I just finished the game. Some misgivings aside, this is the definitive version of Persona 3 imo. Looking forward to coming back in September to play Episode Aigis.
Same here. I'm definitely attracted to using some of those characters too, but Yukari/Aigis/Koro seems like the best final team overall. I played through the game swapping party members in and out actually, as a consequence of forcing one-night Tartarus runs every time, so I got a feel for everyone and am getting a hankering for drawing up a tier list. If any one even cares~:
S
Door-kun: No arguments from anyone, I trust.
A
Koromaru: Best boi. Koro's the fastest character in the game, kicking off just about every battle, and starts with endgame level evasion (and has high HP for some reason too). He's the only party member to naturally null two elements and does so from the moment you get him. Revolution's a decent if situational early game buff, and Getsu-ei's a great attacking skill early on if you time your Tartarus trips to near the full moon... or just bring Koro with you on full moon shadow hunts. Soul Shift is a whatever passive, but Koro tends to crit or hit a weakness enough that I got some use of it (and build gauge too thanks to his theurgy condition). He's also the only party member to learn an Almighty-elemental skill (that targets HP anyway) although I rarely used it because of Koro's one big problem until endgame - he's a huge SP hog already. He can attack with fire and dark magic, but his fire skills are multi-target only.
Endgame the way to go with Koro imo is to go all in on magic and buff/debuffs. He learns both Fire and Dark Amp to up his otherwise ok magic damage. He learns Masukukaja, although that's not my go-to because of my team loadout and because his trait is nutty - Auto-Masukunda at the start of every battle is crazy good. He also gets Debilitate at the very end, which is the best opener to all boss battles. For his SP issues, the armor that grants Regenerate 3 and Invigorate 3 is indispensable. I also plopped on the knife that gives him Dark Boost to raise Hound of Hades/Eigaon's damage further to impressive levels. Koro hits Theurgy allot just by virtue of going first all the time.
Yukari: the rock. Never really spectacular but always reliable. Gets all ze healing spells, learns wind magic at an ok pace. She stumbles a little after learning Amrita Drop and you have to decide between that and Me Patra for a while. Once you get Amrita Shower she's golden. I think I got some use from Pulinpa early on, but of her misc. skills I probably used Wind Break more (in the cases where she'd have nothing to do if she couldn't deal wind damage more). She has a naturally good magic stat but Wind Amp in endgame gives her damage some much needed oomph at that point.
Gaining Theurgy faster by healing is really useful! Outside of Door-kun, I think I used her Theurgy the most in the game. A trait that reduces SP cost for healing spells is also really useful. For endgame I made a point of equipping the female-only shoes that give Invigorate 3 onto her, freeing up the valuable accessory that does the same. I'm ok with her being the Persona main healer that doesn't get Salvation. Mediarahan usually does the trick and at a fraction of the cost.
Aigis: Has a rough start. Her starting skills are nothing to write home about. Dekunda's the only skill to live through that starting pool and even it's situational. She's probably best as a berserker in Orgia Mode.
Past the bad start, she just gets better and better. Diarama's an ok support skill, Fast Heal's a useful passive for keeping her going, and a low level Marakukaja is around the point where she starts showing her true value as a tank/support in midgame. Matarukaja not long after is just as great and after that is an onslaught of fantastic passives. Insta-Heal always keeps her in your control, Enduring Soul is just... crazy for not-Door-kun to be able to access, and Resist Phys in endgame toughens her up even more. Phys Amp is a great trait for boosting
all of her physical damage - she gets only strike and pierce but most of the time that's enough. There's endgame armor that lets her null ailments completely too but she hardly needs that too.
B
Mitsuru: A little over the place in terms of build strategy throughout the game, but I like it. Rakunda is a staple throughout the game ofc, but miscellaneous status effects, from Tentarafoo for team confuses to, yes,
Marin Karin, for charm to get me out of pinches have been things that I've done. Her personality and trait incentivize it too although my bread-and-butter with her still tended to be as an ice nuker. Spirit Drain is great midgame for stretching out Tartarus runs. Ice Break is non-negotiable for endgame as you shift away from misc. status to just casting ice magic as that's really all she becomes good for. Freeze Boost and Ailment Boost are there for some theurgy shenanigans though. Concentrate is a great skill ofc too and Diamond Dust is nice at endgame. Mitsuru is hamstrung for learning only Ice Boost and not Ice Amp, but that is a problem that can be corrected with an antique shop weapon that grants it (and +5 Magic!). Mitsuru's alright, but she does become kind of one-dimensional by the end. Also, I'm not sure but I think she took weakness hits more than anyone else on my team through the game.
Akihiko: His greatest asset is that he's the only permanent member of the team to have natural strike-type damage. Also that early game Tarunda - man, is that useful. Shock Boost too, now that I'm enumerating everything. So many things got paralyzed in my early Tartarus runs. Looking back, Aki's a character that generally gets worse as the game goes on. He goes 33 levels between physical skill upgrades, and that middle one in his skill set had already felt a long time coming. He gets Elec Boost and Elec Amp but his magic stat is so bad that it's hardly worth it. He's an SP hog too thanks to low max SP and demand from his other skills: Tarunda and Masukukaja and the occasional heal. Evade Ice is nice late game but doesn't earn him a slot by itself.
C
Ken: The mirror image of Koro in worse ways. He gets two attacking elements too but for some reason doesn't even get two resists (let alone nulls). For endgame he learns Heat Riser to pair off against Koro's Debiliate, but Heat Risker sucks lol (
SantaC
) - A three-stat buff on one team member is less useful than single, selected stat buffs for the whole party and worse too than a three-stat debuff on an enemy (presumably a boss). He learns team healing (and attacks with pierce-damage) like Yukari but... Yukari exists. A trait that grants him an Invigorate should be great and
is good but never incentivized me to pick Ken over the other options available to me. It also runs counter to his gauge condition which is having low SP lol. The only unique thing about Ken is Dekaja and that's... fine. By endgame Debilitate is better than it too.
Junpei: Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I think Junpei is the meme-origin of 'early game physical attacker who gets replaced in mid game'. For the majority of the game, he's just the physical attacker who can deal (bad) fire damage too. Poor dude doesn't even learn multi-target fire damage outside of Maragi. Once you get Mitsuru and Akihiko there's no reason
not to bench him as they bring more attacking types to the table and have better support skills. By endgame, Aigis has offers better support, has better passives, and deals (maybe more?) consistent damage - even midgame Aigis is better really - and Koro deals fire damage on top of everything else he brings to the table. I confess I didn't give Junpei much of a try once the clock level-ups became available to see if crit boost, etc. and his theurgy would make any difference but the few times I took him back out I was unimpressed.
Shinjiro: One-dimensional. Auto-Heat Riser is a neat trait but he doesn't
do anything but smack stuff and sometimes I got stonewalled. Early Regenerate 3 is cool though. All this said I still might actually prefer him over Junpei. Not sure.
