When Persona 3 came out in 2006, it quickly became a classic in the JRPG genre. It changed the course of the franchise with a neat combination of classic RPG mechanics and dating sim elements, but it also went down in history for its dark and disturbing storytelling. From its enemy designs to its characterization, Persona 3 was drenched in surreal imagery and themes of death and tragedy. This culminated in the final boss Nyx Avatar, which is among the most disturbing bosses in the entire Persona series.
This is an impressive statement considering how many disturbing foes there are in the Persona games, but Nyx Avatar lives up to the hype in multiple ways. Its disturbing nature comes from its design, its role in the story, and its characterization. All these aspects of the boss are woven together with Persona 3's overall themes of death and depression. The result is a boss that feels less like a specific monster to be fought and defeated, and more like an inevitability.
The Tragic Horror of Nyx Avatar
Persona 3's visual design is uncomfortable in a way that later Persona games have yet to match, and Nyx Avatar is the culmination of this disquieting approach. It features a slim humanoid frame with disproportionately long limbs, a mix of deathly pale skin and shadowy armor, and four massive black wings. The result is a design that looks as angelic as it does horrifying - ideal for the harbinger of Persona 3's apocalypse. Nyx Avatar's face is exceptionally disturbing because it's nearly human, except for a leering grin. To make matters worse, that face will be familiar to players because it belongs to one of their in-game friends.
Nyx Avatar is literally and figuratively a grim reaper descending to destroy the world, but it isn't introduced that way. Persona 3 takes place over the course of a school year, and Nyx Avatar takes on many faces during that time. First, it appears in the guise of Pharos, a creepy but friendly child who visits the player's bedside and forms a strange bond with them. Next, it manifests as Thanatos, a powerful Persona of the Death Arcana that the protagonist must learn how to control. Finally, Nyx Avatar takes on its third and most memorable form in Ryoji Mochizuki, a cheerful transfer student who befriends the protagonist. Unlike the twist villains of Persona 5, Ryoji is genuine in his desire to enjoy life. This makes the revelation of his true nature even more disturbing for everyone, including Ryoji himself.
A Terrible Choice in Persona 3
Pharos, Thanatos, and Ryoji are one being, and they are slowly transforming into a monster that will call an eldritch entity sealed in the moon to destroy the earth. They don't want to end the world, but they are unable to stop themselves. Persona 3 is a game about depression, and depression often manifests as a feeling of fatalistic inevitability. With that in mind, it makes sense the final boss would be introduced as an ally who, through no fault of his own, is forced into acting against those he's come to care for. Pursuing a romance with Ryoji in the Persona 3 PSP version makes the situation even worse as Ryoji drops some of his happy-go-lucky facade to reveal how helpless he truly feels.
Once Ryoji discovers his true nature, he begs the protagonist to kill him - but not because he thinks it will stop Nyx Avatar from ending the world. Nyx Avatar is unkillable, as the protagonist discovers after defeating it. However, killing Ryoji will erase the main characters' memories of the game's events, allowing them to die peacefully instead of fighting Nyx Avatar in vain. This is made more complicated by the revelation that Ryoji's transformation was caused by the player's own decisions. The human antagonists of Persona 5 may be scary in their own right, and the surreal Shadows of Persona 4 are incredibly memorable, but it's difficult to top the horror that Nyx Avatar represents. This applies to both the idea that an unstoppable eldritch abomination could make the whole world end, and the idea of killing a friend to try and escape the consequences of one's actions.
Persona 6 is in development.