Summary
As you battle Kingdoms inPersona 5 Tactica, the tactical strategy RPG spin-off ofPersona 5, you’ll come to face their rules in massive showdowns. You spend the entirety of the time in the Kingdom hearing about how these rulers have ruined lives, and boss fights are your time to do something about it.
By the time you reach these P5T boss battles, you’re ready to do something to put an end to their corruption and help the local rebellion trying to take them down and make them repent. Below, we’ve ranked all the boss battles in Persona 5 Tactica.
This article contains major spoilers for end-game content in Persona 5 Tactica.
Vice-Principal Nakabachi
The Blackmailing “Ruler” Of The Third Kingdom
When you first get tothe Nakabachi Kingdomin Persona 5 Tactica, the entire atmosphere is suffocating. You soon meet a troupe of students who’ve sworn to take down (redacted) – you can’t quite make out the name they’re saying.
Eventually, Toshiro collecting key items helps to jog his memory, and he’s able to point the finger at Nakabachi, the vice-principal of the school. Nakabachi was a music teacher who was very suddenly and suspiciously promoted to vice-principal, and Toshiro and fellow student council member, Eri Natsuhara, have heard many reports from students that Nakabachi is blackmailing them.
And though you think you’ve pieced together the entire story before the boss fight against Nakabachi, something about it still feels underwhelming, even with the speakers popping in to insist on rules. He’s a variation of the sumo enemy you’ve fought several times before, and while getting to him can be tricky, it’s still not enough newness to feel unique.
Of course, that may be in part because Nakabachi wasn’t the true ruler of that Kingdom, but more on that in a different entry on this list.
Lady Marie
Dying To Say “I Do”
The very first Kingdom ruler you meet in Persona 5 Tactica, Lady Marie makes her enormous presence seen and felt everywhere throughout her Kingdom. She’s a huge fuchsia bride who’s been planning the “perfect wedding” for herself despite not having a groom, until you’ve finished rescuing your friends and realize that she does indeed have someone in mind – Toshiro Kasukabe, the meek man you rescued from the castle prison during one of your infiltrations.
Though you’ve technically been fighting Lady Marie all along as you battled to free your friends from her hypnotic control, the fight against Lady Marie herself doesn’t waste time with any Legionnaire cronies. Marie gets right to the point, more than ready to fight you herself by the time you reach her.
And though she’s the very first boss fight of the game, the battle against her feels a bit bland. Relying on her bouquet grenades is enjoyable, but trying to attack while she’s zig-zagging about the field with her tank and luring her to specific spots on the board so Toshiro can drop things on her from above is tricky.
The entire battle and the scenes after you’ve defeated Lady Marie are all a neat hint at what’s to come later on in the game, but for the moment, defeating her kind of leaves you with more questions than it actually answers.
Lord Yoshiki
Giving Two-Faced A Whole New Meaning
We’ll definitely give it to the devs on Persona 5 Tactica – Lord Yoshiki is sort of terrifying. The very first time you see the looming green Buddha in the Yoshiki Kingdom, there’s already something unsettling about his dazed, docile face.
And then that facade splits down the middle and his red, angry face comes jutting from the center.
Lord Yoshiki is the manifestation of Toshiro’s dad, a career politician who’s spent decades insisting his son become the same. He’s the one who arranged Toshiro’s engagement to Marie in an effort to secure her family’s money, completely without regard for his son.
In fact, Yoshiki is shown in shadow in the first few moments of the game, laughing sadistically about how his son would never stand up for himself.
But like Toshiro perceives his father to be above reproach, the boss fight against Lord Yoshiki is extended due to the fact that Yoshiki is at the end of the stage on a tough-to-reach platform, using other Legionnaires like pawns to get in your way as you approach. You’ll need to make your way to him a few times before he finally goes down, but the chaos that ensues after his defeat is almost worth the struggle to defeat him alone.
Salmael
Another God Of Control
How entirely like a Persona game to introduce an egomaniacal god in the end of the game, who admits to having been in control of the entire twisted adventure so far. After defeating the true boss of the third Kingdom, you come face to face with Salmael, an absolutely colossal ethereal being holding his own head who arrives to tell you he’s created these tests for Toshiro to squander his spirit of rebellion.
To get to Salmael, you’ll first need to get through several tough end-game battles, using everything you’ve learned about Persona 5 Tactica so far to deliver the hardest hits in as few turns as possible with limited Cover.
And then, even once you’ve done this, every few Missions will be a second iteration of all three boss fights you’ve finished until then – first Lady Marie, then Lord Yoshiko, and then the creepy Eri marionette.
By the time you reach Salmael, you’ll have gone through the ringer, but the fight against him is interesting enough to keep you on your toes. You’ll need to struggle against constantly moving platforms making strategizing difficult as they keep adjusting, a spire whose attack is impossible to evade without performing an All-Out Attack on it, and a bevy of Legionnaires trying to prevent you from inflicting damage onto Salmael, who’s yourrealtarget in all of this.
The fight against him feels like a worthy close to the game, requiring everything you know about strategizing to finish. Once you’ve mastered how to use the platforms to your advantage and map out where to send your Thieves (and Toshiro, provided he survives) to inflict the most damage possible to take down this demonic demigod.
Shadow Toshiro And Eri Natsuhara
Where The Boss Fight Is Against Your Terrifying Memory
By the time you’ve entered the boss fight with Vice-Principal Nakabachi, you’ve probably already deduced that he may not actually be the leader of the Kingdom with whom the rebels are so upset. And not long after his defeat, you’re introduced to the true ruler of the third Kingdom – Shadow Toshiro, who can’t stop blaming himself for Nakabachi having a mental break and shoving real-life Eri Natsuhara onto the subway tracks as a train approached the station.
The Phantom Thieves do their best to follow Toshiro as he goes to confront his shadow Self, and though the fight against Shadow Toshiro himself is relatively straightforward enough, it’s the second stage of the fight thatreallytakes the cake.
After you’ve defeated him, Shadow Toshiro pulls out one last ace up his sleeve – the enormous, gory, haunting marionette incarnation of Eri Natsuhara as, we can assume, Toshiro recalls her looking immediately after the train incident.
She rises from the abyss beyond the Kingdom and looms in the sky, attacking everyone on the team but calling out Toshiro specifically throughout the fight
Not only is the battle against her interesting, but the scene that plays immediately after she goes down of Toshiro finally being able to save her and forgive himself is one of the most heartwarming of the game. The symbolism in the clock ticking to 6:01 after the battle is something that’s sure to stick with players long after the end credits roll on Persona 5 Tactica.
