Ranking EVERY Party Member in Persona 3 Reload!

idk how this video ended up so long, my PC was on life support while editing lol.
written version of this video: / persona-3-reload-party...
Music: "Strength II" by jiai ajisai.bandcamp.com/album/mid...
Disclaimer: Footage in this video is ©ATLUS and ©SEGA.
Mitsuru meme link: / 1216716855513092096
0:00 Intro
2:45 Yukari
5:33 Junpei
8:35 Akihiko
12:54 Mitsuru
16:30 Aigis
18:57 Koromaru
20:50 Ken
24:24 Conclusion
Keywords which I'm not sure matter: Makoto Yuki Yukari Takeba Junpei Iori Akihiko Sanada Mitsuru Kirijo Shinji Aragaki Ken Amada Koromaru Aigis Fuuka Yamagishi P3R Guide Party Members Ranked
#Persona3Reload #P3R #P3

[@bainz]

This is of course a subjective thing! Late game Junpei kinda slaps. And I probably underrated Ken, I just didn't value the Screens/2nd Theurgy much and prior to learning his characteristics, his SP felt a bit uncomfortable to manage. If you really like what he provides, he could definitely move up to even the highest Tier and Yukari could drop down (ultimately whoever you use more between the two is preference based). This was more to discuss each char (though it went rather long lol), rather than their specific placements

[@vendettaduck1288]

I understand why the choice to skip over him was made. but I wish you touched more on the last party member

[@bainz]

@@vendettaduck1288 Given he gets Charge, a lot of good Phys moves and eventually Debilitate, he'd be right at the very top

[@loki3770]

But... But... Where's Shinjiro?

[@narasnek]

Ken is made to not have enough sp, all his attacks burns his Sp, his theurgia charges each time you consume sp and when you have extremely low sp he charges each turn. Ken and Yukari are used for different purposes. Yukari is a healer for a long battle and Ken is a healer for a hard battle, his second theurgia is overkill against everything, is the strongest support attack in the game. Can protect you of everything with the exception of almighty damage. For me there isn't a C character in reload and the game is made to change of party the whole time. The worst party member is probably shinjiro, but he gets firm stance and have endure and bloody charge is very powerful. Mainly because he only have 1 theurgia.

[@RaidenKaiser]

Ken's 2nd Theurgy is why i generally find Makarakarn and Tetrikarn a waste of slots unless youre playing on merciless because the MC is rarely going to die in a 2nd turn on any other difficulty unless you make a bad play or bring in a bad built persona. I bring ken into reaper fights but I feel like he doesn't offer as much as Yukari in some other fights mid-late game cuz her 1sit Thuergy does way more damage than Ken's first and her 2nd Theurgy gives the entire party support outside just shielding 1 hit.

[@-penta-1357]

To be fair, Junpei sucking in the early to mid game and only getting really good during the late game is a great way to parallel his role and growth in the plot with his gameplay

[@oblyx1828]

I do agree but at the same time MC gets stupid powerful in late game so in a gameplay perspective I think early and mid game is the hardest and where it matters the most persona series been always easy (except for super bosses like velvet room attendants)

[@HenriqueRJchiki]

His second theorgy is reason enough to use him

[@Caliber918]

Literally the way I dropped him early on and picked him back up after Shinji

[@Superstarearth]

Junpei is actually pretty good in early game having the first physical wide attack in the game even before main protag

[@oblyx1828]

@@Superstarearth AoE Physical is very little compared to what other party members offer

[@Nyaruko166]

love shinji rank

[@Akechi5x]

Same!

[@wantediscool]

especially with the ability he learns on October 4th, crazy stuff

[@The_Chocolate_One]

@@wantediscool I know right? That’s easily the most damaging move in the game.

[@divinelycursed768]

​@@The_Chocolate_OneYeah. The new skill he learns is so good it damages you in real life.

[@ThunderMelon]

​@@wantediscoolI know the Fucking Dies Theurgy is so OP

[@mauropedroni1308]

Akihiko is very underrated thanks to the misleading description of his Theurgy. He is actually one of the fastest characters to build theurgy, and also buff amp and his sinnergy with Yukari`s party concentrate makes him a beast.

[@izanagiforsmite4365]

Dude if you could please explain what boosts his Theurgy? I still dont quite get it and im on my 3rd playthrough Nevermind lol i watched more of the video

[@mauropedroni1308]

@@izanagiforsmite4365 Just buff him and let the bar go up lol. I recommend putting some auto buffs on him

[@divinelycursed768]

Concentrate + his 2nd Theurgy can legitimately melt any Tartarus gatekeepers. The only flaw is that it requires others' Theurgy (Yukari or MC) to work.

[@NeroV1L3]

​@@izanagiforsmite4365 Whenever Aki starts a turn, if he has a buff active, it will boost his theurgy. It doesn't matter who it's cast by as long as it's active. He also gets extra stat boosts from the buff? But I'm not 100% sure on that

[@remlapwastaken8857]

​@aidennicholson2109 I think he gets the Shin Megumbo Tension doping treatment and gets extra stats from buffs

[@joshf2218]

This is the most balanced rpg team I’ve ever seen. There are no bad party members.

[@Droub_]

Listen, the ken 2nd theurgy comes in clutch so hard sometimes. "Oh no the reaper just charged" *Uses Theurgy, Reaper uses Asakha Arts* "Oh no the reaper is dead"

[@bruced09]

Your own character can one shot the reaper though

[@1tsjustpasta]

second best theurgy in the game

[@rubenjacobs334]

Yeah, but do that easily be you'll need to be at least level 84 and have maxed the star and devil social links. Meanwhile, Ken's second theurgy unlocks for free, two thirds into the game.@@bruced09

[@DoesntMattertbh]

@@bruced09 ...Sure, in the VERY late game...

[@hzrinv]

Happened EXACTLY to me

[@scratchsketch1879]

Ken was a staple of my party pretty much as soon as I unlocked him. Not only does he have great coverage, but also can provide the best defense for the party without relying on any other character. Pair that up with dekaja and he becomes one of the best late game party members due to most bosses having heat riser. His second Theurgy basically completely turns around a losing battle as well, which is honestly busted.

