So after reading some comments it seems I misunderstood how Akihiko's Characteristics work, sorry about that. His Characteristic just states that it "increases the effects of buffs on himself". I thought this simply EXTENDED the time buffs lasted on him like how Wealth of the Lotus worked in P5R. Instead it seems it actually increases the amount he is buffed by compared to everyone else. With that in mind I would put him probably in A tier with the physical attackers. I think people are overestimating how much this matters since it only puts him in striking (lol) distance of the MC's damage potential. However this obviously makes him better than I thought and brings him in line with most of the other party members. In my defense they mistranslated how to charge his Theurgy gauge charged and nobody in chat pointed this out to me. Not even the people who no life the game and finished the game in a week. Which means this is a common misperception or the game didn't clearly explain how it worked. Obviously though I want to give good info though so I'll pin this comment with the correction.
For anyone that says Akihiko sucks in this game, thats far from the truth; he is by far the best damage dealer you have; the problem is you have to be aware of and utilize weapons you get from the antique shop. He gets a weapon that gives Strike Amp on it, which greatly increases his physical damage. No other character gets that buff You also have to factor in his passives, which you brought up for everyone but him it looks like. The effects he gets off of the 3 buffs (attack/defense/agility) get a multiplicative increase when they are applied to him. They do not have to be applied mid battle, as long as he is buffed in some way, his passive activates. Examples include an auto-buff persona from the MC or give him an accessory that gives him auto-tarakuja at the start of the battle. Not to mention his theurgy gets the bonus increase at the start of his turn as long as he has a buff equipped; so if he does by MC or an accessory, his theurgy charges the fastest out of everyone. Just with his endgame weapon and an attack buff equipped; Gods Hand legit hits harder than most if not all non-MC Thuergies except his own. But he isnt just good endgame; as far as mid game goes he can get an elec amp accessory far earlier than other characters get their respective elements, so midgame his damage will mainly be from electrical attacks; but he is still hitting just as hard. So overall, while Akihiko doesnt get any notable buff/debuffing skills; he instead is THE damage dealer of the team, and is a top tier party member. Also Defense Down on Mitsuru is all you ever need on her to be a mainstay as that gives such a huge damage boost, esp for Akihiko. You could have MC do that job if you want but MC will prob be better off setting himself up for phyiscal damaage /targeting weaknesses. Yukari's Mind Charge Theurgy also pairs well with Akihiko's Theurgies, and Mitsuru if you use her.
on god I used to be a akihiko hater before the game came out, now he's a top 2 party member imo. He consistently out damages everyone else in terms of magic and physical
Thanks for the in-depth and long comment! Yeah as people have made clear to me in the comments I messed up on how his characteristics work. I thought it was a reuse of the "Wealth of the Lotus" passive from P5R rather than a new and significant mechanic. I do think that the game could have explained it a bit better but it's something I probably could've figured out if I used him more and paid closer attention to him. He does seem like he would be pretty good mid to late game with that knowledge. I think you're right that the weapons and accessories are really effective at giving part members different "specializations". There was some of that in the original game as well but now you can choose which skills people learn and keep so you have a lot more flexibility there. It's something I've really liked about P3's equipment system. I think looking back some of my bias in how I play may have crept in. I really like messing around with Persona fusion and making builds for them. And obviously the MC is always going to do the most damage in the mid to late game if you're min maxing like that. So I tend to value party members who can support the MC in his damage dealing role. I still think for general play Akihiko get's edged out on electric coverage because of Ken. Since Ken's 2nd Theurgy is so good you always want him around for that. And Junpei and Aigis have better coverage overall I think for physical. But I can see how he'd be great in late game and replace one of the other two for boss fights where you want to deal as much damage as possible.
Something to note about Akihiko is he is the only party member with a basic attack type of strike. So whenever you run into enemies with a strike weakness he's a nice way to getr all-out attacks off without spending hp or sp. Not a huge plus to him with the MC easily being able to cover and healing being plentiful, but something that one might want to take into account.
True, he was really good for that in FES. Especially since fists were great against the golden hands and some were weak to strike. He does get some single target strike skills as well which is nice. But both Junpei and Aigis get strike skills in this version of the game so strike coverage is easier due to that.
Mitsuru is cursed by the fact that magic was for some reason severly nerfed in this game compared to the original p3 + her losing access to ice amp ( literally the while thing that seperated her from Yukari as a mage in the original is the fact that she got access to both Ice Boost and Ice Amp while Yukari has to sacrifice bith her weapon and accessory to get them ) despite the fact that being a magic nuke is literally the only thing she has going for her, as she doesnt get any sort of utility outside of ailment skills that dont even affect bosses anyway. All dyne skills nerfed from 320 all the way down to 220 and all the severe magic spells nerfed from 650 to 600. This isnt helped by the fact that Atlus also decided to REALLY buff physical skills , for examole Gods Hand not only being buffed from 600 to 800, but also Atlus deciding to give physical skills boost/amp passives as well ( despite the fact that the only reason why physical skills have heigher bp than magic skills is solely to account for the absence of boosting passives ) this while also having crit boosting passives while Magic cant actually deal critical hits . Mitsurus whole entire point is to be a magic " nuke ", this completely falls apart in Reload because not only does she lose out on Ice Amp which means taht she has fo sacrifice an accessory/weapon slot just to comoensate, but also the fact that because of the massive physical buff ALL the ohysical party members outdamage her ( while none of the part member have access to any phys boost/amp abilites you can still give it to them via accessories ) in fact not only does Junpei VASTLY outdamages Mitsuru now, but Akihiko and Aigis ALSO outdamage her now with their physical attacks now, despite damage not even being their speciality. And while all the magic nerfs also affect Yukari, Koromaru and Ken they all have something else going for then ( theurgy attacks and healing ) so Mitsuru is the one who gets hit the hardest All this effectively transforms Mitsuru into a pure """ nuke """ that ranks 4th in the actual damage dealing department behind other members who still have a ton of other things to offer on top if their burst damage. You put her in B but honestly ? I feel like she deserves to be in D, she's legit the worst party member by a long margin
Thanks for the long post! I'll try to respond in an intelligent fashion. I think that magic in the original P3 was too good in comparison to physical. So I understand Atlus wanting to make physical skills better. Honestly I hope that P6 carries forward the physical as three different types as well as the support skills for each type like we've seen in P3R and now Metaphor. That said I'm not sure if the nerfs to magic were necessary. I agree with you that Mitsuru doesn't have enough damage output compared other party members and she doesn't have a unique skill that makes her worth using against bosses. I will say her unique characteristic does work well with Junpei for random enemies and certain bosses that are weak to ailments. But Junpei doesn't need her to be good. She doesn't even have access to debilitate outside of her second Theurgy. I don't know if I can put her in D though. One problem I had with this tierlist is that the difficulty felt so flat for P3R on my first playthrough. Between Theurgy and actually using the DLC personas I paid for, even Hard was really easy to a veteran like me. To the point where it actually changed how approach playing new Atlus games, ignoring all DLC personas until after beating the game once. That said, P3R base game is much easier than it's original PS2 counterpart. While playing through Episode Aigis recently I picked the Heartless difficulty and avoided using the DLC Personas until I got to Joker. I enjoyed that experience quite a bit more than P3R's version of Tartarus. Although that's partially due to other changes made compared to base game, but that's a whole other discussion. But I didn't use her much there either as Metis could hit Ice weaknesses and I had her in the party the entire time. Overall, as sad as it is, I think you're right that Mitsuru is the worst party member. I mean outside of Akihiko, who I didn't place properly, she WAS the one I put at the bottom. Such a shame as she was one of the best party members in the original. ..... As long as you properly scanned enemies so she wouldn't Marin Karin spam. 😅
Fair, he's my favorite "best friend" character the series has had so far. And the game balanced things out so all party members are fun to use. Just with a tierlist some things have to go towards the top or bottom.
