Persona 5 Royal has dumbed the game down in many ways. However, one of the most sinister boss encounters of Persona 5, the Okumura boss, was made even more challenging by introducing turn-based resets and mechanics not present in any other battle.
We have some tips to dispense if you’re having trouble beating Okumura in the original Persona 5 or the Royal rerelease.
How to Beat Okumura in Persona 5
Most of the Okumura boss fight occurs through fighting his minions, while Okumura only issues status buffs, attack orders, or deploys debuffs to your team; that goes for both versions of the game.
In the original game, Okumura is a bit of a weird boss, but not unkillable. The main thing you have to worry about is the self-destruct sequences that Okumura issues from time to time. These deal incredible AoE damage, so the team needs to focus on that minion and bring it down to prevent a member from getting nearly one-shot.
There are five ‘ordinary’ minions in waves:
- Small blue “MDL-WKR” is weak to Fire and Wind and resists everything else.
- Small yellow ones “MDL-CH” are vulnerable to Ice and Psi but resist everything else.
- The tall red “MDL-AM” are weak to Electric, Wind, Bless, and Nuke damage and resist all other damage.
- The tall blue “MDL-DM” are weak to Bless, Electric, or Wind while resisting other types.
- The large green “MDL-GM” is vulnerable to Curse and Psi damage and resistant to other types.
Due to minion weaknesses, the best characters to use in the fight are Haru, Morgana, and Ryuji. They cover most of the minion damage types while providing necessary healing and debuffs. Joker should also have Electric and Psi Personas or fusions at the ready.
The wave pattern is largely DPS-oriented. Since Okumura will periodically give an enemy a Sacrifice Order (self-destruct sequence), you should focus on that enemy while whittling down everything else. Okumura readily replaces downed minions with stronger ones until you beat six waves of minions.
The final minion (Executive Director) you face is alone and doesn’t have a Sacrifice Order, but is also not weak or strong to any damage types. At this point, Okumura can apply Famine’s Breath or Famine’s Scream periodically. These abilities apply Hunger to one or all characters, respectively, which lowers their attack.
The Exec Director focuses on Haru in the fight (who is more or less mandatory due to her being the only Psi-damage character other than Joker) and has a powerful Big Bang Order for a significant AoE damage burst. When combined with Okumura’s defense-lowering debuff, it can easily one-shot a character.
Luckily, the Big Bang Order is telegraphed a turn in advance, and any characters who are Hungry debuffed when they get hit are fully healed and their debuff removed. Unfortunately, high-Confidant characters can randomly remove Hunger, which makes the fight more unpredictable.
As a general strategy, use more defensive measures like healing and guarding before each Big Bang Order. The Exec has mostly a DPS and stalling strategy, so keep the boss fight timer in mind.
Once the Exec is destroyed, Okumura itself doesn’t attack or cast skills and can be defeated with a few physical attacks in a single turn.
How to Beat Okumura in Persona 5 Royal
In Persona 5 Royal, this boss fight seems like it’s made needlessly more difficult.
While the general outline of the first few waves remains the same, with the same minions to go through, you have to finish entire minion waves in two turns after they appear. Otherwise, they’ll run away and get replaced with an identical wave, which wastes time and moves. Okumura also orders minions to attack a single character each turn, which can cause them to lose all HP due to being the primary focus.
Increasing the difficulty to Merciless can get you through these minions faster since it increases the damage from striking weaknesses. However, it can also make the Exec much more challenging as a result.
A wave of four green (GM) robots is the biggest downfall for most players, especially if Okumura orders a Sacrifice and buffs the same minion’s defense. This combination makes it almost impossible to destroy him in time while abiding by the wave turn timers.
For this fight, you’ll need to Baton Pass onto Joker or Haru if you want to have any chance of killing these minions in time. Don’t use AoE attacks on weaker opponents so that you have an opportunity at Baton Passing while your crew is relatively safe.
After beating the Exec, which follows mostly the same rules, there’s an additional combat section against a robot Haru. She’ll get a Sacrifice Order fairly quickly and has an insanely high health pool. Heal up your team and guard on the final turn rather than attacking.
After Robo-Haru dies, Okumura is the same pushover as in the base game.
Beating Okumura in P5 and P5R Is No Easy Feat
Okumura is one of the most notorious bosses in Persona 5, especially in the Royal rerelease due to frustrating wave reset mechanics. Make sure not to save after you’ve entered the palace, or you might be stuck with a bad team to take him on.
How did you beat Okumura in Persona 5? Let us know in the comment section below.
