The boss gauntlets, the final boss,
were my favorite fights from Apocalypse.
was kinda intense too because he kept powering up towards the end of the fight which gave it a sort of frenetic rush to end the fight as soon as possible. I think the press turn system is at its best when you're constantly at the verge of defeat and fights are pushing you to make the correct turn-by-turn decisions between offense, buff/debuffs and survivability (hp/sp/status effects) and/or when you're planning for the long therm outcome of the fight. I feel the aforementioned bosses all deliver in some way or another.
I completely agree. I know some people consider losing progress too "archaic" as a form of punishment but it's better than nothing. Save and ressurrect anywhere completely kills any sense of danger when dungeon crawling, which is why Apocalypse is so uneven in its difficulty (some great boss fights, but largely unthreatening dungeon segments). With save points I at least feel some sense of dread when my resources are running low and the last time I saved was a while ago, it keeps exploration engaging.
Ideally they need to think of a better risk/reward system. The DQ games make you lose half your money upon death, so you don't really lose progress but you're still being punished for sloppy play. Soulsborne punishes you with its bloodstain/lost souls mechanic. SMT could use a similar system.
Controversial opinion: I feel like Charon could've worked pretty well in a game with save points. You'd need to choose between either wasting a hefty amount of macca to keep your progress and demons or go back to your last save file. This way they could keep it challenging by carefully spreading out save points.