You can set Kens Sp low via Hp equipment (Equip Hp - Use Healing Skill -Unequip Hp -repeat). He also has faster Theurgy Charge than Yukari and its actually fast enough be be spammed (so no need to really save it just pop it off). He also generally does more Damage than Yukari despite what her Mag may suggest. (The only point where Yukari does more is the period where she has access to Wind Amp accessories and Ken doesn’t but even then its a negligible amount).
Interesting, that Ken min-maxing is fun, if mostly unnecessary 😆 He definitely has better coverage than Mitsuru and find him better for actual fights than Yukari. But her healing powers are quite ridiculously good at times.
@@boxorileys to go all in on Ken min maxing For that Theurgy bit If i recall when facing a Boss if he is under half Max Sp, if theres one enemy debuffed, all party members have a buff, Ken has a Charge or Concentrate he’s willing to not use (these all contribute to Theurgy) and with Soul fortunes 1.3x Theurgy boost he he actually gets his Theurgy every other Turn if he alternates between a Karn Skill and Theurgy. Its really dumb but fun. (Yukari under these conditions can only get hers every 3 turns at most)
Fuuka is literally the best navigator no other navigator can do as much as she does. Also her theurgy upgrade just has a chance of better buffs and recovery
Rise in Golden is broken if you do all her bike rides. Similar with Futaba if you max out all her stuff. Biggest difference here is rather than a bunch of buffs that randomly proc you have a random buff you can activate on command.
Yeah, Lightning Spike (the first one) is the same as Mazionga (100) but with 20% chance to shock instead of 10%. His second one, Electric Onslaught, deals 200 damage and has an 80% to shock an enemy. Ziodyne does 220 with a 10% to shock, so slightly more damage. But the trade off for shock % isn't terrible. Just is a bit more situational as many bosses null shock.
Mitsuru's great to keep around for random Tartarus fights since her characteristic makes it even easier to crit enemies you ambush and her theurgy charges really quick.
You could if you turn Ken into a support hybrid character, but there are just better options. Because of how frail yukari is you’re better off just using Ken and having an MC persona with Amrita drop/shower
I was planning on doing this before I wanted to be able to run aoe debilitate (yukari, aki, mitsuru). Ken + yukari is really only worth it if ur using aigis, mitsuru or akihiko tbh. Koro is good if you’re only trying to buff mc but the other options are more balanced
Bro Akihiko literally is the best damage dealer in the game not counting the mc. Strike amp weapon, strike boost accesory, elec boost and amp. Not to mention buffs have a greater effect on him thanks to his traits. No one can compete with Akihiko's mid to late game potential.
Yeah that was my bad, I misunderstood how his characteristic works. Obviously that makes him a lot better than I said in the video. Although I will say that if you put that much effort (a specialized weapon and a specialized accessory) into any of the party members, they can put up some good damage.
@@boxorileys No one else has a strike amp weapon besides Shinjiro. Plus strike boost is an accessory you can get in the early game when the antique store opens. He really doesn't require that much investment. Junpei is great but he doesn't have much besides his personality trait to increase his Crit rate, he relies on other party members to boost his Crit rate. Not to mention Junpei's strongest skill is Brave Blade which is considerably weaker than Gods Hand.
@@thetactlesstactician7703 It's definitely true that Akihilo is the strongest single target Strike damage dealer. Sometimes even over the MC. I think you may be underestimating Junpei some though. His ultimate weapon gives him Apt pupil and his characteristic not only gives him Crit Boost and Amp but also increases the damage crits do. Meaning if he swings with his first Theurgy and crits he does quite a bit of damage.
@@boxorileys Junpei's late and endgame is certainly fantastic, however his early game and mid game is really bad. He doesn't learn many good skills at these points of the game besides maybe assault dive. Once his personality kicks in and he gets his late game gear he is definitely one of the best DPS. The only real downside to Akihiko's late game is that his second theurgy is magic and not physical. Meaning it can't Crit. Sure akihiko has the second or maybe third highest magic stat behind mitsuru but a phys theurgy would have been way too op. Edit: personally I think Koromaru is still the worst. He's good in random encounters, but in boss fights he's too frail and his only good boss fight skills are revolution and debilitate which he gets very late into the game. His characteristic is also no great in boss fights because he has to strike a weakness to charge faster and most bosses in the mid to late game don't have those. Auto masakunda is great though.
