Mot: The Worst Boss in Shin Megami Tensei III

Atlus has a reputation for making difficult bosses, so much so that TV Tropes' That One Boss page has an entire section dedicated to Atlus' games. Mot, a late-game boss in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, is an especially noteworthy example of this kind of boss, as well as a boss that is difficult in all the wrong ways.

To begin with, Mot most infamously (ab)uses Beast Eye to give himself turns, something that requires an explanation of Shin Megami Tensei's Press Turn system to fully understand. Every round, you get one Press Turn icon for every demon that is still alive and spend one icon for every action, which is simple enough. Passing a turn to the next demon will cost half an turn icon, which causes the leftmost turn icon to flash (or disappear if it is already flashing), while a critical hit or an attack on an enemy's weakness will similarly only expend half a turn icon for the action- getting criticals can extend your turn, but eventually, your turn will end. Missing attacks or hitting enemy weaknesses are punished by the loss of multiple turn icons, often ending that side's turn.

When Mot uses Beast Eye, he receives two additional flashing icons, no strings attached. This is not entirely unusual, as bosses and even some normal enemies can use Beast Eye and its twice as powerful variant, Dragon Eye, but Mot sometimes uses Beast Eye multiple times in one turn. When he does, this can result in Mot repeatedly powering himself up and killing the player before they can fight back, as seen in this video.

This wouldn't be that much of a problem if Mot didn't have dangerous moves to use against you, but these moves mean that he will use his ill-gotten terms quite efficiently.

• Megidolaon: A powerful Almighty attack that hits all your party members and cannot be resisted. The only good thing is that if it misses any party member, Mot loses two turn icons.
• Makakaja: A spell that buffs Mot's magical attack. The more times he casts it without being dispelled or debuffed, the more powerful he becomes.
• Diarama: A moderate-strength cure spell that can recover hundreds of health per cast- at least a fifth of Mot's maximum HP.
• Avenge: If attacked, Mot will often retaliate with a physical attack.
• Dekunda: Removes all debuffs cast on Mot.

None of these abilities are necessarily bad on their own, but they synergize well with each other. A Megidolaon cast after a few Makakaja casts can easily wipe out an adequately leveled party. Dekunda wipes out all your hard work debuffing him in one fell swoop, and since debuffs are important to gain an edge, this can be problematic. Similarly, Diarama can undo your progress in whittling down Mot's health bar, causing the fight to drag on longer and making it more likely that you will exhaust your finite SP reserves, since magical attacks are not only the only way to avoid Avenge, but the only way to do significant amounts of damage to him.

The last, and arguably worst, part is Mot's resistances. He has 90% resistance to all physical attacks, meaning that since he can cure himself and counterattack, using physical skills is not viable. Unfortunately, neither are most of the elements- he takes no damage from fire, is healed by ice and reflects force damage back at the caster. He's weak against electricity, but in order to utilize it, you must recruit or fuse a demon with powerful electricity spells. Many bosses require specific team compositions- for example, Matador requires a team that resists force- but Mot takes it to another level. If you go in blind, you're practically guaranteed to lose.

In short, Mot represents the worse aspects of Shin Megami Tensei's boss design, being a boss that is practically impossible to defeat without tailoring your party to the challenge and can still easily turn the tables on you if you're well-prepared. There's a thin line between challenge and frustration in games, and Mot clearly falls on the latter side.