Building the very best party that you can is key in Persona 3 Portable. One could argue that it’s less important in Portable when compared to FES, given that you have additional control over each team member, however it’s also worth noting that skill cards do not work on members other than the Protagonist in Persona 3, so you’re stuck with whatever each member learns. This being the case, we’ve chosen the following four characters which are, in our opinion at least, the best the game has to offer.
Yukari
The first of our best party members is Yukari, one of the first teammates you’ll meet in Persona 3 Portable. This isn’t the first time that she’s made it to a high point in a list of ours, in fact she topped our healer rankings in Persona Q2, and it’s for a very similar reason that she makes it this high today: She is an excellent healer in this game too.
Her function in this regard is very much canon. She is the only character outside of the Protagonist that has access to group heals, which makes her tremendously valuable. It may take her a short while to access the first of these – Media – but once she does, most of your healing worries go away completely. This, combined with the other choices in this article, will ensure that health restoration is never an issue. Were she to have access to Amrita, or indeed a way to increase her wind damage, like Boost or Amp, then Yukari would likely sit much closer to the top of this list.
Party Member Benefits
- Yukari has access to some of the most powerful healing and cleansing skills in the entire game. This makes her the closest to what you might call a canon healer.
- She also has access to excellent Wind skills, missing only the ultimate Panta Rhei (all ultimate elemental skills are reserved for the protagonist).
- Lacking in her skills is the excellent Amrita skill, which removes all ailments from the entire party, however this can be grabbed as a skill card for your protagonist via the Scathach persona.
- One of the characters that requires the least additional coverage by the protagonist, despite the point detailed above.
- Sadly, she does lack in either Wind Boost or Wind Amp, which would help in keeping her damage competitive, however her powerful heals make up for it.
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Mitsuru
Next up is the character affectionately known as the older sister of the group, Mitsuru. She too is held in general high regard, since she has also found presence on a Persona Q2 list of sorts. There she did so thanks to her personal, weakness boosting skill, and whilst things aren’t quite as spectacular in P3P, her entry takes place for the same reason: Massive magical damage.
In the early stages of her presence in the team, this fact isn’t immediately apparent. This is because she joins and seems to focus her skills on basic Ice, healing and ailment skills. Given time and experience however, Mitsuru will blossom into a party member more than capable of dealing huge chunks of magic damage to opponents. This is mainly thanks to her level 50 skill, Mind Charge, which multiplies the damage of the next magical attack by 2.5 times! This, combined with Ice Break and Ice Amp, will ensure that she deals an incredible amount of damage, provided a little setup takes place.
Party Member Benefits
- Access to the tremendously powerful Mind Charge, which multiplies the damage of the next magical attack by 2.5!
- Ice Amp and Ice Break will further enable her Ice based spells.
- Single target healing skills mean that she’ll be able to keep your party going when group heals aren’t enough.
- She doesn’t quite reach the Severe ranks, but unlike our next choice she does have access to the Heavy All target Ice spell, Mabufudyne.
Akihiko
Second on our list is a character that is remarkably similar to our previous, Mitsuru. We say this, because he too has a selection elemental skills and single target heals. Naturally this makes him rather malleable, able to slot into a great deal of party builds and contribute, however neither of these things are his main selling point. Rather, the main benefit that he brings to a team is debuffs, both single target and group versions.
These debuffs are tremendously powerful, just like they are in a great deal of Atlus games. The ability to remove attack power, defence or dodge/hit rate for all or one opponent is absolutely invaluable. This, combined with party buffs, form the basis for dealing with and defeating key opponents in Persona 3 Portable. Without them your life will be immeasurably more difficult, and we’d even argue that some bosses are near impossible without them. All of which makes Akihiko very, very valuable to any team.
Party Member Benefits
- Incredible selection of enemy debuffs, including the three group targeting versions; Matarunda, Marakunda and Masakunda. These reduce all opponents’ Attack, Defence and Agility respectively.
- Access to very good Elec skills. Whilst he lacks a Heavy all targeting version, he does learn Elec Amp to boost their damage further.
- Also has access to single target heals, which is great for additional spot healing requirements.
- His only real gap comes from a lack of physical skills to complement his Fist Master skill, though it serves his auto attacks well.
- Essentially a male version of Mitsuru, but with Elec rather than Ice and more of a tendency towards physical attacks.
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Persona 3 Protagonist
Is this a cop out? Well not really, given that you only actually have four party slots and well, you can’t exactly opt out of bringing the Protagonist now can you? It’s also a great opportunity to highlight just how much better they are than any other party member.
This is mainly achieved through the creative licence that the protagonist is given, thanks to their ability to fuse and customise persona throughout the game. Given a small amount of effort and fusion, the protagonist can utilise spells and skill similar to every other member available. In fact, given a medium or large amount of effort, the protagonist could become a carbon copy of any of them, or even surpass them in power within their chosen roles.
Party Member Benefits
- Ultimate creativity, thanks to the equipping of numerous persona.
- It’s possible through Fusion to access almost all skills learned by other party members, often sooner than they unlock them. Media for example, can be accessed through Fusion far, far earlier than Yukari will learn it.
- Technically speaking, the protagonist can do the most damage possible from a single party member.
- They can be any of the other members on this list, and indeed any others in P3P at all. You could Skill Card your way to a very similar version of each of them, should you wish, and technically be able to rotate between all of them in each round of battle.
- Can easily access party buffs, which work alongside Akihiko to tip the balance even further in your team’s direction.
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