Summary
Physical Skills in thePersonagames consume HP rather than SP. These are different from Slash/Strike/Pierce and Gun damage, in which the party member uses a melee weapon to dish out damage. Characters with a decent amount of HP will usually learn Physical Skills upon leveling.
Persona: Party Members with the Lowest Luck
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It can be difficult to gauge the “strength” of a party member inPersona. Unlike the protagonists, party members' initial Personas will awaken into an Ultimate Persona. When this happens, points are sometimes added to their stats, potentially enhancing their physical attack power. Out ofPersona 3 (Reload), Persona 4 (Golden),andPersona 5 (Royal), several party members have a decent Strength stat worth having on the front lines.
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Haru Okumura’s max Strength with Astarte and Lucy doesn’t break 70 (withoutstat modifiers), but it manages to stay above 65. Milady/Astarte’s Skills are primarily Psy and Passive Skills, but several increase her Gun damage (i.e, Gun Amp). While she makes a good unit for Downing those with a weakness to Psy, Haru’s Strength stat nudges out her Magic stat, meaning she can potentially work better with Gun Skills and even Melee attacks. Her all-around stats make her a great addition to the team, but she’s unfortunatelyheld back by her late join time. This is slightly fixed inPersona 5 Royal’s third semester, in which players will have more time to use her on their team.
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Goro Akechi’s Strength is just one point higher than Haru Okumura’s, and inRoyal, his Persona Loki has the exclusive Physical Skill: Laevateinn. If he awakens to Hereward, he’ll learn Rebellion Blade, which deals colossal Almighty damage to one foe. Unlike Haru, Akechi has fewer Passive Skills, but makes up for this with Almighty Skills and Debilitate. He’s someone that players may just use due to his limited playability. Akechi is only available for Sae Niijima’s Palace and the third semester.
Yoshizawa is exclusive toPersona 5 Royal, and is only available in Mementos for the third semester. Her best stats are, in order, her Strength, Agility, and Magic. What makesYoshizawa a better physical fighterthan Haru and Akechi, are her Skills. Her arguably-best Skills are her Physical Skills, such as Vorpal Blade and Sword Dance. Her exclusive Skill for Ella is Masquerade, which deals severe Physical damage (x2) to one foe. She also has Brave Step, which can be used to further enhance the party’s critical hit rate as well as her own.
Chie’s best stats are her Strength and Agility, and she also has access to Bufu Skills, meaning she can Down enemies with Ice Affinity weakness. She shares one of the highest Strength stats among the IT inPersona 4 Golden. AsPersonaplayers unlock more party members, they may consider benching Chie for a stronger physical attacker such as Kanji. However, Chie will learn heavy Physical Skills that can damage all enemies, and her exclusive Skill, Dragon Hustle, will raise all allies' Attack/Defense/Accuracy for three turns.
It’s no surprise that among the Phantom Thieves, Ryuji has a high Strength stat. He’ll start out with single-targeting and weak Physical Skills, but as he levels, he’ll learn Skills such as God’s Hand and Agneyastra. What also makes Ryuij a good teammate are his Support Skills. He’ll learn Charge (doubles the damage of a Physical Skill on the next turn) and Matarukaja (raises Attack for all allies for three turns). Those who manage to unlock his third awakening Persona, William,can learn Fighting Spirit, which has the same effect as Charge, albeit on the whole party instead of just Ryuji. Another perk to Ryuji is his high Endurance, which ensures he can take a few hits before going down. Naturally, a good Strength and Endurance stat is ideal for a Physical Attacker inPersona.
Yosuke Hanamura’s Strength is second-best inPersona 4 Golden, which is alarming since his Skill Set doesn’t reflect this. While his Magic Stat isn’t nearly as high as Yukiko’s, Yosuke learns Magarudyne and Garudyne, which deal heavy Wind damage to all enemies and one enemy respectively. Aside from this, most of his Skills are best used for Support, and his exclusive skill, Youthful Wind, raises the Accuracy/Evasion of the party and restores some of their health. Those who prefer to have Yosuke on the front lines are likely using him for Support or for targeting enemies that are weak to Wind.
Yusuke has the best Strength when max level inPersona 5 Royal(disregarding stat-boosters, such as the drinks from the Jazz Club, incense, etc).What separates him from Ryuji, and perhaps aligns him more with Yoshizawa, is his Agility. Yusuke’s second-best stat is his Agility, meaning he’s likely to move before his opponents in battle. His Skill Set is similar to Yoshizawa’s, in that he learns Brave Blade and Vorpal Blade, but he lacks the critical hit-raising Support Skills. Despite this, most of his Physical Skills are “severe” or “heavy,” and those that are “minuscule” will hit opponents more than once.
Junpei Iori serves as a decent Physical Fighter for the first two blocks of Tartarus, but he’s swiftly outclassed by Akihiko, Shinjiro, and Aigis. However, he bounces back whenhe awakens to his second Persona, Trismegistus, particularly inPersona 3 Reloadwhere his Theurgy can also heal him. The reason why some players may prefer Junpei to Aigis or Akihiko is because of his Strength stat and his later Skills. He’s a good unit to deploy if the protagonist is lacking in a Persona that relies solely on physical attacks. Junpei’s shortcomings can also be mitigated by buffs/debuffs and critical hit-raising Skills.
Shinjiro has the best Strength out of SEES, but unfortunately, he’s only on the team for a month. InPersona 3 Reload, Shinjiro has the Bloody Charge Support Skill, which enhances his Attack power at the cost of half his HP. While normally this would be a problem, his Theurgy charges when he’s lost HP. Another positive to Shinjiro is his lack of Affinity weaknesses, meaning he can only be Downed via critical hits. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any Resistances, meaning he’ll be damaged normally by any Affinity (ex: Agi Skills). If playerslevel him up before October 2nd, Shinjiro will gain access to Skills such as Akasha Arts and God’s Hand. While he doesn’t learn any Affinity Skills, he does learn Debilitate, which lowers the Attack/Defense/Accuracy of one foe for three turns. Using this Skill before Bloody Charge can quickly turn the battle in his favor.
