In every good JRPG, there is that villain who stands above the rest and torments the main cast in a way that no one else can. The likes of Sephiroth, the Tyrant from Resident Evil, and so on are among those villains. And it happens that Persona 5 has its own villain in the form of Suguru Kamoshida. I aim to break down this monstrosity of a person in this Kamoshida Persona 5 guide.
Suguru Kamoshida is the first villain you’ll ever meet in Persona 5, and, arguably, the best villain in the main storyline, outside of the Persona 5 Royal content. His content in the game is meant to be a tutorial of sorts for the rest of the massive adventure, the tighter focus on his storyline and the more personal nature of it made it the most substantial part of the story in the base game. Find out more about this and how to defeat him in this Kamoshida Persona 5 guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
Suguru Kamoshida is the first core villain in Persona 5. He is the volleyball coach at Shujin Academy, where most of the main cast of the Phantom Thieves attend. He torments the students under his tutelage, abusing them, and even harassing them with no care in the world and no one to stop him due to his talent.
The Phantom Thieves make him their first target in hopes of avenging the students he victimized and liberating the others still under his control. He is the ruler of the first Palace in Persona 5.
Kamoshida Overview
I remember booting up Persona 5 for the first time even to this day, many years later after its release. Within a couple of hours, I was introduced to the characters and plot, and already diving deep into the Palace of Kamoshida. I was immediately engrossed in this surprisingly dark and twisted storyline.
There were only a few villains in gaming that I had the sort of seething rage for like I did with Suguru Kamoshida at this point. And, honestly, none of the other villains who would come after him in the story lived up to his heights. He was a menace unlike any other in the Persona series and still, to this day, hasn’t been topped.
As someone who appreciated the darker, grim storyline of Persona 3 over the sometimes lighthearted one in 4, the Kamoshida storyline gave me immense hope for what Persona 5 had to offer. Unfortunately, it was the only storyline on this level of darkness outside of Royal.
Still to this day, I consider the first section of Persona 5, which is technically the tutorial, with the tight-knit Kamoshida storyline to be the best part of the original Persona 5 plot. It is what players need to experience the most in this game, as it will hook and keep you engaged for the rest of the adventure. But he needs to be taken down, and here’s what you need to know about Kamoshida to do so.
Appearance
Suguru Kamoshida is regarded as a younger, handsome teacher in Persona 5. That is why he thinks he can get away with everything that he does to his students, with his decent set of hair and attractive smirk. He is also said to be quite tall, at roughly seven feet tall in person.
Oddly enough, Kamoshida has one of the simplest forms of a Shadow version in the Metaverse. The ruler version of himself is simply almost naked, minus some underwear, a crown, a scepter, and a pink cloak. This is to signify that, unlike the later villains, he has nothing to hide and is a monster in the real world without caring about keeping it a secret.
Key Moments in the Series
Kamoshida is the first villain in Persona 5, so there aren’t going to be too many spoilers here for the bulk of the main plot. That said, this is the best single section of the base Persona 5 story, so you are doing yourself a disservice if you spoil this section without playing it first yourself.
If you haven’t already, turn away now and beat the first Palace. Then read this below for an outline of the key moments for Kamoshida in Persona 5. Before we start, though, I want to give a trigger warning for everything that comes after this. If triggering subjects like abuse, sexual harassment, and even more acts bother you, you may want to turn away now.
Destroying Ryuji’s Future
Prior to the start of the Persona 5 story, there are events that happen before Joker even steps foot in Shujin Academy. Kamoshida takes over at the school as one of the students who graduated from there and went on to become an Olympic gold medalist in the volleyball sport.
As such, his hiring as the coach of his alumnus’ volleyball team is a no-brainer for the school, and they let him have free rein on the entire school grounds. Given his status and fame, he feels like he can do whatever he wants, which is why he takes the matter of his team into his own hands. Literally.
He begins spreading rumors about the other students in the school to harm their chances and make his team look better. One such person is Phantom Thieves member, Ryuji Sakamoto, who Kamoshida abuses and targets since he is part of the track team and not his volleyball squad.
In the end, Kamoshida ruins the bright future and career of Ryuji by taunting him until Ryuji goes on the offense and attacks the teacher. This allowed Kamoshida to act in “self-defense” and break Ryuji’s leg, putting his sports dreams at an end.
Harassing and Abusing the Volleyball Team
But Kamoshida didn’t stop with finishing off Ryuji. He turned his eyes to his volleyball team, abusing the males and forcing them to work harder than they humanly can to meet his goals. As for the females, he subjects them to sexual harassment on a continuous basis.
Ann Takamaki, one of the other Phantom Thieves, and her best friend, Shiho Suzui, are two of the volleyball players who are subjected to this. He makes Ann take him out on dates and tries to make moves on her, despite the fact that there is no consent and she is not of legal age to even offer that in the first place.
In addition, Yuuki Mishima, one of the Confidants in Persona 5, is his lackey. He abuses Mishima and forces him to spread lies about specific students that reject Kamoshida’s violent acts. Horrible events happen throughout the game’s early sections, such as seeing Mishima’s abuse, hearing the awful things he does to the female students, and more.
This is seen by Joker, Morgana, and later Ryuji, who team up once they learn of the Metaverse and Kamoshida’s Palace.
A Stolen Heart
Within Kamoshida’s Palace, the core three of Joker, Ryuji, and Morgana decide to steal his heart there in hopes of stopping him from his horrible acts in the real world. They investigate, trying to learn more information about how to take him down, and discover just how far his horrifying nature goes.
Ann is eventually rescued by the trio, and she joins the team in hopes of stopping him before he does worse things to her best friend, Shiho. However, they are too late, and Kamoshida turns his attention towards her, leading to him assaulting her and leaving her in a horrified state where she ends up trying to kill herself.
After this moment, the quartet sends a calling card to Kamoshida and eventually steals his treasure. He admits all his wrongdoings in the real world and ends up in prison for his acts while being stripped of all his Olympian medals and success.
Real World Inspiration
The worst part about Kamoshida isn’t the horrible acts he does to fictional characters in the game. It’s the fact that there are people like that in the real world who do these exact things to real-life people who suffer on a daily basis. Unfortunately, it is likely that Kamoshida was based on an actual Japanese coach, though I should note this is unconfirmed and hearsay, but the similarities are uncanny.
Masato Uchishiba is a 44-year-old man who was an Olympian gold medalist in two Olympics in a row in the realm of judo. After his success, he began coaching a female judo team at Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare in 2010.
For over a year, he sexually harassed his students, among other things that he was eventually accused of. Unfortunately, he was only let go from the college and was free to roam around and do whatever he wanted. This included another horrifying act that happened soon after in Tokyo, which led to his eventual arrest and imprisonment while being deprived of his honors from the past.
Special Abilities
Moving back to the Persona 5 fictional character of Kamoshida, he has several special life abilities. One of them is the power he wields in the real world, while the other is the power he wields in the Metaverse. Both are manipulated by Kamoshida only to allow him to gain power and domination over everyone he meets.
Athletic Star
The talent that Kamoshida has in the real world is a travesty and undeserved. His success as an Olympian gives him the power to do whatever he wants at Shujin Academy. He is given free rein over the school, and no one even bats an eye at what he is possibly doing to the students.
He abuses this power and status to do whatever he likes, turning what should be a success and something good into nothing but an evil of the most significant degree in the process.
Unbelievable Villain
Then there is Shadow Kamoshida in the Metaverse. In this other world, he has immense power using the spirit of lust that he has to gain strength and create his own fictional castle over the grounds of Shujin Academy. He sees himself as the literal ruler over this symbolic castle, where he is able to do whatever he wants.
To this point, he even creates fictional versions of characters like Ann and Mishima, who embody what he actually sees them as inside his twisted head. While he is strong and capable of doing these unbelievable acts to people, he cannot do it forever as there are people like the Phantom Thieves to stop him.
Kamoshida Voice Actor
I honestly feel bad for anyone who brings such an awful video game villain like Kamoshida to life, but someone had to do it. There are two voice actors for the Persona 5 villain, depending on if you play the original Japanese version or the English dub, both of which are fantastic.
If you prefer the original Japanese voiceovers, you’ll hear Yuji Mitsuya as the voice of the first villain. You might know him from some of his anime roles in the past, such as the Supreme Kai in Dragon Ball, Virgo in Saint Seiya, and Muimui in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
On the other hand, if you listen to the English voices of the characters, you’ll hear DC Douglas as the voice of Kamoshida. This is honestly far from his best role, too, as he played some impressive parts in the past, like Rufus in The Legend of Heroes franchise that you have to hear, the mech Valimar in the same series, and Zero in the Zero Escape series. Seriously, both of these series are some of my favorites in video games; go check them out!
Key Relationships
Kamoshida has several significant relationships if you can call them that, at the beginning of Persona 5. That is why this is the most personal villain arc of the game and the most impactful in the process. First up, there is his relationship with Joker, the main character of the JRPG.
Though they don’t get to know each other too well, since Joker arrives in the middle of this story, they have a hateful relationship. Joker, of course, wants to take him down, while Kamoshida wants to spread rumors about Joker and end his career at the school before he can even begin.
Then there is Joker’s best pal, Ryuji Sakamoto. Ryuji is one of the many victims of Kamoshida, having been neutralized already at the start of the game when the volleyball coach broke his leg. Though this happens and puts an end to Ryuji’s running career, with Joker’s help, he is able to recover and renew his desire to bring Kamoshida down.
The third member of the Phantom Thieves affected by Kamoshida is Ann. Unlike the other two, her events are happening at the start of the game and on a darker level. She clearly hates Kamoshida but feels there is nothing she can do at first, whereas he sees her as nothing more than his slave to boss around until she begins to fight back.
Mishima is in a similar position to Ann, but he only deals with physical abuse rather than the other actions she has to deal with. He is the literal servant to Kamoshida, doing his bidding even if he doesn’t want to in order to avoid punishment.
Lastly, there is Shiho. Though her character is only present in Persona 5 at certain moments, the impact Kamoshida has on her life is unbelievable. There are ripple effects from their relationship that carry throughout the entirety of Persona 5, especially if you do Ann’s Confidant story, long past his arrest and imprisonment.
Kamoshida Boss Fight Explained
At the conclusion of the Kamoshida storyline and his Palace, the Phantom Thieves will finally send the calling card, enact their plan, and steal the treasure of Kamoshida. Of course, this puts him on high alert, and they aren’t able to get away with his treasure without a fight.
Though there are some minor boss fights prior to this moment, this is the first actual villain boss fight you’ll experience in Persona 5. This makes it one of the easier ones and also one of the harder ones at the same time since you are just now going to learn how the boss fights work in this game.
Thankfully, I have your back when it comes to this fight. I will be sure to note skills you need to watch out for, any resistances that Kamoshida has, and the tricks you can use to make this fight a whole lot easier. I’ll even note some of the differences across both the original Persona 5 fight and the expanded Royal version that is slightly different.
How to Prepare
First and foremost, you need to prepare before you even tackle the Kamoshida boss fight, where he is known as Asmodeus. I always tell players, no matter which version of the game they’re playing, to ensure they are at least level 10, preferably 11, by the time they get to this fight.
This means that you may have to do some grinding of battles in Persona 5 to get to this point but not a whole lot. What I usually do when I am going through the Palace the first time is take down every enemy that I come across. No need to spend time in an area, backtrack, or any of that.
Just this alone is usually enough to get you roughly around 11, if not honestly, a little higher at this point in the story. Make sure not to skip fights, and you should be good to go.
The other thing is to visit Takemi and other stores and stock up on some supplies like healing items. As for which Persona you should use, it’s ultimately up to you. His attacks are mediocre and one-note, so there isn’t much you can do to account for them. Make sure to have a high enough level Persona close to your current level.