@@thetactlesstactician7703 Yeah Auto masakunda is pretty interesting. It's the first auto debuffing skill I've seen in an SMT or Persona game. All the characteristics for party members have been really good at making them valuable as those skills can't be obtained by the MC. They also bring up the overall power level of party members as it's effectively an extra passive slot which leaves more room for variety in their active skills. I feel like you're right about Junpei though, he's decent early game, falls off in the mid game, then comes back again in late game. It was kinda the same in FES and Portable. But in those games physical and crits weren't as strong.
nah, i used to be a akihiko hater but he's the only party member that can even come close to MC's damage with God's Hand, not to mention his high magic and strength really boost both of his theurgies in comparison to someone like junpei who's second theurgy hits like a feather because of his low magic stat
I don't think he's the only one. Both Junpei and Aigis can get close with crit builds. Stats are kinda wonky in this game as well since stat buffs can also apply to party members. They haven't been able to do that in a Persona game since P2 EP like 20 years ago. So you could technically get Junpei to a similar or higher magic attack than Mitsuru. But this tierlist was based on my experience just playing through the game without maxing everyone's stats out. That would probably change some placements, but it's not going to be the experience for most players. TBF I think a lot of people got the impression that I dislike Akihiko but it's more "eh kinda mid". Especially since he's still the GOAT in FES or Portable.
Junpei and Aigis hit harder with Theurgy 1 and Theurgy 2 respectively because phys theurgy is just op. But outside of theurgy Akihiko will always hit harder because Buff Amp is 1.3x multiplier while Junpei and Aigis's modifiers are 1.2x. He also hits harder than Mitsuru with magic for a majority of the game for the same reason. It's not until Mitsuru gets her final weapon and an Ice Amp accessory that she'll hit harder than him with regular magic. With Theurgy 2, Akihiko still hits harder than Mitsuru when it comes to magic damage.
The strongest party I had was doggo, junpei and ken. No other party is as strong as this. Crit machine, crit machine buffer (doggo) and full heal plus shield every 3 turns (ken) is absolutely bonkers. Yukari hardly makes it to A tier compared to that. Sorry. Physical damage is different league over magic, thats why yukari is way worse then you believe sir.
At least put the man in B tier, he still does alot of damage and tarunda is great for lowering boss damage. he also gets more damage out of being buffed compared to everyone else and now that mc cant switch weapons he provides coverage for Strike and his best weapon gives Strike Amp(?) put some Tarukabellion Boots on and away he goes.also his Theurgies can kill pretty much most things in one hit. without Ice break Mitsuru finds herself with almost no damage output and ailments never work on bosses most of the time
My tier list of the party members: 1. Yukari: With Healing Apex she can heal allies all the time she want and she charges her Theurgy every time she heals someone, which is the fastest character in charging her Theurgy, her wind skills are really good and she can give Concentrate to all the party and my favorite Persona girl in the franchise ❤❤❤💖💖💖👑👑👑 2. Koromaru: His dark and fire skills are really good, he has Debilitate to decrease all the enemy stats, Power Howl to give Charge to all allies, Revolution to increase the critical rate and he charges his Theurgy attacking the enemy weakness. 3. Ken: A really versatile character, Divine Intervention is easily the best Theurgy in the game without counting the Armageddon, he has Heat Riser to increase all the stats of one ally, Tetrakarn and Makarakarn. 4. Aigis: She's resistent to all the type of physical attacks, which is good, her characteristic increase the damage of her physical skills and she charges her Theurgy making physical attacks and with her Orgia Mode she becomes dangerous. 5. Fuuka: Her navigator skills are so much better than in the original and all her random buffs are so good, giving Heat Riser to all allies, Charge and Concentrate to all allies and completely restore and revive all allies with all the HP and SP. 6. Junpei: With his characteristic, he can become a critical hit machine, sadly that's the only thing good for him, his magic stat is really low. 7. Akihiko: He's not a bad party member, his electric and physical skills are still good and he's able to heal allies. 8. Mitsuru: She's the strongest magic attacker, but is not really well done, her characteristic is probably the worst, because the ailments in strong enemies and bosses are completely useless and she has Concentrate, but Yukari can give Concentrate to all the party members, so this doesn't make sense, sorry Mitsuru fans. 9. Shinjiro: He's a good party member, but just because you can only use him in one month is the reason why is in the bottom.
time to make a case for yukari being bad and mitsuru being good healing is so whatever in most fights. and fights you do need healing for items generally replicate it. not even like a lot of items either. they are cheap, you get a bunch from tartarus, and not every fight requires healing. outside of straight healing yukari...doesn't do much? poison bow is pretty great early on. group concentrate is good but comes VERY late. other than the she heals and does chip damage. also when ken joins hes better by like every metric and i also don't think ken is particularly good outside of divine intervention. mitsuru is more or less a rakunda bot. but mitsuru casting rakunda in a lot of fights (hierophant, lovers, chariot/justice, lots of midgame tartarus fights) is doing more than yukari or junpei can with their whole kit at that point in the game. she has other positives too. ailments while not useful for the whole game have their niche in the first half. she gets bufula pretty early so her damage output when she joins before you have access to super strong physical skills is pretty good. she falls off as the game goes on because she just can't keep up in damage and her skill list is so bloated with ailments and physical skills that just aren't very useful. but even then in a context where you say aren't grinding then just being able to cast rakunda is pretty good. you don't need to give her any special equipment for her to lower enemy defense, where as ken really wants light boost, junpei really wants slash boost, etc. mitsuru is not going to hit big flashy numbers vs endgame enemies but if you consider her contributions throughout the entire game i think shes really good and in a context where you don't grind shes one of the best characters in the game sorry for wall of text
No problem about the wall, I appreciate the time taken to write it all out. I think in retrospect maybe Yukari could have been dropped down to A tier. I think Mitsuru is good, just a little below the others in the late game. I mean I go back and forth on whether I like Mitsuru or Aigis more in this game. And I can't stand Yukari in FES, so the tierlist was just from a gameplay perspective 😂 But yeah, dropping defense is always useful and her second Theurgy is good for bosses. Good support and decent damage, but less useful in random battles. That's why I put her in B. In retrospect Atlus did such a good job balancing party members in this game I think this was the worst game I could've chosen to do a party member tierlist on. 😅 Since there's only one or two that stand above the rest with the rest bring pretty good.
