10 HARDEST Dungeons in Persona Games

10 Hardest Dungeons in Persona

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at the 10 hardest dungeons and Palaces we’ve endured throughout the “Persona” franchise.

Tziah

“Persona 3” (2006) & “Persona 3 Reload” (2024)

Don’t let this block’s brightly golden walls and floors fool you. You can get rich from the slightly higher spawn rate of Golden Shadows here, but the Tziah block of Tartarus is crawling with even more powerful Shadows than those that came before and those who will come after. Solid Castles, Minotaurs, and Arcane Turrets have the speed and power to potentially end your playthrough if you’re not careful. And given that the rooms are fairly wide, it can be easy for a Shadow to ambush you if you aren’t paying attention. Best keep your wits about you here.

Hollow Forest

“Persona 4” (2008)

The best way to describe the Hollow Forest is annoying and oppressive. While many “Persona” fans will sing their praises of “Persona 4”, the Hollow Forest silences most of it on account of how restrictive it is. Not only are you stripped entirely of your weapons, gear, and cash, the enemies lurking throughout this part of the game boast significant resistance to elemental attacks. Not only that, but after every battle, you and your party’s SP gets halved. Every. Single. Battle. You basically have to suck it up and brute force your way through this part.

Okumura’s Palace

“Persona 5” (2016)

If you aren’t one for elaborate puzzles, then you probably got filtered out of “Persona 5”midway into the game. Sure, some had a bit of trouble with the original iteration of the lock tumbler in Kaneshiro’s Palace. However, Okumura’s space station was mind-boggling to traverse. About midway through his Palace, you’ll start coming across passageways that can only be accessed with switches. The thing is that flipping those switches will close off other paths in the process. So, you have to keep track of which buttons you're pressing in order to make it to the next area. But don’t be surprised if you wind up getting turned around. Just remember to look at your map before you go changing the layout.

Alica Hiiragi’s Prison

“Persona 5 Strikers” (2021)

Whereas most of “Persona’s” dungeons are tough because of layouts and puzzles, Alice’s Prison in “Persona 5 Strikers” is difficult because of awful pacing. Just like in the mainline games, “Persona 5 Strikers” emphasizes the importance of exploiting enemy weaknesses through Skills, which require SP to use. Unlike the mainline games, Skills use up a TON of SP, thus limiting how often you can exploit weaknesses. To make matters worse, none of the shops within this first section of the game sell items to replenish SP save for a small amount of soda cans found in one particular vending machine. This ends up making Alice’s entire Prison a massive pain to suffer through, and it only becomes more frustrating when the game rewards you with a new mechanic: cooking food that restores SP. Why not introduce this sooner!?

Inaba Pride Exhibit

“Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth” (2014)

For those unfamiliar, “Persona Q” plays a bit like some of Atlus’s other games like “Shin Megami Tensei” and “Etrian Odyssey”. It’s more of a dungeon-crawler than the other “Persona” games, and you’ll find it to be just as tumultuous when you enter the Inaba Pride Exhibit. It’s bad enough that this dungeon’s layout is so haphazardly assembled that it becomes easy to get lost in. We suppose that’s appropriate for a game with the subtitle “Shadow of the Labyrinth”. But what really kills us is just how boring, repetitive, and frustrating the torch puzzles can get. Couple that with a bunch of overpowered FOEs, and you get a dungeon that kinda makes us want to drop “Persona Q”.

Xibalba

“Persona 2: Innocent Sin” (1999)

It’s funny seeing “Innocent Sin” on this list because shouldn’t “Eternal Punishment” be on here instead? We’ll get to it eventually, but Xibalba is definitely worth throwing onto this list. Composing of the party’s various fears, Xibalba places a heavy focus on environmental hazards and traps than most of “Persona’s” dungeons typically do. Some of the cast’s fears have even caused Shadows to appear with a hefty buff or two in some fashion such has having armored skin. Needless to say, you may wind up entering battles in very compromised conditions. So, try to stay on top of your HP and SP.

Yukiko’s Castle

“Persona 4” (2008)

Some may have a harder time getting through Shadow Rise’s dungeon, but Yukiko’s Castle has filtered many players despite being the first dungeon in “Persona 4”. You are incredibly limited on resources between what your party members can do and what items you have available to get yourself out of a bind. But that’s to be expected somewhat out of the early game portion. What isn’t expected is for the majority of Personas available to be absolute garbage. Regardless of what difficulty you’re playing on most of the Personas you can acquire inflict a pitiful amount of damage. You have no other option but to power through and really get your Personas to somewhat higher levels before you go facing Shadow Yukiko. Otherwise, you better come packing with some insane amounts of fire resistance.

Aerospace Museum

“Persona 2: Eternal Punishment” (2000)

Even though this dungeon is present in “Innocent Sin”, the version seen in “Eternal Punishment” is way more harrowing. Generally, the enemies and bosses seen here are stronger in attack power and way more aggressive than in “Innocent Sin”. On top of that, you have a different goal here than you did in “Innocent Sin”: find all of the missing kids within thirty minutes. Easier said than done as those thirty minutes count down in real-time even when you’re in the middle of combat. And if you manage to reach Sudou, the boss of the dungeon, be prepared to get afflicted by Old Maid a lot. Yeah, this makes “Innocent Sin” seem way more chill in comparison.

Maruki’s Palace

“Persona 5 Royal” (2020)

Okay, you’ve made it through Okumura’s Palace. Maybe you had issues, but switches and ever-changing layouts are now behind us, right? WRONG. Maruki’s Palace once again has you pushing buttons to change layouts, but it’s even more confusing than anything Okumura had going on. You now have to create colored light that will affect which paths are regrown and which are blocked off. Sure, changing the light to red will create a path to the exit, but it means nothing if it closes two paths leading to the exit. Honestly, there were more than a few occasions where we just started messing with dials mindlessly until something worked.

Thanatos Tower

“Revelations: Persona” (1996)

Is it really any surprise that that hardest dungeon in “Persona” history is from the very first game? This is from an era where properly balancing games wasn’t much of a thought in most developers’ heads. Regardless, Thanatos Tower has haunted many fans young and old since their initial playthrough. This is one of three towers you’ll have to endure when tackling the Snow Queen Quest, and it is going to be an intense test in fortitude. First off, the tower takes a minimum of three hours to finish. But what makes this tower insanely stressful is that if any of your party members die in combat and you have run out of what limited number of revives you’re allowed, they are removed from your party and sent all the way to Tartarus. Oh, and you cannot save - you have to finish the tower in a single sitting.

Were you able to conquer any of these dungeons yourself? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays.