Sae Nijima is the sixth major target of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts inPersona 5 Royal. Nijima’s desperation to winhas formed a Palace in her mind, and the Thieves hope that destroying it will help her to see the danger of the true culprit behind the psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns.
However, Nijima knows full well that she could be a target of the Thieves, so her Shadow is thoroughly prepared for their arrival. While the Thieves can head straight for the boss battlewith no side encounters during the Treasure run, they’ll have to figure out her tricks if they want a chance to defeat her.
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Let It Ride
When the battle begins, the party gets one free set of attacks against Shadow Nijima. After that, Nijima will start the roulette table spinning. If any characterattacks or debuffs Nijimawhile the ball is in motion, she’ll respond with a penalty that will knock the offending character’s HP down to 1.
After spinning for a round, players will get a chance to place a bet. They can choose a safe bet (red or black) or a risky bet (one of three sets of numbers). The currency of the bet flashes on the screen behind Nijima, and it can be HP, SP, or money. Players should always pick the safe bet for this first choicesince (as usual) Nijima is cheating.
For a moment, the ball will seem to hover over a good space, but then land in a bad space next to it. Morgana will comment on this, and to exit this phase players should choose the following dialog options:
Players who make the wrong choice will get another chance after the next spin, but they’ll continue to lose until then.
Once the glass lid is identified, Joker can order a teammate to snipe it during the next spin. Players should choose the risky bet on this round, since they’re guaranteed to win it. However, turning the tables will infuriate Nijima and begin the next phase of the battle.
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Leviathan Unleashed
As expected from sisters, Sae Nijima’s Shadow form, Leviathan, has the same gunmetal aestheticas Mokoto’s Persona and outfit. However, her twisted desires have made her Shadow vicious and ugly.
With that said, Nijima’s roulette gimmick is still in effect, though the form it takes has shifted. Instead of numbers and colors, the wheel now displays the various elements used inPersona 5 Royal. When Roulette Time triggers, the ball will randomly choose an element, and this will be the element Leviathan uses for her first attack each round. In addition, Leviathan will repel any attack of the same element and resist every other element except the one that opposes it. For reference, the pairs are Fire-Ice, Electricity-Wind, Nuke-Psy, and Bless-Curse.
If a character in the active party is weak to the chosen element, Leviathan will always target them first, and this can include Joker. On the other hand, the weak character is also guaranteed to have the damage type that hits Leviathan’s (relative) weakness, so it might be worth keeping them in the party even if Joker has the Star ability that lets him pull them out. To get around this, consider handing out accessories that grant access to other elemental skills, or try to get Leviathan to focus ona character who has 10 Confidant ranksand thus the right Evade skill.
Either way, once Leviathan’s HP drop to around the halfway mark, she’ll spin the roulette wheel one last time and land on Almighty. She will then immediately use the skill Berserker Dance and deal severe Almighty damage to everyone, so keep everyone’s HP up so they can survive this blow. Fortunately, she only uses her ultimate attack once.
For the rest of the fight, Leviathan will exclusively use Physical and Gun skills like Gatling Gun and Severing Slash, and she’ll also lose all her affinities. Players are now free to hit her with anything they like, because Nijima is fully enraged and all out of gimmicks.
After the fight, the game will reach the point it was at when it began, and players must choose their words carefully if they want to avoid the worst ending.Getting the best endingis beyond the scope of this guide, but here’s a quick bit of advice: a true Phantom Thief never sells out their allies, no matter the price.
Persona 5 Royalis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