[@MrAnnoyingalperen]

In my experience, Aki slaps the hardest. Buff amp does wonders. Auto skills as well as any shuffle time that charges the team before hand makes Aki strong AF to the point when I use his second theurgy, he mows down reaper's HP to %20 with ONE MOVE! I request a revison of this tier list lmao

[@quatrowr1280]

Mitsuru is still stronger

[@MrAnnoyingalperen]

@@quatrowr1280 NUH-UH!!

[@ryanp.2669]

I know youre talking about as a whole when ranking the party members but i just want to say for the endgame, what im gonna call the physical party has insane synergy. Mc, junpei, Aigis, and Koromaru go insane together. Koromaru gets revolution and power howling makes the other phys party members just absolutely insane. Aigis also provides great support by buffing attack and defense while koro boosts ability. Aigis can also heal while Junpei just absolutely nukes everything.

[@DoneThatSeenThat]

Replace aigis with yukari and yeah thats the dream comp

[@Xenoborg0519]

My A-team in endgame was Yukari, Junpei, and Mitsuru. Mitsuru + Junpei’s characteristics work perfectly together, especially when you put the Apt Pupil accessory and high crit rate weapon on Junpei. Once you get ambush and start most encounters with distressed enemies it trivializes them. Then for bosses, MC (or Mitsuru/Yukari, but I never kept ailment skills on them) can tag them with an ailment and Junpei usually crits after that too. And Yukari can keep everyone healed on the cheap cheap, which is great when using a lot of physical skills.

[@DoneThatSeenThat]

@@Xenoborg0519 the thing is tho in terms of crits and survivability, koramaru is way better

[@DiegoGonzalez-hw5yb]

​@@DoneThatSeenThati think ken over yukari

[@notanerd6838]

@@Xenoborg0519 koromaru is better than mitsuru without a shadow of a doubt in an optimal setting revolution gives way more than mitsuru

[@JT_VA]

If this video has done anything it’s helped me finally understand how Akihiko’s theurgy works. I spent the whole game just saying to myself “what does that even mean”

[@Eduardo-ll7eg]

Finally you drop a video on party members, as legends would say “I’ve been waiting for this!!!” Your posts on party members for 4 and 5 have helped me out so much in figuring out how I wanna use them and learn anything i didnt know so appreciate the great content many. Edit: I think there are other weapons for Junpei besides his ultimate one that grant him crit skills, juzumaru gives him crit boost and another gives from the antique that’s not his ultimate weapons gives him apt pupil as well, so he does gain access to crit skills fairly into mid game as well but that’s me rambling.

[@lumpytoad1357]

Koromaru is OP the entire game. Early game he alleviates MC's SP use by targeting Fire & Dark weaknesses. Midgame, Koro is the first ally to really come to fruition as a Crit build character, with armor that gives auto Atk&Crit up. Endgame, Koro has Debilitate. Throughout the entire game, Koro has full party charge, and Theurgy that lowers the opponents Agi. 90% of my gameplay after getting Koromaru had the entire team agility debuffed, and my team agility buffed with MC's Auto Agi^. The chances of getting hit and missing were in my favor tenfold. Weapons with 85-88% accuracy would pretty much never miss. You can also choose to only raid Tartarus close to full moon, and Koromaru's slash skill does more based on how full the moon is -- making him relevant on full moon shadow bosses too. Koromaru is best boi. He could only be better if Crit Rate+ was on his final weapon or armor, as all other characters besides Ken finally pass him in damage, but he should be using Debilitate endgame anywho.

[@watermelon3306]

His ultimate weapon has Ali dance, which combined with his incredibly high evasion, makes him untouchable. I think that’s better than the extra crit rate.

[@johnd.2114]

I'm at September right now, and while he's still useful, especially with auto masukunda, but he runs out of sp way too fast to be a permanent party member for me. I still think Akihiko is the best all around fighter/damage dealer. I also have multiple personas with life aid at this point, so mc isn't bad on sp costs.

[@moonblastx1996]

Early game you don't even have Koromaru lol

[@cyphenVG]

My final team was Mitsuru, Yukari and Aigis. It was liberating to have another party member take care of the buffing department and another to handle the debuffing, so I could just use Makoto's turn to use either Charge or Concentrate while the rest of the team would set things up for me

[@Elsuya_Milo]

Tbh, basically wasting Yukari's 2nd Theurgy on Aigis feels so bad tho. But if you're just using them for support related stuff it doesn't matter lol.

[@HenriqueRJchiki]

Mine was Makoto JunGOAT Yukari and Aigis, ez merciless

[@Jyoujib123]

Basically the harem team

[@aldazthefox]

my team is the same too

[@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu]

Mine was mitsuru, yukari and kuromaru

[@Cheffihn]

Solid list, presented some good arguments

[@NB-xf6zv]

Whoooaaa! Looking cool, bainz! This is an awesome video and I love your thought processes on the potential of each team member! It’s great that characters got such massive glow ups so we don’t have to just default to Akihiko, Aigis, and Yukari again 😅I’ve been thinking way too much about how to break the game and what the best party members are lately and have way too much to say on these topics… but this list pretty much encapsulates my thoughts entirely on where most party members rank! The only difference in placing for me on the whole list was switching Ken with Yukari because I often found she didn’t have enough impact when the party didn’t need support since wind skills (along with fire skills for that matter) aren’t useful elements to spam in this game if the enemy isn’t weak to them, when compared to ice/electricity (since they have freeze/shock chances that help get critical hits). Also her sukunda skills aren’t really useful outside of gold hand encounters and her other utility of umm poison mist is well, something we don’t talk about... In my subjective opinion as far as a wide healer goes, I actually think Ken’s reflecting screens, light/electricity element coverage, and life wall theurgy are overall more useful than Yukari’s kit. As Yukari’s revive move, single target heal move, and two ailment recovery moves can all be done by any character through very easily findable, accessible, or purchasable items and I often found that the only party member that would die and ever need reviving was Yukari herself 💀Although Ken can be just as frail as Yukari at times, I found his weakness is mitigated naturally through equipment and homunculus, also his screens help his survival ability if you have a down turn to cast one... Additionally, since physical skills are so dominant and strong in this game because they cost HP and most bosses don’t have an elemental weakness (meaning fishing for critical hits is often the best approach for highest damage output), I ended up feeling that Yukari’s party wide concentrate wasn’t that valuable and was only really good in a magic focused party along with members like Mitsuru and Akihiko who could take advantage of concentrate alongside the protagonist. On the other hand, I found that a party of Ken, Aigis, and Koro pushes physical/crit to the limit and helps the protagonist maximize damage (buffs/debilitate/koro wide power charge), crit chance (revolution), and protection (Ken wide heal/theurgy/single use screens). Also it seems that the reaper doesn’t punish reflecting screens with megidolan anymore and he killed himself for me when attacking with concentrated wide magic into Ken’s widescreen theurgy, which made me give him a slot on the team permanently after that for just how much it made me laugh 😂 TL;DR The way I look at it, the two best parties with the most synergy in my opinion are Ken, Aigis, and Koro for physical focus and Yukari, Mitsuru, and Akihiko for magic focus… but like you said you can beat the game with arguably anyone even on the hardest difficulty, so people should have fun experimenting and using who they like! Here’s a 🍪for any poor soul that read this way too long of a post, now if you’ll excuse me I have to get back to grinding Shinji to level 99…🔫

[@bainz]

Yeah, I could for sure see someone preferring to use Ken cause of his skill set. For me, the MC does so much more damage than everyone else, I value the Concentrate theurgy a lot still (even if it doesn't benefit everyone sometimes). And before I unlocked his characteristics, it felt like Ken would run out of SP after so few Tartarus floors lol. Thanks for writing this though, good luck on the Shinji grind!

[@livenreloaded]

2:10 This information is unfortunately wrong. It actually boosts them up to a maximum of 13 levels. For example: if my character is at level 99, all other members affected would only go up to level 14 assuming they are all at level 1

[@ModTea]

Yeah I just experienced that with my Mitsuru wondering why she didn't go to level 75 where as Kormaru did.

[@webberthehedgehog]

Yeah, it’s a good way to force you to use everyone throughout the whole game

[@biblemaneverett6528]

It’s pretty rare to see a JRPG where there are no bad characters. It’s cool to see that every party member in this game is viable.

[@veslets]

I agree 100% with this list. I just finished my play through yesterday on hard and my party was pretty much always Yukari, Mitsuru, and Koromaru. Koromaru in particular felt very strong considering he has such a high agility stat, meaning in most battles he will be the first to attack. There were many battles that ended within the first turn simply by using revolution with Koromaru, and then using a heavy damaging phys move with the MC that would instantly delete whatever is infront of them. The fact that there’s no cap to how much you can stack your crit rate is pretty insane imo.

[@Namingway248]

A lot of tartarus and monad bosses actually are susceptible to at least one ailment in the early-mid game, so mitsuru's ailments are actually really useful when you first get them if you poke for what can work. I spent a good portion of the game keeping foul breath on me, because there kept being situations where either mitsuru or yukari could eliminate any difficulty in the fight with an ailment.

[@Joaquin-xq5wo]

I always found mitsuru doing almighty was a reference to her being able to use Megidoloan in the Answer.

[@edsylan2275]

I few notes to add for Ken - If you really want to have Ken's SP in range for his personality, you can manually reduce his SP as much as you want by using any equipment with HP increase. You can just equip, heal with ken, unequip, and repeat until your sp is low enough - If the previous point sounds like is just a death sentence for Ken's utility, due to his low SP pool, not really. Ken Characteristic is not at the start of his turn, is every time he gets action. You can trigger spirit restore 2 or 3 times per turn with shifts, this effectively makes Ken's SP infinite in tartarus, as with proper shifts he will always get more SP than what you use on every non boss encounter without needing invigorate accesories, basically creating this mini game where you can pick if you want Ken to Gain SP or lose SP each battle. - And similar to the previous point, Ken's personality is also every time he gets action, which again means you can trigger it 2 or 3 times in a single turn, which makes it really spammable in tartarus.

[@bainz]

Hmm, yeah if you Shift over to him, you could farm the SP regen more often. I just... generally Shifted over to MC. I also didn't unlock Ken's characteristic til fairly late, and before that point, his SP seemed to disappear pretty quickly. And by the time I had the characteristic unlocked, every party member felt like they had infinite SP (albeit at a slower rate), cause I had the Invigorate 2/3 accessories.

[@PJonly]

@@bainz and I think you used ken in the wrong way, ken is the best member, taking yukari out of my party, I used aigs yukari and ken, ken with his barriers being quite strong, any buff on the enemy he could debuff to then apply debuff so ensuring that the enemy doesn't have a buff he can give barriers to people like yukari to guarantee survival or mc so it's simply a situation where you focused on making him a healer while in reality he serves for survival and deskaja aids removing in buffs

[@1tsjustpasta]

and to add to this ken has the second best theurgy in the entire game, your team could be half dead with ken and the mc both having a foot in the grave and with two buttons everyone is at full health with one hit being reflected (except almighty)

[@JustMeSavy]

@@1tsjustpastabut yukari (and aigis with marakukaja) can prevent that situation from happening in the first place while providing more utility. Ken is good but his role compression is ultimately too niche in comparison to other party members

[@helpihavebats6392]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@JustMeSavywhat Utility does Yukari provide? Her big thing is that she heals and does wind damage? Sukunda is pretty bad. Ken can cover up Someones weakness with Makra or set up reflect damage with Tetra or Remove enemy Buffs with Dekaja. Mediarahan is all Ken really needs.

[@DBC8O]

Great video, bainz! Always love to see your content and especially your Persona and party builds. We built the characters pretty similarly for the most part. I ran Breaks on Yukari and Mitsuru, but honestly I didn't use those skills very often. In retrospect I would have done Neuro Slash or another ailment skill on Mitsuru; not sure about Yukari. I opted not to keep Diarahan since Healing Apex makes Mediarahan only cost 11 SP, and I always found it worth the extra 6 SP to top everyone off. I struggled a lot with Junpei since he learns so many good skills. I ultimately chose to drop Marakukaja since Aigis has it and you can also get it as a consumable from the antique shop. I wanted to keep Gigantic Fist so he had full access to the physical triangle in case something resisted slash/pierce. I thought his crit rate was terrible in the early game too, but he improved after getting his upgraded characteristic. Also, it's worth noting that Insta-Heal can be dropped on Aigis when she gets her best armor (which nulls ailments), though that comes pretty late.

