The Shin Megami Tensei franchise has a lengthy catalog of demons to pit protagonists against, and Persona 5 is just another example. Inside the palaces and hidden around Mementos are enemies to demolish, but these enemies are more than just punching bags who need to level-up before the boss.
While Joker and his team have unique personas of their own, the demons they fight also have stories and lore from which they’re created. Acknowledging the origin stories and folklore these enemies come from is another way for players to acknowledge the detail that the franchise is known for.
10 Choronzon
First introduced as the Gathering Devil in other Shin Megami Tensei titles, Choronzon is a demon-like entity first written about in the 16th century. It was summoned by famed religious cultist Aleister Crowley in an attempt to gain the demon’s otherworldly knowledge for his own purposes. Crowley called Choronzon the dweller of the abyss, one with infinite knowledge into the ability to destroy human egos and prevent them from gaining spiritual enlightenment.
9 Lamia
Lamia, also called Slithering Snakewoman according to Persona 5, is directly linked to the Lamia of Greek Mythology. This Libyan queen fell in love with Zeus and fell victim to Zeus’s wife Hera’s jealous wrath. Hera murdered Lamia’s children, causing Lamia to fall into rage-filled despair. How did she handle this tragedy? By kidnapping and eating mortal children of course!
The Lamia of lore can often be found depicted eyeless, a rumored gift from Zeus so she could be free of the haunting image of her dead children forever. So maybe next time your Lamia uses the Ominous Words, one of many spells available in the game, to inflict despair upon your enemies, think about the story she might be telling them.
8 Rangda
Persona 5 isn’t kind with its description of Rangda as Dancing Witch, but what is even less kind about it is that it’s true. Rangda is a figure of Balinese folklore who is rumored to have been executed by a king for witchcraft. As a witchy figure, she took her revenge on the city by releasing a plague upon half of the population. She is fearsome, vengeful, and antagonistic in most interpretations, which makes her one of the most sought-after personas in the game.
7 Anzu
You first meet this lion-headed demon bird in Futaba’s palace, one of the most intricate and heartbreaking palaces in the game. Anzu is the personification of storms in Mesopotamian lore, depicted as either a birdlike entity or (as seen in Persona 5) a bird with a lion’s head. Anzu of myth stole the Tablets of Destinies and hid them on a mountain. If a brave soul could defeat the brutal and violent Anzu and recover the tablets, they would be gifted divine power over the gods of Mesopotamia. Defeating an Anzu in-game can give the player some aluminum sheets, a nod to the creature’s habit of snagging tablets from unsuspecting mortals.
6 White Rider
A skeleton on a horse is indicative of the Christian concept of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the White Rider is no exception. However, this pale horse isn’t representative of Death, but of Pestilence. The White Rider has a confusing history, depicted as both a liberator and a condemning force. Either way, the one thing both interpretations agree on is that White Rider is the one who brings sweeping conquest in the forms of internal strife and domestic warfare. This persona reflects curse damage because, if you believe in the Four Horsemen, Pestilence is the embodiment of curse itself.
5 Ippon-Datara
Not a lot is known about this persona, but what is known ears it a spot on this list. The Persona 5 version of the Ippon-Datara is the yokai (Japanese spirit) of a blacksmith said to have lost an eye from some stray flames and lost a leg from overworking the bellows in his forge.
The visual representation of this yokai changes from description to description, sometimes appearing more fleshy and organic and sometimes more metallic like the Persona 5 version. Once a year, it’s said that the Ippon-Datara goes on a rampage and will crush anyone it encounters under its single, giant foot. Maybe that’s why it favors physical attack moves.
4 Clotho
Clotho is the youngest of the three Fate sisters in Greek mythology in charge of spinning the thread of human life. She controls every human life from birth to death and influences the birth and death of gods. She had her hand in many conflicts in the Greek mythos, a few examples including Zeus’s murder of Asclepius and murdering two giants with a pair of bronze clubs. She’s persuasive, sneaky, and brutal in her methods. If you add her to your party, just remember that she ultimately controls your human fate. Be nice, will you?
3 Kelpie
This mad marsh horse comes from Celtic mythology where it haunts the waters of Scotland and Ireland searching for victims. The Kelpie’s physical form changes depend on which culture you ask, but there are three general features those cultures agree on: it’s a horse, its mane is dripping, and it absolutely wants to drown you and your children. It appears to be a lost horse and invites its victims to take a ride on its back. Once trapped, the deathly cold skin of the Kelpie binds to the victim, and the Kelpie retreats under the water to enjoy a hearty meal.
2 Lilim
You might know this creature’s mother, Lilith, as the Mother of Demons in Jewish texts. Lilim (or Lilin) is the plural name for Lilith’s children and are dangerous spirits that lure mortal men with their looks to kill them. They were also attributed with spikes of missing children and were accused of kidnapping kids to bring back to Lilith as gifts. Lilim’s role as a demonic force makes its weakness to bless attacks obvious to anyone who knows of its origin story.
1 Nue
The Nue is a spirit of illness and nightmare from Japanese folklore. The body of the creature consists of features from a tiger, monkey, tanooki (Japanese raccoon dog), and snake to form, as Persona 5 calls it, a Night Chimera. The story of the Nue says a king got terrible nightmares every night and whenever he would have these nightmares, a suspicious storm cloud would appear over the castle. The king ordered his guards to shoot the cloud down, and when they did, a dying Nue plummeted to Earth and the nightmares ceased. So if you ever have nightmares and a mysterious cloud appears overhead, it might just be a Nue coming to cause trouble.
NEXT: Why Persona 5 Royal Is Worth The Playthrough After Finishing Persona 5