Yeah the Akihiko thing was a misunderstanding on my part with how his Characteristic worked. With what people have said I'd probably put him in A, maybe S. With Mitsuru, she's not bad but magic isn't as good as crits in this game IMO. Her second Theurgy is good and she's nice to have around. But Yukari does just as much damage if not more and has great healing. But she's definitely a good supporter and ailment abilities have some niche use cases. Junpei is pretty good in my estimation, I think what really helps him IMO is that his Characteristic not only gives him Crit Boost & Amp, but also buffs the damage his crits do. Something not even the MC has access to. Also his magic coverage for hitting weakness's is a lot better here.
@@boxorileys mitsuru doesn’t need to be used for ailments or heavy dmg (despite having the highest magic attack) because she has marakunda and I believe her characteristic affects the entire team and not just her. I’ve seen people run her with koro and junpei for a crit based team and if you wanted to use her mainly to do a ton of damage she has concentrate as well as a severe level spell being diamond dust. Her second theurgy applies debilitate also. Imo, she’s the only character (that isn’t yukari or Ken) that can pull her own weight in any possible team. Whether it’s defense debuffs, status, debilitate (theurgy), concentrate diamond dust, crit buffing (status), etc. In a game with a lot of endurance tests, defense debuffs is arguably the most valuable buff or debuff in the game. She also enables a team that offers aoe debilitate with yukari (masukunda) and akihiko (matarunda). This team is especially good in the early-mid game as you have no access to debilitate until trumpeter at lvl 59 or koro at lvl 75 which is way too late and this team still holds well in the late game due its good synergy (it’s my main team)
@@Joey-nc5cf Wow, there's a lot there! 😅 Let me see... So I think that Misuru is a good party member. And you're right that the characteristic effects the whole team. So running her with Koromaru is pretty good. She slots into a team with him and a physical attacker pretty well. Also you're right that her 2nd Theurgy is great and the first is pretty good as well. But while she has good synergy with team members I think she has a hard time outdoing others. It's a tier list, if I put everyone in A it would be kinda pointless. Although I think Atlus did a great job making party composition a lot more flexible in this game with none of the party members being truly "bad" options. I personally haven't found a fixed team I like the most even after two playthroughs, granted one was NG+. I'll have to mess around with party members more during my merciless playthrough I'm planning on doing before The Answer DLC comes out. I think in hindsight it would have been better to do this tierlist after that. But I needed something for while I was away on vacation that weekend. I don't want to rehash this video or reupload a "corrected" version. But maybe I'll do an updated one once The Answer comes out. Especially since in FES they rebalanced some of the party members so if they do the same with the DLC it would make sense to do another version of this video.
He’s absolutely wrong about where he places Aki but Yukari and Ken are DEFINITELY deserving of their placements they are both broken as hell in their own right
@@Skyrura With the amount of Healing items you get in this game for ease you don’t need a Healer so Yukari just, not needed. Ken has neat Utility in terms of Karns but I wouldn’t sacrifice a perty member slot just for Karns
@@Skyrura In a game where Phys is so overwhelmingly better than Magic and the best 2 attacking party memebrs are Phys focused Full concentrate is just not useful. Ken’s second Theurgy is good but I wouldn’t sacrifice a party member slot for it when again. Best 2 party members attack wise are Akihiko and Junpei and since they’re both Phys based you need Koromaru
Or yall could be me and just say fuck it and have no debuff cures because u never use yukari because shes so rude to junpei and doesnt know how to like ever not be annoying. So you just hope to god an ailment misses ur mc so u can amrita shower
This list is good except aki is way to low and jumpei and shinjiro is way to high all 3 should be switched and mistsuru in my opinion is A tier junpei and shinjiro are the worst in the game junpei really only gets attacking moves like pierce and slash but not like it really matters since aki just does it better. All he really got going for him is a defense buff but again aki does it better. Being able to crit does help him tho
Aki does not do offense as well as Junpei. Torrent Shot dramatically outdoes anything Aki does until Gigantic Fist (lv39) but literally 1 level later Junpei gets Blade of Fury which is an absurdly strong Skill that outdoes Aki till Strike Amp Gloves then a little under 10 levels later Junpei outdamages him again and it stays that way. He is on Avg the best Dps in the game and since there’s barely any pushback to going Phys he’s consistently strong with his variety of Phys skills. He also has the Strongest Theurgy in the game with Hack n Blast outdoing even the Mc (Without Dlc).
Lo siento, no hablo español. But if I understand correctly you're not a fan of Yukari. I'm not a fan of her myself. I think her attitude is really horrible in the original game. I think she's better here due to some changes in the translation and better direction for the VA. She's less needlessly harsh than she was before. However, lots of people didn't like her because of what she did during The Answer. So we'll see if they made that any better when the DLC comes out.
So after reading some comments it seems I misunderstood how Akihiko's Characteristics work, sorry about that.
His Characteristic just states that it "increases the effects of buffs on himself". I thought this simply EXTENDED the time buffs lasted on him like how Wealth of the Lotus worked in P5R.
Instead it seems it actually increases the amount he is buffed by compared to everyone else.
With that in mind I would put him probably in A tier with the physical attackers. I think people are overestimating how much this matters since it only puts him in striking (lol) distance of the MC's damage potential.
However this obviously makes him better than I thought and brings him in line with most of the other party members.
In my defense they mistranslated how to charge his Theurgy gauge charged and nobody in chat pointed this out to me. Not even the people who no life the game and finished the game in a week.
Which means this is a common misperception or the game didn't clearly explain how it worked.
Obviously though I want to give good info though so I'll pin this comment with the correction.
For anyone that says Akihiko sucks in this game, thats far from the truth; he is by far the best damage dealer you have; the problem is you have to be aware of and utilize weapons you get from the antique shop. He gets a weapon that gives Strike Amp on it, which greatly increases his physical damage. No other character gets that buff
You also have to factor in his passives, which you brought up for everyone but him it looks like. The effects he gets off of the 3 buffs (attack/defense/agility) get a multiplicative increase when they are applied to him. They do not have to be applied mid battle, as long as he is buffed in some way, his passive activates. Examples include an auto-buff persona from the MC or give him an accessory that gives him auto-tarakuja at the start of the battle. Not to mention his theurgy gets the bonus increase at the start of his turn as long as he has a buff equipped; so if he does by MC or an accessory, his theurgy charges the fastest out of everyone.