[@bainz]

Thanks! Yeah I haven't gotten around to getting Aigis' best gear, what would replace Insta-Heal though, maybe just Diarahan?

[@DBC8O]

@@bainz Yeah, probably either that or Dekunda. Maybe Diarahan since it's easy to not get debuffed if you're diligent about maintaining buffs, but I found I had so many Beads and equivalent items by endgame from dorm activities, Tartarus, and such.

[@michaelbesser5348]

Thank you for the list! Also, in the Jen segment, all I can say is that I couldn't agree more with the point on Heat Riser. In my opinion, I think it's not bad per say, but I actually prefer the Ma-X-kaja over the Heat Riser by a signifigant margin.

[@thetactlesstactician7703]

I feel like mentioning Dekaja on Ken is important for the mid game. Because a lot lf enemies like buffing one stronger enemy and Ken can just get rid of that which protects your team quite well.

[@Superstarearth]

Hey there pretty ok list. I learn a bit more for this video but I will say that there was a few things I felt like you kinda missed in this. Ken is more under rated having three types of attacks makes his kit super useful just like Koromaru. Ken learns a heavy piece move a bit later on where it deals extra damage on downed foes. Having the combo of Ken, Koro and main protag having a pretty decent physical sweep with two good element attacks makes his utility much higher overall with a massive self heal SP with back up healer. I would say single person revive is a wasted slot for Ken's kit. At end game I had enough items for downed people. But his ult move being able to bring someone back also full heal party also give double shield is overpowered as hell. Ken is the tool box of the team while being able to deal damage in anyway you need at a given moment. Koromaru has some good physical moves even for late game that helps his kit round off better that. Also you failed to mention the auto debuffs at the start of each fights if you have certain characters which really really helped with golden hand grinding and less setup turns.

[@Alexeiyeah]

Funnily enough, Junpei has been, consistently, one of the most reliable teammates since the transition from early to middle game. Many Tartarus bosses not being weak to something make the fight a bit harder, but if they don't resist all physical damage basically can hit them with a critical many times. I mean, it was not everytime, but often enough that he and Yukari could become the most fixed party members, if I didn't want to train everybody a little bit for my amusement.

[@yukiyuhi1993]

Yukari is so amazing with her healing skills, but honestly Ken is good too!

[@NameNick-ro6oz]

Cant wait for the persona q2 character tier list

[@solismax65]

What I did with yukari is give her aliment resist, late game I gave her the jewelry that made her immune to all ailments

[@williammaier2988]

My final party ended up being Yukari, Koro, and Ken. Yukari was the necessary white mage, Koro was too good of a boy not to add, and then I felt bad for Ken so I had a well thought out and put together team.

[@yukarimi3224]

The first time I played FES (Way back into 2016) that was my party lol

[@tylerhurst1046]

Seeing as Yukari was in my party 24/7, Aigis, Akihiko, and Koromaru were all flex picks, and Junpei and Ken never really saw much action, I agree with this list 100%. I didn't get as much use out of Mitsuru as I would've liked to, but she was good any time I needed her to be.

[@sp4rcky]

Great list! The only one I actually disagree is Koro-chan. Based on my own experience ofc this dog SMASHES, he literally can solo tartarus from the moment he joins the team up until late game. I've been playing on merciless btw. It feels like the majority of the shadows are weak to his elementals, and even when they aren't, getsu-ei + auto tarukabellion from his armor that you can buy fairly early from the antique shop + distressed enemies from ambush = almost guaranteed crit. He also joins your party the same month as Shinji, and I don't even have to say the synergy they have, trivializing any fight, even bosses. He is very SP hungry yes, but SP items are very accessible and also Fuuka can take care of that. He just gets better as the game progresses. Definitely Best tier for me, or at least top of Great ahead of Mitsuru.

[@kentan9387]

I agree! Koro is top-tier, just too good and useful to omit from the party. You forgot to mention the auto-masukunda

[@PKshockwave]

Listen, he is mandatory. The coverage, crits, auto masukunda? He's amazing 👏

[@lucasammartino3974]

I think overall Yukari is on another level of usefulness then the other party members. She has no downsides, she covers every type of healing a party may need, she can be a decent offensive option and can buff and charge the party. In the early game also being able to apply Pulinpa can cheese lots of fights given the low resistance to ailments on the first floors of Tartarus. I completed the game using Yukari, Ken and Koro. I mainly choose Ken and Koro to help MC to hit enemy weakness and I think, especially when Koro learns auto masukunda, the best options for exloring tartarus. That being said, while Koro was a great choice even during boss battles, Ken struggled a lot. He is a very slow character, he fill lots of roles but cannot keep up with all of them enough to be a great party member during long boss fights. I wanted to mention one thing on Aigis that you didn't said in the video and that is the main reason I never used her instead of Ken. Aigis unfortunately is being held back by how powerful Yukari is in P3R. They both share an electric weakness and since Yukari is a must on every party, that means that Aigis is usually not a great choice to use with her

[@thechocobros2568]

Them sharing a weakness is almost never relevant.

[@doomslayer8985]

Just equip Electro evasion buffs lol

[@kentan9387]

Lol Aigis is a tank, she's the last party member you need to worry about dying, similar to Ryuji in P5R. Plus she got enduring soul

[@R2szoo2]

Just beat the game for the first time and stuck hard with Yukari, Mitsuru, and Akihiko. Tried to keep Junpei for a while but he just wasn't cutting it with the crits. Tried out all the new team members as they came, even leveling them up with the clock and they just never quite found their groove for me. Aigis and Koromaru definitely intrigued me the most though. I would definitely give them more of a shot on a replay.

[@tuffemily1431]

Okay thabk you for the the explanation on Akihiko i was so confused about why his condition relied on buffs but he only had the agility buff, and he seemed to be charging anyway sometimes so i was a bit confused.

