6 Hardest Dungeons in Persona Games

The Persona series has become a fan-favorite franchise that does massive numbers every time Atlus graces the gaming public with a new entry. It wasn’t always this way, but the developer has slowly improved on the original formula, giving fans exceptional relationship-building through Social Links and challenging combat to master. Speaking to the latter, the Persona series has dropped a few incredibly difficult dungeons over the years that have given players fits.

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Here are the six hardest dungeons in the history of Persona.

6) Okumura’s Palace – Persona 5

This dungeon isn’t so hard if you’re just talking about fighting. Sure, there are a few tough enemies you’ll need to take down, but the real challenge in Okumura’s Palace is its labyrinthian layout. About halfway through the dungeon, you’ll start to come across areas that can only be activated with switches.

That might not seem like a big deal, but every time you flip a switch, it’ll also close off another path. You have to keep a mental map of each switch you’ve flipped so you don’t get lost. That said, you’re probably going to do exactly that, which will leave you wandering endlessly as you try to find your way out of this puzzling dungeon.

5) Hollow Forest – Persona 4

Hollow Forest takes things in a different direction from most dungeons in Persona 4. Here, pretty much everything is restricted. The developers take away your weapons and gear. Heck, they don’t even leave with any cash. There are dozens of enemies waiting around the corner, and most of them have elemental resistances, making them even more deadly without your normal kit.

It gets even worse, though. After every single battle, your party will instantly lose half of their SP. That means you also won’t be able to use many of your special attacks, making those fights even more of a slog.

4) Maruki’s Palace – Persona 5 Royal

Maruki’s Palace is kind of like Okumaru’s Palace on steroids. This time, you also have to figure out a specific path through the level by pressing buttons. As you press them, you’ll create a path lit by a colored light. This light grows certain areas, but also blocks others off, similarly to the switches in Okumaru’s Palace.

This place takes that to a dizzying place with how many options there are. Granted, you can use a guide to quickly get through this Palace or Okamaru’s, but if you’re trying to finish this one without a guide, you’re probably going to spend a few hours pressing buttons until you get lucky.

3) Yukiko’s Castle – Persona 4

Yukiko’s Castle might be the first dungeon in Persona 4, but that doesn’t mean Atlus is going to take it easy on you. That’s because you start P4 without many options or resources. You just don’t have access to most of the better Persona options, which limits what your squad can do to fight back against some of the more difficult enemies.

Plus, you don’t have a ton of items yet, so you can easily get yourself into a bind. The worst part of all this is that the Personas you can grab inside the castle are trash-tier options that don’t help to mitigate the difficulty at all. Power-leveling is essentially required if you want to beat Shadow Yukiko.

2) Aerospace Museum – Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

To be clear, this is specifically the version of the dungeon available in Eternal Punishment. Technically, it’s also available in Innocent Sin, but the EP version of the dungeon is much more difficult. The enemies hit harder and are much more aggressive, which means you’re much more likely to get hit with a quick death.

Oh, and don’t forget that you’re fighting under a thirty-minute timer to rescue all of the missing kids. That timer also doesn’t stop during combat, so you’ll want to get through each fight as quickly as possible, which is much easier said than done. It also doesn’t help that the boss fight is one of the hardest in the second Persona.

1) Thanatos Tower – Revelations: Persona

This might be the first game in the Persona series, but this is still the hardest dungeon Atlus has ever made for the series. Part of that is because this game came out in 1996, back when balance was much more of an afterthought for developers. They wanted you to spend hours playing their game, so they turned up the difficulty all over the place.

Besides that, Thanatos Tower has a few devilish design decisions waiting for you. Your revives are very limited, so expect to lose party members as you work your way up the tower. You also cannot save, so you need to do everything in one try. It’s such a slog, and it almost feels like Atlus doesn’t want anyone to finish it.

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