LukaSolosYourVerse said:
The argument about gestures doesn't really work. Plenty of bosses across RPGs only gesture to signal their attacks. Hell, even most powerful Personas only gesture their attacks, especially when they're too big for expression to be practical. Even in the Persona series, Nyx Avatar only ever raised their hand or swung their sword. Even Izanami only ever gestured despite fighting Izanagi-no-Okami. Hell, SMT Metatron, the ultimate angel, just raises his arms in his fight against Demi-Fiend.
You also can't say that Yaldabaoth never suffered any actual damage. Those arms were still a part of him, after all. Him being able to casually restore them just means he has good healing. The PTs still broke them; there's no getting around that.
Yaldy wiped them out because 1) the PTs weren't prepared for his hax, and 2) Yaldy easily outlasts their stamina. The first defeat only had the Holy Grail BFRing the PTs to Shibuya, where they were powerless. The second defeat was when he skipped Divine Apex and went straight to Rays of Control, when the Thieves were already tired.
Actually, now that I think about it more, it's made abundantly clear that the PTs could handle Yaldy's full AP.
For one, the same RoC that ended the second fight pre-Satanael didn't even cripple the PTs. They could still stand up just fine, albeit exhausted. And the same RoC was fired again when Satanael was summoned and it's made clear by Yaldy's reaction that he wasn't holding back. Neither were charged up, and yet the PTs tanked the first one, if barely. There's no indication that the second was stronger than the first, either
.
TL;DR
1. Yaldy wiped them out becuase of hax, not a difference in AP.
2. Yaldy
was damaged. There's no getting around the fact that those arms were a part of Yaldabaoth, and thus shared his durability, yet were clearly destroyed.
3. Gestures mean nothing in reflecting the amount of effort being displayed in a game centered around turn-based combat;
especially when the opponent is so large.
4. Yaldabaoth used the same attack twice, with no indication of the two being different in scale. The first time, it was tanked by the Phantom Thieves, while the second time it was nulled by Satanael and Yaldabaoth made it clear that he wasn't holding back.