[@Tom-vx7qh]

The way I see it, there are two types of teams you can have, the Yukari Team, and the Koromaru Team. Yukari Team would look something like: Yukari, Mitsuru, and either Akihiko for damage output, or Ken for survivability Koromaru Team would look something like: Koromaru, Aigis, and your choice of Junpei for raw damage and self-sustain, Akihiko for a mix of damage and support, Ken for a dedicated healer with a little extra damage from with Vile Assault, or Shinji. Alternatively, there is another secret third team build that I would like to dub "Fuck em up Akihiko" which looks something like: Yukari, Koromaru, and Akihiko. This team has one simple goal, Koromaru debilitates the enemy and gives team-wide charge. Yukari provides support and gives team-wide concentrate. And then Akihiko raises hell with boosted God's Hand, Ziodyne, and his theurgy attacks. I've been using just about every party member and all of them can feel strong in the right team comp, although Ken has felt the most lacking by far, due to his overlap with Yukari as a dedicated healer, without having Yukari's extreme strengths. Overall though I do love the changes made to party member balance compared to FES, where there was basically no reason to use anyone besides Yukari, Akihiko, and Aigis. I'm glad they're really finding their footing with designing the teammates, they got close with Royal but kinda messed up and made the Ryuji + Makoto combo way too strong compared to everyone else.

[@ShadowOfMassDestruction]

Lmao I love team "F*ck em up Akihiko"

[@DoneThatSeenThat]

The only tier list I agree with 100%

[@jackmck8644]

Junpei never came off my party. I gave bro every strength card I got. Paid off soooooo hard late game

[@Anthony-fz9ye]

I didn’t know you could do that lol 🤦‍♂️

[@ThomBaws]

I'm surprised you didn't mentioned Dekaja for Ken. Literally SUCH a good buff to his moveset. Tartarus enemies love spamming buffs and Heat Riser. He was pretty much a mainstay in my party because of that

[@JustinPinedaMedia]

Yukari is super useful with Pulinpa which that along with Tentrafoo with Mitsuru are broken. Being able to have a higher chance to crit with normal attacks to save HP/SP.

[@andychua2766]

Good list i do think aigis is better than koro tho since by the late game youd have a lot of debilitating sutras. Playing on merciless having aigis be such a tank is so nice. At the end of it i gave her firm stance on an accessory to make her an unkillable support with sometimes really good dmg if fuuka charges her.

[@ConstantioMahardika]

Main party should be Mitsuru, Yukari, Aigis and Fuuka.. Be-because they're cute..

[@NekkoBlue]

I ran a Aigis/Shinjiro/Koromaru glass cannon type team back in September it felt hella satisfying starting a turn with Koro using Revolution, Aigis using her phys skills and Orgia Mode, Shinji using his own already hard-hitting phys skills, and seeing the crits come in like crazy. I haven't tested it myself since I felt like I was getting too overleveled at that point but I imagine putting Junpei in place of Shinjiro when he leaves would do wonders considering how hard he rebounds lategame.

[@Raveiw]

I have to say this game has the best party members in persona they are so well balance and good for almost every situacion, i had a loot of fun just swaping my party for almost holle game, my final party was koromaru for debuff yukari for her god healing and aigis buff and of course the MC to nuke everything

[@ramenpower8097]

The most well-written cast too

[@narasnek]

Every character is made to have a better synergy with others but overall every character has their strengths and weaknesses. Yukari is a great a healer, but she is really frail and lot of the gatekeepers use electricity. The strength of Yukari is managing SP and casting Party concentrate and masukunda. The weakness of Yukari is that she can't stand so much damage and the fact she doesn't get Salvation, making her a worst healer than the MC and having to spend turns in healing and curing ailments. Junpei is made to do criticals, and resist a lot of damage, also with marakukaja improves the defense in a grim situation, also learn each type of physical attack, he recovers his HP each turn and his second theurgy is really strong. His weakness is that he doesn't get ap pupil, charge or any physical amp. Akihiko is made to be a jack of trades: debuff attack and buff speed, gets evade ice, gets Elec boost and amp, gets a single target colossal damage with god hand. His theurgias shock most of the time. His weakness is that unless you play in Merciless debuffing attack is not that important, but in merciless is really important, he doesn't get any buff for his physical damage, shock is a really good ailment but it doesn't work like in fes, where Shock was broken. Mitsuru is made freeze everything and do massive damage with ice, also has really good dubuff with marakunda and eventually with his second theurgia an almighty attack that debilitate, also you can concentrate her two theurgias and with her ultimate weapon gets magic ability outdamaging all the magic carters with the exception of the mc. Mitsuru is more frail than Yukari, doesn't have so much HP and doesn't learn ice amp, is a glass cannon. Aigis is the buffer, but also the most resistant of all party members, she is made to endure damage while she buff the party and undo the debuff, also recovers faster of ailments, her second theurgy is very powerful. His first theurgy is powerful but make her overheat and not being controllable, without her theurgy she can't do anything to enemies that null or drain physical damage. Doesn't learn charge. Doesn't do much physical damage compared to other character unless she is under the efffect of orgia mode. Koromaru is a physical support character, learns Revolution, learns debilitate, can cover 3 elements with its attacks, can do almighty damage, can make another character recover sp. His second theurgy is a party charge. Starts the game with two theurgies, can cast masukukaja, learns getsuei, is the fastest character in the game. Doesn't have so much SP, is really weak to insta kills. Ken is a more support oriented healer, his theurgia charge the faster when he is low on sp, can cover three elements, learns dekaja, learns makararn, tetrakarn and heat riser, is a little less frail than Yukari, his second theurgy is the most broken skill in the game outside Armageddon. Is weak to insta kills, doesn't get elec amp, his sp pool is low, can't heal ailments, no salvation Shinjiro funnily enough is made to be the most resistant character in the game outside of the MC getting firm stance, debilitate, endure. His theurgy charges faster if he receives damage, bloody charge is broken, can recover Hp, gets charge. Auto heat riser, his theurgy with bloody charge do a lot of damage. Can't do anything outside of his theurgy if the enemy nulls physical damage, is a temporary party member, only has a theurgy, is really slow. SSS MC SS None S Yukari/ Koromaru/ Ken A Junpei (end game)/ Mitsuru/ Akihiko B Aigis/ Shinjiro/ Junpei ( Start to middle game)

[@Joey-nc5cf]

I plan on running mitsuru (I plan on building even the mc around buffing her which includes the mc having ice break), yukari and akihiko but when koro gets debilitate I’ll use akihiko as a flex slot due to koro taking over. Yukari and mitsuru will be in my team for the whole game

[@termina2737]

I’m halfway through September and so far just been using Yukari, Mitsuru, and Aigis.