Just with his endgame weapon and an attack buff equipped; Gods Hand legit hits harder than most if not all non-MC Thuergies except his own.
But he isnt just good endgame; as far as mid game goes he can get an elec amp accessory far earlier than other characters get their respective elements, so midgame his damage will mainly be from electrical attacks; but he is still hitting just as hard.
So overall, while Akihiko doesnt get any notable buff/debuffing skills; he instead is THE damage dealer of the team, and is a top tier party member.
Also Defense Down on Mitsuru is all you ever need on her to be a mainstay as that gives such a huge damage boost, esp for Akihiko. You could have MC do that job if you want but MC will prob be better off setting himself up for phyiscal damaage /targeting weaknesses. Yukari's Mind Charge Theurgy also pairs well with Akihiko's Theurgies, and Mitsuru if you use her.
Thanks for letting me know broski
on god I used to be a akihiko hater before the game came out, now he's a top 2 party member imo. He consistently out damages everyone else in terms of magic and physical
Isnt his buff a 80% boost compaired to everyone elses is 40%?
Thanks for the in-depth and long comment!
Yeah as people have made clear to me in the comments I messed up on how his characteristics work. I thought it was a reuse of the "Wealth of the Lotus" passive from P5R rather than a new and significant mechanic. I do think that the game could have explained it a bit better but it's something I probably could've figured out if I used him more and paid closer attention to him.
He does seem like he would be pretty good mid to late game with that knowledge. I think you're right that the weapons and accessories are really effective at giving part members different "specializations". There was some of that in the original game as well but now you can choose which skills people learn and keep so you have a lot more flexibility there. It's something I've really liked about P3's equipment system.
I think looking back some of my bias in how I play may have crept in. I really like messing around with Persona fusion and making builds for them. And obviously the MC is always going to do the most damage in the mid to late game if you're min maxing like that. So I tend to value party members who can support the MC in his damage dealing role.
I still think for general play Akihiko get's edged out on electric coverage because of Ken. Since Ken's 2nd Theurgy is so good you always want him around for that. And Junpei and Aigis have better coverage overall I think for physical. But I can see how he'd be great in late game and replace one of the other two for boss fights where you want to deal as much damage as possible.
Akihiko is the only party member that can have physical and magical boost and amp skills without sacrificing much of his utility.
Something to note about Akihiko is he is the only party member with a basic attack type of strike. So whenever you run into enemies with a strike weakness he's a nice way to getr all-out attacks off without spending hp or sp. Not a huge plus to him with the MC easily being able to cover and healing being plentiful, but something that one might want to take into account.
Shinji also has a normal strike attack type
@@Hyp3rSonic yeah but 10/4 💀
@@Hyp3rSonicYeah but...
Shinji is weak to pierce damage on full moons tho
True, he was really good for that in FES. Especially since fists were great against the golden hands and some were weak to strike. He does get some single target strike skills as well which is nice. But both Junpei and Aigis get strike skills in this version of the game so strike coverage is easier due to that.
Shinji is S when he's with you stomps every floor
Yea but he gets weighed down by the events of 4th of October
@@23Jenna05 cmon now
Mitsuru is cursed by the fact that magic was for some reason severly nerfed in this game compared to the original p3 + her losing access to ice amp ( literally the while thing that seperated her from Yukari as a mage in the original is the fact that she got access to both Ice Boost and Ice Amp while Yukari has to sacrifice bith her weapon and accessory to get them ) despite the fact that being a magic nuke is literally the only thing she has going for her, as she doesnt get any sort of utility outside of ailment skills that dont even affect bosses anyway.
All dyne skills nerfed from 320 all the way down to 220 and all the severe magic spells nerfed from 650 to 600.
This isnt helped by the fact that Atlus also decided to REALLY buff physical skills , for examole Gods Hand not only being buffed from 600 to 800, but also Atlus deciding to give physical skills boost/amp passives as well ( despite the fact that the only reason why physical skills have heigher bp than magic skills is solely to account for the absence of boosting passives ) this while also having crit boosting passives while Magic cant actually deal critical hits .
Mitsurus whole entire point is to be a magic " nuke ", this completely falls apart in Reload because not only does she lose out on Ice Amp which means taht she has fo sacrifice an accessory/weapon slot just to comoensate, but also the fact that because of the massive physical buff ALL the ohysical party members outdamage her ( while none of the part member have access to any phys boost/amp abilites you can still give it to them via accessories ) in fact not only does Junpei VASTLY outdamages Mitsuru now, but Akihiko and Aigis ALSO outdamage her now with their physical attacks now, despite damage not even being their speciality. And while all the magic nerfs also affect Yukari, Koromaru and Ken they all have something else going for then ( theurgy attacks and healing ) so Mitsuru is the one who gets hit the hardest
All this effectively transforms Mitsuru into a pure """ nuke """ that ranks 4th in the actual damage dealing department behind other members who still have a ton of other things to offer on top if their burst damage. You put her in B but honestly ? I feel like she deserves to be in D, she's legit the worst party member by a long margin
Thanks for the long post! I'll try to respond in an intelligent fashion.
I think that magic in the original P3 was too good in comparison to physical. So I understand Atlus wanting to make physical skills better. Honestly I hope that P6 carries forward the physical as three different types as well as the support skills for each type like we've seen in P3R and now Metaphor. That said I'm not sure if the nerfs to magic were necessary.
I agree with you that Mitsuru doesn't have enough damage output compared other party members and she doesn't have a unique skill that makes her worth using against bosses. I will say her unique characteristic does work well with Junpei for random enemies and certain bosses that are weak to ailments. But Junpei doesn't need her to be good. She doesn't even have access to debilitate outside of her second Theurgy.
I don't know if I can put her in D though. One problem I had with this tierlist is that the difficulty felt so flat for P3R on my first playthrough. Between Theurgy and actually using the DLC personas I paid for, even Hard was really easy to a veteran like me. To the point where it actually changed how approach playing new Atlus games, ignoring all DLC personas until after beating the game once.