Stats and Resistances
Here are the stats you need to know about when it comes to the Kamoshida boss fight:
- Level 11
- 2500 health
- 1500 SP (don’t count on him running out of SP for these skills in this fight)
- Strength: 8
- Magic: 5
- Endurance: 5
- Agility: 6
- Luck: 7
Thankfully, his stats are pretty awful, outside of a large amount of health he has. This means that this fight will likely take you a while to finish, given how early you are in the game. What you do need to watch out for, though, is his strength stat, which is pretty high for this point in the game. It makes sense, though, since he focuses on physical attacks.
In terms of resistance, for better or worse, he has none whatsoever. He is a blank slate across the board. He has no weaknesses, so there is nothing for you to take advantage of and down him. However, on the other hand, he has no resistance, so the benefit is that you can use whatever you like, at least in battle. I don’t have a recommendation other than using your best skills.
Skills to Watch Out for
At this point in time, no one on your team should be weak to physical attacks, so there is no way that he should be able to take advantage of a weakness and gain an extra turn. That said, he still has some strong skills that you need to watch out for.
For the most part, he only uses physical attacks. These can range from light attacks that will target a single player to medium physical damage to everyone in the party. And then there is the disturbing Lick attack that only deals heavy damage to Ann.
Outside of that, you need to worry about the adds that he summons. These give him access to other skills like dealing heavy Almighty damage to everyone and Libido Boost, which will heal his health entirely and render all your efforts up until this point obsolete.
Tips to Win Against Asmodeus
This fight is relatively straightforward since there is only so much you can do and that even the boss can do at this point in the early parts of Persona 5. That said, here are some of the tips I have for you in taking down Kamoshida and finishing him off for good:
- As mentioned, there are no recommended attacks here. Simply use the best skills you have to take him down.
- When Lick is going to be used, you’ll know because he’ll stare at Ann the turn before. That is your chance to heal her up and have her guard for minimal damage.
- The main goal here is to take out any summons that he adds, no matter which version you’re playing.
- For Persona 5 base players, be sure to take out the Trophy of Obsession as soon as it appears, or else you’ll deal with him healing himself up completely.
- The same goes for Royal, but he also summons Mishima and Shiho clones. As sad as it is, take them out, or else he will use them to unleash his Almighty attack on the party, which is devastating.
- If you can manage the adds and his physical attacks, this is a pretty easy fight compared to some of the other bosses you’ll face later on in the story.
Kamoshida Rewards
For defeating this monster, you have the reward of knowing that you have saved a bunch of victims from continuously being tormented by Kamoshida. But you also get some experience and money, too. For Persona 5 players, you’ll get 450 XP and around 8000 yen to spend on whatever you like.
On the other hand, if you’re playing Persona 5 Royal, you’ll get even more rewards at 500 XP and 12,000 yen, respectively.
FAQs
Question: What Level Should I be to Fight Kamoshida Persona 5?
Answer: In my opinion, you should be at least level 11 to fight Kamoshida in Persona 5 because that is his level. I have done this fight at level 10, and you can do it, but it is unlikely to be possible on some of the higher difficulty levels. Just take out any enemies you face in the dungeon, and you should be good to go.
Question: What is Kamoshida Weak to Persona 5?
Answer: Unfortunately, Kamoshida isn’t weak to anything in Persona 5. Thankfully, he at least has no resistance, either. Simply make sure to use your best skills against him, and you’ll do fine in this fight.
Question: What did Kamoshida do to Ann?
Answer: Trigger warning ahead, but Kamoshida did quite a lot to Ann. He has harassed her, abused her, manipulated her, controlled her, taken advantage of her, and forced her to do things that she doesn’t want to do. Sadly, she is only one of many such victims.
The Next Villain to Take Down
Suguru Kamoshida is far from the only villain in the Persona 5 storyline. Though he is absolutely the best by a long shot, and not even the final villain compares, there are many other bad guys for you to take down in the Metaverse. We’ve got your back if you need some help with some of the later villains.
These are significant spoilers for the rest of the main plot, but we previously covered Shido, one of the main villains in Persona 5. If you find yourself in his Palace and dealing with him, we have everything you need to know about this character and how to take him down once and for all to put a stop to his plans.
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