Sae Niishima is the sixth target of the Phantom Thieves of Heart in Persona 5 Royal. Nijima’s desire for victory has formed a palace in her mind, and Rogue hopes that destroying it will help her see the danger of her mental breakdown and the real culprit behind it.
However, Nijima is well aware that she could be a target for thieves, so her shadow is well prepared for their arrival. While rogues can head straight to the boss fight during the treasure run without encountering bystanders, they’ll have to figure out her tricks if they want to have any chance of defeating her.
Let it ride
At the beginning of the battle, the team can attack the Shadow Rainbow Island for free. Afterwards, Nijima began to spin the roulette table. If any character attacks or debuffs Nijima while the ball is in motion, she will respond with a penalty, reducing the offending character’s HP to 1.
After spinning a round, players will have the opportunity to place bets. They can choose a safe bet (red or black) or a risky bet (one of three sets of numbers). The bet currency flashed on the screen behind Nido, it could be HP, SP, or money. Players should always choose a safe bet for the first choice, because (as usual) Nijima is cheating.
For a moment, the ball appears to be hovering over a good space, but then lands in a bad space next to it. Morgana will comment on this, to exit this phase the player should select the following dialogue option :
Of course I have. There is a glass cover. Players who make a wrong choice will get another chance after the next spin, but they will keep losing until then.
Once the glass cover is identified, the Joker can order his teammates to snipe it on the next spin. Players should choose risky bets in this round because they are guaranteed to win. However, turning the tide will anger Nijima and start the next phase of the fight.
leviathan unleashed
As expected from the sisters, Sae Niijima’s shadow form Leviathan has the same bronze aesthetic as Mokoto’s character and gear. However, her twisted desires make her shadow vicious and ugly.
That being said, Nijima’s roulette gimmick still works, although the form it takes has changed. Instead of numbers and colors, the roulette shows various elements used in Persona 5 Royal Edition. When the roulette time triggers, the ball will randomly choose an element, which will be the element Leviathan uses for his first attack each round. In addition, Leviathan will repel any attack of the same element, and resist all other elements except the one that opposes it. For reference, the pairings are Fire-Ice, Electric-Wind, Nuke-Psy, and Bless-Curse.
If a character in the active party is weak to the chosen element, the Leviathan will always target them first, which may include the Joker. The underdogs, on the other hand, are also sure to take damage types that hit Leviathan’s (relative) weaknesses, so it’s worth keeping them in the team even though the Joker has star powers that let him pull them out. To get around this, consider handing out accessories that can use other elemental skills, or try to focus the Leviathan on characters that have 10 chum levels and thus have the correct dodge skill.
Either way, once Leviathan’s HP drops to about half, she’ll spin the wheel one last time and land on Almighty. She will then immediately use her Furious Dance ability to deal all-powerful slam damage to everyone, so everyone must maintain HP to survive this blow. Fortunately, her ultimate attack was only used once.
For the rest of the fight, Leviathan will only use physical and gun skills like the Gatling Gun and Slash, and she also loses all Affinities. Players can now hit her however they want, since Nijima is already enraged, and it’s completely free of gimmicks.
After the battle, the game returns to where it started, and players must choose their words carefully if they want to avoid the worst possible outcome. Getting the best ending is beyond the scope of this guide, but here are some quick tips : True Phantom Rogues will never sell out their allies, no matter the price.
Persona 5 Royal is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.