That said, P3R base game is much easier than it's original PS2 counterpart. While playing through Episode Aigis recently I picked the Heartless difficulty and avoided using the DLC Personas until I got to Joker. I enjoyed that experience quite a bit more than P3R's version of Tartarus. Although that's partially due to other changes made compared to base game, but that's a whole other discussion. But I didn't use her much there either as Metis could hit Ice weaknesses and I had her in the party the entire time.
Overall, as sad as it is, I think you're right that Mitsuru is the worst party member. I mean outside of Akihiko, who I didn't place properly, she WAS the one I put at the bottom. Such a shame as she was one of the best party members in the original.
.....
As long as you properly scanned enemies so she wouldn't Marin Karin spam. 😅
I refuse to ever remove Junpei from my party because he's da man
Fair, he's my favorite "best friend" character the series has had so far. And the game balanced things out so all party members are fun to use. Just with a tierlist some things have to go towards the top or bottom.
@@Un_Named05 because he and doggo are bonkers.
You can set Kens Sp low via Hp equipment (Equip Hp - Use Healing Skill -Unequip Hp -repeat). He also has faster Theurgy Charge than Yukari and its actually fast enough be be spammed (so no need to really save it just pop it off).
He also generally does more Damage than Yukari despite what her Mag may suggest.
(The only point where Yukari does more is the period where she has access to Wind Amp accessories and Ken doesn’t but even then its a negligible amount).
Interesting, that Ken min-maxing is fun, if mostly unnecessary 😆
He definitely has better coverage than Mitsuru and find him better for actual fights than Yukari. But her healing powers are quite ridiculously good at times.
@@boxorileys to go all in on Ken min maxing
For that Theurgy bit
If i recall when facing a Boss if he is under half Max Sp, if theres one enemy debuffed, all party members have a buff, Ken has a Charge or Concentrate he’s willing to not use (these all contribute to Theurgy) and with Soul fortunes 1.3x Theurgy boost he he actually gets his Theurgy every other Turn if he alternates between a Karn Skill and Theurgy. Its really dumb but fun.
(Yukari under these conditions can only get hers every 3 turns at most)
Fuuka is literally the best navigator no other navigator can do as much as she does. Also her theurgy upgrade just has a chance of better buffs and recovery
Rise in Golden is broken if you do all her bike rides. Similar with Futaba if you max out all her stuff.
Biggest difference here is rather than a bunch of buffs that randomly proc you have a random buff you can activate on command.
When Fukka’s theurgy upgrades, she basically adds an aoe charge and concentrate to the mix.
Thanks for clarifying. I wasn't sure about how that worked or what changed exactly when her Theurgy is upgraded.
@@boxorileys Yeah, I hope they can make it more clear in a future patch.
Fun fact: both of akihikos theurgys have less power than ziodyne/maizodyne. 💀
theurgy damage is calculated differently i think tho
Yeah, Lightning Spike (the first one) is the same as Mazionga (100) but with 20% chance to shock instead of 10%.
His second one, Electric Onslaught, deals 200 damage and has an 80% to shock an enemy. Ziodyne does 220 with a 10% to shock, so slightly more damage.
But the trade off for shock % isn't terrible. Just is a bit more situational as many bosses null shock.
@@coolguy6567if i recall it scales both off of STR and MAG
The damage calculation is very different. If you actually use them, you’ll see they do more damage than God’s Hand
Mitsuru's great to keep around for random Tartarus fights since her characteristic makes it even easier to crit enemies you ambush and her theurgy charges really quick.
nah you're actually COOKED for this
Is there any merit to running yukari and Ken together? It might seem overkill, I was thinking those 2 and aigis lmk what you think
You could if you turn Ken into a support hybrid character, but there are just better options. Because of how frail yukari is you’re better off just using Ken and having an MC persona with Amrita drop/shower
Yeah as I said there's a lot of overlap there. You could run them together but you'd probably want to give Yukari an accesory to boost wind damage.
I was planning on doing this before I wanted to be able to run aoe debilitate (yukari, aki, mitsuru). Ken + yukari is really only worth it if ur using aigis, mitsuru or akihiko tbh. Koro is good if you’re only trying to buff mc but the other options are more balanced
Bro Akihiko literally is the best damage dealer in the game not counting the mc. Strike amp weapon, strike boost accesory, elec boost and amp. Not to mention buffs have a greater effect on him thanks to his traits. No one can compete with Akihiko's mid to late game potential.
Yeah that was my bad, I misunderstood how his characteristic works. Obviously that makes him a lot better than I said in the video.
Although I will say that if you put that much effort (a specialized weapon and a specialized accessory) into any of the party members, they can put up some good damage.
@@boxorileys No one else has a strike amp weapon besides Shinjiro. Plus strike boost is an accessory you can get in the early game when the antique store opens. He really doesn't require that much investment.
Junpei is great but he doesn't have much besides his personality trait to increase his Crit rate, he relies on other party members to boost his Crit rate.
Not to mention Junpei's strongest skill is Brave Blade which is considerably weaker than Gods Hand.
@@thetactlesstactician7703 It's definitely true that Akihilo is the strongest single target Strike damage dealer. Sometimes even over the MC.
I think you may be underestimating Junpei some though. His ultimate weapon gives him Apt pupil and his characteristic not only gives him Crit Boost and Amp but also increases the damage crits do. Meaning if he swings with his first Theurgy and crits he does quite a bit of damage.
@@boxorileys Junpei's late and endgame is certainly fantastic, however his early game and mid game is really bad. He doesn't learn many good skills at these points of the game besides maybe assault dive. Once his personality kicks in and he gets his late game gear he is definitely one of the best DPS.
The only real downside to Akihiko's late game is that his second theurgy is magic and not physical. Meaning it can't Crit.
Sure akihiko has the second or maybe third highest magic stat behind mitsuru but a phys theurgy would have been way too op.
Edit: personally I think Koromaru is still the worst. He's good in random encounters, but in boss fights he's too frail and his only good boss fight skills are revolution and debilitate which he gets very late into the game.
His characteristic is also no great in boss fights because he has to strike a weakness to charge faster and most bosses in the mid to late game don't have those.
Auto masakunda is great though.
@@thetactlesstactician7703 Yeah Auto masakunda is pretty interesting. It's the first auto debuffing skill I've seen in an SMT or Persona game.
