The Persona Serieshas always been full of interesting characters to befriend and fight alongside. Throughout Persona 5 you’re introduced to a new party member with almost every palace. Having them be spread out does take until the second to last palace before you have your whole team, but helps give you time to learn them all before the next person is introduced.
Related:Persona 5 Royal: Hardest Bosses Ranked
Each party member is given their own unique elemental affinity and skill set that makes them each unique. Of the nine additional members to the team, there are many combinations, but some party members are better than others.
Updated on July 02, 2025 by Peter Hunt Szpytek: This list was updated to include a video (featured below.)
9Haru Okumura
Haru is the last party member you get from the base game. Focusing on psychokinesis and gun abilities, she does relatively good damage. Her gun is a grenade launcher, allowing it to hit all enemies with each shell, perfect for having multiple enemies with gun weakness.
Unfortunately, Haru’s stats don’t have her excelling in physical or magic damage. Every character also has a gun, so that weakness can always be exploited even without her in the party.
8Ryuji Sakamoto
Ryuji excels in being the party’s tank and physical damage. His lighting abilities are great for hitting weaknesses, but magic damage isn’t his go-to. He does offer good physical attacks in the first palace but is quickly surpassed by Yuske, who you get in the next section of the game.
You can always rely on Ryuji to be up after a hard hit to heal his allies, unfortunately, he doesn’t learn any healing spells and would need to rely on items. His shotgun targets a single enemy, and its damage is not high enough to justify its few shots.
7Sumire Yoshizawa
Sumire’s introduction to the team narratively is the best one in the game. Her bless attacks deal moderate damage and offer an affinity previously only used byJoker in the base game. Her physical attacks also offer moderate damage but aren’t as high as other party members.
Related:All Mainline Person Games, Ranked
Her gun damage is moderate, but it’s few shots and single targeting make it quickly run out. She does learn a healing ability, making her one of the few damage-based party members who can also heal. Her healing ability is limited to a single target.
6Yuske Kitagawa
Yuske specializes in ice magic and very strong physical attacks. His physical attacks outclass the others who also utilize mostly physical abilities. He also has the ability to buff the parties' agility or start a battle with an increased speed.
He also has the ability to possibly reflect incoming physical attacks. This offers him another avenue to attack enemies on their own turn. He also learns physical abilities the attack all enemies with very high amounts of damage.
Morgana is mostly a support-type character. Despite having strong magic his wind skills don’t do as much damage as other magic-heavy party members. That being said, he has a very high SP pool, and learns the majority of the healing spells available to you in this game.
Most other party members learn a spell to heal the party or an individual but rarely is both learned. Morgana learns both types of healing abilities and is the first to learn Recam, an ability to revive a downed ally.
4Futaba Sakura
Futaba plays a true off-the-board support role, but she is just as important as everyone else. She doesn’t participate in battle but on occasion and depending on her confidant level, she can interact with the party in needed moments.
She heals party members after battles, allowing you to explore in palaces longer. In battles, she also has a random chance to heal or buff your party as a free action. Her confidant also unlocks Emergency Shift, which may switch out two downed party members if a fight is looking bad.
3Ann Takamaki
Ann is a mostly magic-oriented party member. She offers very powerful fire magic that does high damage even if you’re not striking a weakness with the added bonus of possibly inflicting a burn on the enemy. Her gun option is a submachine gun, that randomly splits fire between all enemies for a decent amount of damage per shot.
Related:Best Playstation 3 Games, Ranked
She also has access to decent health spells, making her a well-rounded party member who can both attack and support. She also learns the spell Matarunda which lowers the attack power of all enemies, paired up with a boost to the party’s defense making damage not a concern for three rounds.
2Goro Akechi
While you only have access to Akechi for two palaces in the game, he is a must-take in both situations. He has access to both Curse and Bless attacks, which before Kasumi were only available to Joker. He also has access to the strongest Almighty spell in the game, which does severe damage to all enemies of any affinity.
He learns both the best physical and the best gun abilities, and with his lack of support abilities, he is purely focused on destroying the enemy. Akechi’s base attack power and gun strength make any option for him worthwhile in combat.
1Makoto Niijima
Makoto is by far the most well-rounded character. Her base stats allow for her basic physical attacks to do decent damage, while her Nuke abilities do incredible damage. She also has access to support, healing, and debuff spells.
Her Nuke abilities are able to do Technical damage to enemies with status ailments, and she is also able to provide those status ailments. She learns both group and individual healing spells, and spells that cure the whole party of status ailments. She is able to do just about any rolein a partyand do it very efficiently and is a must-have in any party.