[@RealNikTrustMe]

i really have to try late-game Junpei sometime. crit builds seem to be the best in the game, and with Koromaru Power Howling and an auto-matarukaja, you can get both Junpei and the MC to hit stupidly hard while ignoring resistances with their best weapons

[@yukotrey9422]

Yukari is the only character that stayed on the team the whole playthrough. She was like 1 level under the Mc when everybody else was like 5+ ( ken was like 40 under, I didn't use him last his debut month, plus reaper kill)

[@Elsuya_Milo]

18:10 Is it actually random? Her Theurgy for me seemed to react to conditions in the fight (she would most often than not heal hp/sp or ailments if the conditions applied) But also, after she aquired Juno, her theurgy gave me Charge/Concentrate over Party Heat Riser more often, but idk why.

[@lucasammartino3974]

I got the same feeling. I've just completed the game on merciless and everytime Fuuka was ready to use her Theurgy I waited to use it when I was low on SP so that I could have a higher chance to heal back my SP without using the clock.

[@lucasammartino3974]

Not sure why and how the acquisition of Juno changes the AI of the Theurgy, but I too noticed the difference

[@bainz]

Yeah, not truly random. If you're low HP/SP, she will prioritize restoring those. If you have many buffs, she'll prob Charge/Concentrate you, etc. I didn't keep track of her AI before getting Juno or after, so I couldn't say

[@nosignal2240]

The reason Mitsuru's second Theurgy is almighty is because it's supposed to be a more powerful version of life drain, as she does get that move. You can pretty clearly see in the animation that she drains something from the enemy and then destroys it.

[@fkim96]

Or it could be because if it was Ice based, there would actually be no reason to use her first theurgy since they're both single target.

[@RafikiafReKo]

My comp I've been running is Yukari, Mitsuru and Koromaru. The coverage is already good enough, but I would put Mitsuru on the best tier with Yukari just because how good defense debuff is. Also, having Concentrate is extra good when you have Theurgy. I honestly don't know who could replace her

[@arael2773]

I have the exactly same composition as you, I couldn't agree more. I love debuffing m'y opponents way to much, Doggo for Debilitate and it's the crit festival for MC with a full strike Persona. Yukari's here to save my butt in case I greed too much while trying to crit xD

[@InitialDrifterZ]

Junpei, Yukari, and Koromaru. Yukari spams heals, and the rest of them hit hard with physical. Especially when Koro learns debilitate.

[@christianwhite7294]

Ngl I’m moving junpei up a tier, you’re right about the early- mid game I just used him to save sp on fire weak enemies and weak physical enemies, but it all changed as you said when I apt pupil skill card through shuffle and his crit boost characteristic. Then I forged him a crit boost sword and got the omega drive acc. Then used power incense on him and he became devious monster. End game I just used debilitate with satan into a vorpal blade or whatever the situation called for and i was erasing everybody 😂 I didn’t even bother getting his ulti. At lvl like 82 I was doing like 2,000 damage no atk buff per turn with him Your final boss team recommendation was my team minus koro for junpei, nyx never had a chance. Basically mc and yukari healing and magic offense, and junpei and Aigis going crazy with her buffing and both doing physical damage

[@tekwizwa]

I think the reason Mitsuru’s second theurgy does allmighty damage is because there would be NO reason to use her first theurgy otherwise, even at it’s current state your probably going to use the first theurgy 5% of the time just to hit a weakness and get a shift or an all out attack, but most of the time MASSIVE damage WITH DEBILITATE in one move makes it a contender for one of the best theurgys in the game or at least top 5

[@tekwizwa]

TLDR it does almighty because there’s no reason for that theurgy to be stronger than it already is lol

[@spongbobsquarepants3922]

@@tekwizwa It also does not look like an ice type attack.

[@billclintonsmagicbeefarm5799]

I feel like there's still some incentive for her first one since I would imagine it would stack with her innate Ice Boost/Freeze boost, or maybe Ice Amp if you have it as her weapon

[@billclintonsmagicbeefarm5799]

Nvm lol I should have watched further because he brought this up too

[@CubeGuyOutHere]

I was running junpei mitsuru and yukari the whole game. Was using shinji instead of junpei when he got introduced to the party but had no idea what happened to him in the story which made me quite sad when the thing happens. I was also running the phys MC build the whole game and it trivialized so many gatekeepers, siegfried was absurdly broken

[@priestessjuno]

Well snap. My final party was Yukari, Ken, and Junpei. I feel like my play through and my husband’s had Junpei doing crits…every other battle or so. Besides I never used Junpei before so felt like it was a challenge!

[@zhewitt24]

I used Yukari Junpei and Mitsuru pretty much exclusively post lvl 70, i didn't see a huge use for Aigis ever bc i didn't know when i was gonna be facing someone who resisted physical moves and figured occasionally having a fire weakness with Junpei could potentially be useful, even though he has awful magic scaling and doesn't even get decent moves till later, i mostly used the MC and for buffing and debuffing and went for high physical moves for crits on Junpei and shielded Mitsuru and had her use concentrate to blow up enemies with her strong ice moves. Honestly had i not had bad luck using Aigis earlier with her weakness always being hit, I'd probably have tried her more but I didn't see her buffs as too relevant since i was using the MC as a buffer and physical damage dealer in the moments that mattered so i found myself passing turns with Aigis never using her SP or getting nuked by her weaknesses

[@JamesCastle-vd1lc]

i honestly just love that they all have crippling weaknesses which makes you really think about who to bring for each battle but with that said, i had an enormous amount of success with aigis, mitsuru, and ken in the last quarter or so. once ken could fully heal the party and mitsuru got concentrate it was fckn over for tartar sauce.

[@watermelon3306]

Koromaru’s ultimate weapon is insane, giving him +9 to all stats and ali dance. He synergies with Aigis and MC very well once you unlock him, which makes him the best party member in my opinion, especially in endgame.