All the characteristics for party members have been really good at making them valuable as those skills can't be obtained by the MC.
They also bring up the overall power level of party members as it's effectively an extra passive slot which leaves more room for variety in their active skills.
I feel like you're right about Junpei though, he's decent early game, falls off in the mid game, then comes back again in late game. It was kinda the same in FES and Portable. But in those games physical and crits weren't as strong.
nah, i used to be a akihiko hater but he's the only party member that can even come close to MC's damage with God's Hand, not to mention his high magic and strength really boost both of his theurgies in comparison to someone like junpei who's second theurgy hits like a feather because of his low magic stat
I don't think he's the only one. Both Junpei and Aigis can get close with crit builds. Stats are kinda wonky in this game as well since stat buffs can also apply to party members. They haven't been able to do that in a Persona game since P2 EP like 20 years ago.
So you could technically get Junpei to a similar or higher magic attack than Mitsuru. But this tierlist was based on my experience just playing through the game without maxing everyone's stats out. That would probably change some placements, but it's not going to be the experience for most players.
TBF I think a lot of people got the impression that I dislike Akihiko but it's more "eh kinda mid". Especially since he's still the GOAT in FES or Portable.
Junpei and Aigis hit harder with Theurgy 1 and Theurgy 2 respectively because phys theurgy is just op. But outside of theurgy Akihiko will always hit harder because Buff Amp is 1.3x multiplier while Junpei and Aigis's modifiers are 1.2x. He also hits harder than Mitsuru with magic for a majority of the game for the same reason. It's not until Mitsuru gets her final weapon and an Ice Amp accessory that she'll hit harder than him with regular magic. With Theurgy 2, Akihiko still hits harder than Mitsuru when it comes to magic damage.
@@bigpapasm junpei hits WAY harder
The strongest party I had was doggo, junpei and ken. No other party is as strong as this. Crit machine, crit machine buffer (doggo) and full heal plus shield every 3 turns (ken) is absolutely bonkers. Yukari hardly makes it to A tier compared to that. Sorry. Physical damage is different league over magic, thats why yukari is way worse then you believe sir.
Never let bro cook again 😂
At least put the man in B tier, he still does alot of damage and tarunda is great for lowering boss damage. he also gets more damage out of being buffed compared to everyone else and now that mc cant switch weapons he provides coverage for Strike and his best weapon gives Strike Amp(?) put some Tarukabellion Boots on and away he goes.also his Theurgies can kill pretty much most things in one hit. without Ice break Mitsuru finds herself with almost no damage output and ailments never work on bosses most of the time
My tier list of the party members:
1. Yukari: With Healing Apex she can heal allies all the time she want and she charges her Theurgy every time she heals someone, which is the fastest character in charging her Theurgy, her wind skills are really good and she can give Concentrate to all the party and my favorite Persona girl in the franchise ❤❤❤💖💖💖👑👑👑
2. Koromaru: His dark and fire skills are really good, he has Debilitate to decrease all the enemy stats, Power Howl to give Charge to all allies, Revolution to increase the critical rate and he charges his Theurgy attacking the enemy weakness.
3. Ken: A really versatile character, Divine Intervention is easily the best Theurgy in the game without counting the Armageddon, he has Heat Riser to increase all the stats of one ally, Tetrakarn and Makarakarn.
4. Aigis: She's resistent to all the type of physical attacks, which is good, her characteristic increase the damage of her physical skills and she charges her Theurgy making physical attacks and with her Orgia Mode she becomes dangerous.
5. Fuuka: Her navigator skills are so much better than in the original and all her random buffs are so good, giving Heat Riser to all allies, Charge and Concentrate to all allies and completely restore and revive all allies with all the HP and SP.
6. Junpei: With his characteristic, he can become a critical hit machine, sadly that's the only thing good for him, his magic stat is really low.
7. Akihiko: He's not a bad party member, his electric and physical skills are still good and he's able to heal allies.
8. Mitsuru: She's the strongest magic attacker, but is not really well done, her characteristic is probably the worst, because the ailments in strong enemies and bosses are completely useless and she has Concentrate, but Yukari can give Concentrate to all the party members, so this doesn't make sense, sorry Mitsuru fans.
9. Shinjiro: He's a good party member, but just because you can only use him in one month is the reason why is in the bottom.
time to make a case for yukari being bad and mitsuru being good
healing is so whatever in most fights. and fights you do need healing for items generally replicate it. not even like a lot of items either. they are cheap, you get a bunch from tartarus, and not every fight requires healing. outside of straight healing yukari...doesn't do much? poison bow is pretty great early on. group concentrate is good but comes VERY late. other than the she heals and does chip damage. also when ken joins hes better by like every metric and i also don't think ken is particularly good outside of divine intervention.
mitsuru is more or less a rakunda bot. but mitsuru casting rakunda in a lot of fights (hierophant, lovers, chariot/justice, lots of midgame tartarus fights) is doing more than yukari or junpei can with their whole kit at that point in the game. she has other positives too. ailments while not useful for the whole game have their niche in the first half. she gets bufula pretty early so her damage output when she joins before you have access to super strong physical skills is pretty good. she falls off as the game goes on because she just can't keep up in damage and her skill list is so bloated with ailments and physical skills that just aren't very useful. but even then in a context where you say aren't grinding then just being able to cast rakunda is pretty good. you don't need to give her any special equipment for her to lower enemy defense, where as ken really wants light boost, junpei really wants slash boost, etc. mitsuru is not going to hit big flashy numbers vs endgame enemies but if you consider her contributions throughout the entire game i think shes really good and in a context where you don't grind shes one of the best characters in the game
sorry for wall of text
No problem about the wall, I appreciate the time taken to write it all out. I think in retrospect maybe Yukari could have been dropped down to A tier.
I think Mitsuru is good, just a little below the others in the late game. I mean I go back and forth on whether I like Mitsuru or Aigis more in this game. And I can't stand Yukari in FES, so the tierlist was just from a gameplay perspective 😂
But yeah, dropping defense is always useful and her second Theurgy is good for bosses. Good support and decent damage, but less useful in random battles. That's why I put her in B.
In retrospect Atlus did such a good job balancing party members in this game I think this was the worst game I could've chosen to do a party member tierlist on. 😅
Since there's only one or two that stand above the rest with the rest bring pretty good.
