnable.
- Vasuki isn't as tough to fight as Odin or Zeus, who are both brawlers who can last a good while, but what makes his fight frustrating is a combination of having three turns (Odin and Zeus only have two), and his debuff focused move set. He loves to spam charm, poison, and other debuffing skills, making the fight a slog as you have to constantly remove debuffs. He only has ice and weak physical skills, but between debuffing you and slowly killing you, he's arguably the hardest of the three not because of a tough moveset, but just annoying skills.
- Thoth, an Abscess guardian in North Shinagawa, uses Matarunda to debuff your entire party's attack and Diarama to heal himself for most of his health. His Megido is damaging, but it's less of a problem than him dragging out the fight long enough for you to exhaust your SP and items.