[@TheMysteriouswatcher]

Shinjiro: *guess I'll die*

[@danceswithchihuahuas]

You don’t use Ken well; Heat Riser is a “this turn you get all your buffs back” spell you use on a Concentrated or Charged target who just lost their attack buff, or a Debilitate answer, or to refresh one of the buffs you need but wore off/was removed right before the boss attacks. Ken mostly exists to make sure enemies don’t get Knock Downs on your weak targets. He’s great for Reaper or forcing Megidolaon casts you can just heal through rather than having a Shadow get a 1 More and, say, buff themselves or attack again.

[@9flashfreeze]

A couple things I'll add for mitsuru is mc can get those sprint skills that automatically cause distress when you ambush enemies and since she's one of the faster party members I began almost every non boss encounter with her critting and that immediately led to shift boosts so that's why she was an easy pick for that synergy. That and she's the only character other than protag that gets spirit drain so completing entire sections of Tartarus in a single night was easy with her and mc farming sp from low lv enemies

[@Skuroh]

Koro was gonna be an option late game for me, but I had debilitate on masakado so there was no point. My team from mid to late game stayed Yukari, Mitsuru, and Aki.

[@bronntoise]

Only change I'd make to your Yukari build is Pulinpa over Diarahan. Mediarahan ends up costing basically nothing so Diarahan can be foregone completely.

[@Infighter]

Not gonna lie, i felt like koromaru was insane the moment it got auto-masukunda. Rebellion + that + aoe charge + high spd (and even masukaja if you dont have the autoversion) just made him super valuable. You can actually feel the difference when he isnt around lol

[@tyreczb6988]

I used Yukari, Aigis and Akihiko for the Heals, all buffs and all coverage of physical attacks. Switching the main damage dealer depending on the weaknesses.

[@blue_storybook3230]

You forgot to mention Mitsuru also learn Spirit Drain, a flat out 20 sp heal is a lot and is a very good way to self sustain SP from early - mid game.

[@mccormicka80]

Aigis being in the great in third place is a big question mark. She resit 2 physical attacks and nul pierce which is amazing. Endgame enemies tend to not elemental weakness is why she dominate also. Other placement I agree on and great video

[@stargodhoshi5695]

I am still on my playtgrough of the game but for right now I usually always have Yukari as my Healer and Akihiko because of his punching with me. The last slot is usually random for any of the ones who have slashing damage as their main way of attack. But I also tend to shift around my team if I need to (just recently I did the wire boss and my team was MC, Yukari, Shinji and Mitsuru)

[@kzxkzxkzx]

I can relate to this ranking. Just finished the game for the first time on merciless with Yukari-chan, Mitsuru-chan and Akihiko-san as my main team. Aigis-chan and Koromaru-chan just barely didn't make it in the team. I never missed Iori-kun or Amada-san.

[@Kagetora-]

I used everyone

[@Temperance_XVII]

I’ve used that team the entire time

[@mavriiick]

I think Yukari, Akihiko, and Aigis share the best team comp with Yukari, Junpei, and Korumaru. Aigis and Akihiko share great synergy with Akihiko's characteristics and all the buffs they can spread. You could even have Diarahan on all of them if you wanted to be as safe as possible, plus Akihiko nulls the electric weakness the other two share. The other team comp is really just leaning towards simple debuffs and big damage, but it still works insanely well. Debilitate, revolution, and all of Junpei's late game stuff just work so well together. Yukari is even there to patch Junpei up after spamming physical attacks. Only problem with Yukari, Akihiko, Aigis is that the MC would be relegated to the debuffer. Same thing with Yukari, Junpei, Korumaru. Only the MC can consistently raise attack there.

[@jennadiah]

definitely agree with a lot of this list!! Yukari easily the best party member, and arguably the only “mandatory” include. i think if [REDACTED] stayed in the story then they’d definitely be up there in “best” but definitely not as good as Yukari, just due to how much they buff themselves up rather freely. personally would have Koromaru below Mitsuru and Aigis as i feel like it just takes far to long for him to get debilitate, and his move set in general feels a lil on the weaker side. in late game though it can really be whatever combo you enjoy the most

[@kartikayysola]

If [REDACTED] stayed in the story you could literally just build a party around him and Junpei and nuke absolutely everything lmfao. Maybe keep Yukari around for healing duty.

[@Kaigiro]

@@kartikayysolaSiegfried Crit build, [REDACTED], Junpei, and Yukari would absolutely feast. Even more so if you consider that [REDACTED] gets fucking auto Heat Riser in his skill set, but unfortunately he gets [REDACTED] before anyone could ever see that

[@SpacePrincessPuppet]

My final team was actually Yukari, Aigis, and the goodest boy himself Koromaru. I kept Yukari around because she is unequivocally the GOAT. Koromaru I kept for magic(the real reason was I refused to remove him from the team, because I love him too much) And Aigis did lots of heavy phys damage + buffs

[@Thousandeyes85]

That was my final team too!

[@derekmarquez8496]

Yuraki as the medic and health assistant in the party is so wonderfully helpful …

[@unknowngorgon5465]

After finishing my first playthough, I can definitely agree with Ken’s spot. While he has great healing and can support well with his different attack options, I feel ironically his second theurgy is the weakest part of his kit. I never used it one time in the entire playthrough, as I was never in a position where multiple party members fall without either the MC falling resulting in a game over, or Ken also falling which ruins the point of his theurgy altogether. I feel if he was able to use it as a get out of jail free card in response to the MC falling in battle it would be better, but even then I feel it would be underwhelming since there are accessories and skills that revive MC once per battle.

[@Mikey_573]

Ken's second theurgy is absolutely busted. The revival part of it is just a nice bonus and I never used this skill for that. The full party Tetrakarn and Makarakarn is ridiculous. It guarantees your whole party safety from the next physical AND the next (non-almighty) magic attack or ailment skill, and can do huge damage to enemies especially if they charge up (given they don't block their own attacks). This along with the full healing the skill already gives means you'll probably be safe for the next few rounds. His theurgy gauge also charges super fast when he's below half SP, so it can almost be spammed. Starting any gatekeeper fight with this move is essentially a win button. Seriously, try it out and you won't be disappointed. This skill pretty much single-handedly won me the reaper right in the level 60s on merciless. So yeah, you can say I disagree with Ken's placement lol.