@@crowidiot ken is better with that shield in theurgy. You are right, yukari is not good
wow, does Akihiko not even get a multi target physical attack? that's rough
Nope, he does get God's Hand at Lv 72 but no multi target physical skills.
@@windwardbirds6741 he is good, but just not good enough to take over doggo and junpei
Akihiko and mitsuru being THAT low is actually insane. I see mitsuru as A tier, aki at A/B and junpei at C
Yeah the Akihiko thing was a misunderstanding on my part with how his Characteristic worked. With what people have said I'd probably put him in A, maybe S.
With Mitsuru, she's not bad but magic isn't as good as crits in this game IMO. Her second Theurgy is good and she's nice to have around. But Yukari does just as much damage if not more and has great healing. But she's definitely a good supporter and ailment abilities have some niche use cases.
Junpei is pretty good in my estimation, I think what really helps him IMO is that his Characteristic not only gives him Crit Boost & Amp, but also buffs the damage his crits do. Something not even the MC has access to. Also his magic coverage for hitting weakness's is a lot better here.
@@boxorileys mitsuru doesn’t need to be used for ailments or heavy dmg (despite having the highest magic attack) because she has marakunda and I believe her characteristic affects the entire team and not just her. I’ve seen people run her with koro and junpei for a crit based team and if you wanted to use her mainly to do a ton of damage she has concentrate as well as a severe level spell being diamond dust. Her second theurgy applies debilitate also. Imo, she’s the only character (that isn’t yukari or Ken) that can pull her own weight in any possible team. Whether it’s defense debuffs, status, debilitate (theurgy), concentrate diamond dust, crit buffing (status), etc. In a game with a lot of endurance tests, defense debuffs is arguably the most valuable buff or debuff in the game. She also enables a team that offers aoe debilitate with yukari (masukunda) and akihiko (matarunda). This team is especially good in the early-mid game as you have no access to debilitate until trumpeter at lvl 59 or koro at lvl 75 which is way too late and this team still holds well in the late game due its good synergy (it’s my main team)
@@Joey-nc5cf Wow, there's a lot there! 😅
Let me see...
So I think that Misuru is a good party member. And you're right that the characteristic effects the whole team. So running her with Koromaru is pretty good. She slots into a team with him and a physical attacker pretty well. Also you're right that her 2nd Theurgy is great and the first is pretty good as well.
But while she has good synergy with team members I think she has a hard time outdoing others. It's a tier list, if I put everyone in A it would be kinda pointless.
Although I think Atlus did a great job making party composition a lot more flexible in this game with none of the party members being truly "bad" options. I personally haven't found a fixed team I like the most even after two playthroughs, granted one was NG+.
I'll have to mess around with party members more during my merciless playthrough I'm planning on doing before The Answer DLC comes out.
I think in hindsight it would have been better to do this tierlist after that. But I needed something for while I was away on vacation that weekend. I don't want to rehash this video or reupload a "corrected" version. But maybe I'll do an updated one once The Answer comes out. Especially since in FES they rebalanced some of the party members so if they do the same with the DLC it would make sense to do another version of this video.
@@boxorileys AND, you get one and a half new party members
@@Joey-nc5cf And you are wrong junpei is S
My guy, Akihiko has better damage buffs than MC in this game. I’m crying
(Also crying at the fact Ken and Yukari are at S)
He’s absolutely wrong about where he places Aki but Yukari and Ken are DEFINITELY deserving of their placements they are both broken as hell in their own right
@@Skyrura With the amount of Healing items you get in this game for ease you don’t need a Healer so Yukari just, not needed. Ken has neat Utility in terms of Karns but I wouldn’t sacrifice a perty member slot just for Karns
@@EnderKL The Party Wide Concentrate Theurgy:
The Party Wide Revive/Full Heal/Both Reflects Theurgy:
@@Skyrura In a game where Phys is so overwhelmingly better than Magic and the best 2 attacking party memebrs are Phys focused Full concentrate is just not useful. Ken’s second Theurgy is good but I wouldn’t sacrifice a party member slot for it when again. Best 2 party members attack wise are Akihiko and Junpei and since they’re both Phys based you need Koromaru
@@EnderKLidk man, akihiko's second theurgy with concentrate kinda goes crazy ngl
Its crazy how ALL of these rankings are wrong except Yukari and MC 😭
Where would you put everyone else?
Well, ANSWER US
Or yall could be me and just say fuck it and have no debuff cures because u never use yukari because shes so rude to junpei and doesnt know how to like ever not be annoying. So you just hope to god an ailment misses ur mc so u can amrita shower
This list is good except aki is way to low and jumpei and shinjiro is way to high all 3 should be switched and mistsuru in my opinion is A tier junpei and shinjiro are the worst in the game junpei really only gets attacking moves like pierce and slash but not like it really matters since aki just does it better. All he really got going for him is a defense buff but again aki does it better. Being able to crit does help him tho
Aki does not do offense as well as Junpei. Torrent Shot dramatically outdoes anything Aki does until Gigantic Fist (lv39) but literally 1 level later Junpei gets Blade of Fury which is an absurdly strong Skill that outdoes Aki till Strike Amp Gloves then a little under 10 levels later Junpei outdamages him again and it stays that way. He is on Avg the best Dps in the game and since there’s barely any pushback to going Phys he’s consistently strong with his variety of Phys skills. He also has the Strongest Theurgy in the game with Hack n Blast outdoing even the Mc (Without Dlc).
Hell biker and the lvl 74 magicians persona get bloody charge
Gotcha thanks, yeah I remembered that at least one of the MCs persona's got it. Just couldn't think which ones.
Koro>ken
Akihiko learn tarunda, akihiko best character
Yukari es insufrible, me da igual que sea muy buena o lo que sea la quito en cuanto pueda de mi equipo
Lo siento, no hablo español.
But if I understand correctly you're not a fan of Yukari. I'm not a fan of her myself. I think her attitude is really horrible in the original game. I think she's better here due to some changes in the translation and better direction for the VA.
She's less needlessly harsh than she was before.
However, lots of people didn't like her because of what she did during The Answer. So we'll see if they made that any better when the DLC comes out.
Hello
Hello :)