Persona 3 Reload is a massive game. While you’ll spend a lot of time interacting in Social Links, you’ll probably focus more on exploring Tartarus. Persona 3 provides party members to help you with Tartarus, but they’re not all created equal, so let’s rank them from worst to best.
All Persona 3 Party Members, Ranked From Worst to Best
Technically, you’ll have ten members in your squad, SEES, during the campaign, but some of them are excluded from this list. First, the protagonist that you control won’t be featured on this list simply because he’s the best character in the game. With the ability to change Personas and use a whole host of Theurgy abilities, he’s simply the most versatile and strongest party member you can control. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Fuuka Yamagishi, your support unit, isn’t included here because she’s not really a traditional party member. Yes, you can use some of her abilities in and out of combat, but she’s not really someone you can select at will and, therefore, feels more like a gameplay mechanic you unlock rather than an actual party member.
As for the other eight Persona 3 party members, here they are, ranked from worst to best:
8) Shinjiro Aragaki
Oh, Shinjiro. You really have to feel for the character, but as a temporary party member, his uses are pretty limited. Shinjiro is a strictly offensive character, boasting one of the highest strength stats in the game, and is focused primarily on using physical attacks to lay the smackdown on enemies. And that’s all he can really do. Sure, he does get some passive moves that help reflect physical attacks and allow him to buff his stats, but that doesn’t change the fact that he has absolutely no magical abilities to exploit enemy weaknesses. With that in mind, it’s probably a blessing that he’s only with your party briefly.
7) Junpei Iori
While Junpei gets one of the best character arcs in Persona 3 Reload, his combat capabilities leave a lot to be desired. Much like Shinjiro, Junpei focuses a lot on physical attacks, though he does have access to some fire abilities, making him slightly better than Shinjiro by that feat alone. He is a bit slow to learn new fire abilities and can’t hit multiple enemies at once with them, making him pretty lame in the magic department, which becomes more problematic as the game progresses. Plus, with low agility, he’s going to be pretty slow and may not even be used in combat before your other better party members finish the job.
6) Koromaru
If you had to have any fire user in your party, Koromaru is the dog to have. While he lacks physical strength, he makes up for it with an absurdly high agility stat, allowing him to hit fast and dodge enemies. Not only does he boast fire abilities, but he has a healthy amount of dark attacks, including several insta-kill ones. While that’s all well and good, insta-kill attacks have a pretty low accuracy, making them unreliable more often than not. Plus, Koromaru is one of the few party members in Persona 3 Reload that doesn’t have a second awakening, making him the same from when you first recruited him up until the end of the game. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, his resistances are pretty solid overall, and because of this, it does make him a bit of a one-trick pony and a gimmicky one at that. Practical to have around at times, but not the best choice.
5) Ken Amada
Ken is the proverbial Jack-of-all-Trades. He’s a solid party member to bring out in most situations, thanks to him having a whole host of skills to utilize. He has some decent physical attacks, access to electric and light attacks, and even has some pretty solid healing spells for when you’re in a pinch. That being said, thanks to some middling stats, he doesn’t excel in any of these areas. There are better physical attackers, healers, and electric users to put in your party. Ken’s biggest strength is his access to light-based attacks, which is valuable, but you’re most likely going to find only a handful of enemies that this will apply to.
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4) Mitsuru Kirijo
If you want to use ice abilities, Mitsuru is your go-to choice. While she has pretty low strength, the amount of ice moves that she has access to is absolutely ludicrous, and the more you level her up, the more buffs you can give her to increase her effectiveness. She also can inflict several status effects on enemies, which can easily help you in a pinch, and has the rare Spirit Drain ability, allowing her to drain SP from her opponents. This is invaluable the more you progress in Tartarus as your SP begins to dwindle more and more, making Mitsuru a great party member if you want to explore Tartatus for a long period of time. Plus, given her high magic stat, you’ll be using her to obliterate any enemy that’s weak to ice. Just be very careful around Shadows that use fire.
3) Aigis
On the surface, Aigis has a lot of the same flaws that Shinjiro has as a party member. She lacks any magical attacks and can only hurt enemies via physical attacks. And while that most certainly is a weakness, Aigis makes up for it by having access to some solid healing skills, but more importantly, a whole host of stat-boosting abilities. Aigis can boost virtually every stat for your party members and can learn abilities that buff the entire party at once. She can even negate debuffs placed on your party, making her an excellent support unit. When you want to be on offense, though, her Orgia Mode functions almost like a Berserk mechanic. Her strength increases like crazy, and she becomes uncontrollable for two turns, making her a good choice for beating weak enemies. Longer battles make Orgia Mode a risk, however, as she needs three full turns after utilizing it to cool down. There’s a lot of risk and reward with Aigis, but using her well makes her invaluable.
2) Yukari Takeba
Yukari is one of the first characters you’ll get in Persona 3 Reload, and frankly, she should never leave your party. Yukari is the best healer in the game, sporting a variety of spells and a solid pool of SP to make sure you stay healed. Also, thanks to her high magic stat, her wind attacks will easily take down most, if not all, enemies that she encounters. Plus, she can heal status effects that enemies may place on the party, which is vital in Persona 3 Reload. Her one weakness, though, is very low agility, meaning she’ll be one of the last people to go to your party. That may not be all too bad in some situations, but if you’re fighting a large group and need a healer, her placement at the end of the turn order can make all the difference.
1) Akihiko Sanada
Akihiko has it all. He feels like a combination of the best elements of Mitsuru, Aigis, and Yukari. Akihiko has great electric attacks, and with some passive skills, it makes him one of the most viable electric users in the game and a solid choice in the magic department. While Aigis has an array of party-boosting abilities, Akihiko sports enemy debuffs, which are arguably just as good, if not better, than Aigis’ skills, allowing your All-Out Attacks to be even deadlier. Finally, he has a good amount of healing moves like Yukari, allowing him to pivot from offense to defense at the drop of a hat. If you want an all-around excellent party member to support you on your trips to Tartarus, then Akihiko is a no-brainer.
And those are all of the Persona 3 party members, ranked from worst to best.
Persona 3 Reload is available on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox.