[@stormclouds4291]

Great video, as for Persona 5 Royal, you always have been my personal "get good" guide haha. I just would like to ask you a question tho: how come that every teammate that you showcased had their natural weaknesses nullified?

[@bainz]

Thanks! Late game, the Antique Store has Null Element accessories available

[@stormclouds4291]

@@bainz Thank you! :D

[@redragon88]

@@bainz I scrolled to confirm this as well since in the video they were carrying other accessories so I thought there was some alternate method to it.

[@PKshockwave]

Right now, I'm in mid game and Koromaru and Yukari are staples. Ken with the walls is a Godsend and him recovering sp constantly i find is good with how expensive his skills are.

[@Eduardo-ll7eg]

I just had a thought, about how aigis with her ultimate armor from the antique shop learns null ailment, i gtg see what I replace insta heal now…

[@Ravioli638]

Correction: The great clocks appears after you spend a certain number of twilight fragments in Tartarus.

[@Kagetora-]

Always thought it was random

[@Ravioli638]

@@Kagetora- At least in reload the game tells you

[@GremDisaster]

That's the great thing about Ken's abilities, theurgy, and characteristics. You don't really have to hold back too much because he will always have SP, and keeping him low on SP 24/7 is pretty damn easy. So not only can he go ham more than most, he has multiple weaknesses to attack, is great for healing/support AND his theurgy comes back fast as hell! The ONLY negative i have experienced is keeping him TOO low on SP will prompt Fuuka to restore everyone's SP rather than the team wide heat riser with her theurgy. -_- Overall i find Ken much better than Yukari.. unfortunately I'm just not a huge fan of Ken as a character :P

[@santabakure6264]

I’m not bragging or anything but didn’t use any buffers in late game because I had persona specifically built to cast auto-buffs right in the beginning of battle, koromaru then debuffed enemy and everyone is strong enough to deal lots of damage Sound good by me That’s solely the reason I dropped Ken off my team since there was yukari with all the healing you could possibly need and bottomless sp

[@henrychen310]

In the final boss, I might even do Koromaru, Junpei, and Yukari. Koromaru’s party charge and revolution help Junpei, Debilitate helps against boss. Yukari’s party concentrate saves MC a turn. Junpei has everything to be a crit monster. But MC still has to reapply buffs when Fuuka and starting buffs run out. Assuming you can clear each arcana in a turn, that’s half the arcana without worrying about buffs. The other half of the fight, I guess Junpei can buff defense, and MC, Yukari, or Kuro can apply buffs with items, which is kind of a cop out. I’d have Yukari apply one buff every turn, Kuro pop another, and then MC charges or concentrates, although debilitate kinda sucks in that fight since the debuff goes away with each arcana and each individual arcana doesn’t have much health, all it takes is a single theurgy gauge to take it out.

[@pforgottonsoul]

my current team is the harem group for the memes which still works surprising well outside of having 2 zio weaknesses.

[@advancedpie]

i used yukari, mitsuru, and junpei. mostly bc these are characters i like + i didnt use junpei or mitsuru in FES despite rlly liking them. mitsuru and junpei have rlly good synergy together bc her freezes guarantee that junpei gets his theurgy faster.

[@citrufruit]

the moment aigis gained marakukaja i permanently had her on my team lmao and when ken got the sp restore characteristics he got a permanent spot too

[@Hyp3rSonic]

Imo, all of them are very good. All of them are viable.

[@axeltheroyalnine4780]

Really the biggest issue is not even the team since their actually all good. My issue is souly on how they fix what dint need to be fixed which is how the exp works here. In persona 5 every team would be able to gather experience points even if they weren't apart of the main party. This help alot for experiencing how all the characters worked without having to worry about grinding. The great clock just feels like a step backwards and it's even worse that it shows up rarely.

[@brimple]

damn I've been using the best team comp the whole time

[@eiscue2601]

Yukari stayed with me for the whole ride and id say a mix of mitsuru amada and koromaru mostly did it for me !

[@reavershank8985]

I used the exact same team with Yukari, Koromaru and Aigis. Physical attack were so broken in this game leaving more SP for healing and boosts

[@Dante7652]

I slapped on that one knife that gives Koromaru uhhh a think its Apt Pupil in English (クリティカル大UP in Japanese) and over 80% of his attacks are straight up crits. I didnt even bother to use his final weapon because Koro's just so broken.

[@Tainsty]

this is my first persona game. I brought junpei to every single fight. My 🐐

[@BeefinOut]

Mitsuri with an ice amp accessory spamming Diamond Dust was my main damage dealer by the end, she's nuts

[@RayRMT]

I use Ken a lot and while like his SP generation while exploring, his support capabilities and OP theurgy... he isn't strong enough to say carry you against an enemy your whole part is dying like the Reaper cause he loses his theugy meter on death and on other enemies it feels like overkill to shield everyone against attacks that Yukari can just heal off. He sounds powerful on paper but I think devs gave him some counterproductive mechanics to represent his inexperience as a child, maybe??

[@circusmonster415]

My usual team tends to be Yukari, Akihiko and Mitsuru. Occasionally swapping out others for certain bosses.

[@CrashperM]

In my eyes, Ken tries to be a jack of all traits but a master of none. That sounds quite good. Especially if you consider that that's what mc does but with only 8 moves, it's hard to pull anything off. Plus, konumaru and Yukatan just do everything ken tries to do but better. Yukari's healing is way cheaper and more diverse. And korumaru does more light/dark damage while also having access to more useful support skills.

[@Xorital]

It seems using mitsuru and junpei in tandem would be a interesting combo

[@mistaek1959]

The party I used to defeat the reaper for the first time was p much level 76 CRITpei, Akihiko and Koromaru. I went in with A LOT of homunculi, but with buffs and debuffs, the insta kills didn't hit once. Next, I tried to go Yukari + Mitsuru + Koromaru and they just kept dying so eventually I just gave up and replaced Aki with Ken. His second theurgy is GOATED.

[@blazesona12]

Correct me if im wrong, but isn't junpei's 2nd theurgy skill basically samarecarm? (The one he gets after he gets his evolved persona)