Persona 4 / 5 / Strikers – Every Party Member Ranked

The Persona series is renowned for its phenomenal cast of zany characters, and the three games I’ve played have been no exception.

I’ll rank the cast of Persona 4 and 5 (and Strikers too, for the hell of it) based on their character as well as the abilities they brought to combat. Let’s get to it!

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Mascot Characters

20 – Teddy

I like how Teddy is voiced by Sam Riegel, a main player on Critical Role, but my love of the character ends there.

Not only is he an annoying mascot character, but he’s also pretty useless in battle. An easy last place.

19 – Morgana

Morgana is ever so slightly less annoying than Teddy, but not by much.

His constant simping of Ann gets tedious real quick, and once again I found myself avoiding him when it came time to pick a team for the Palaces.

Fine, I Guess

18 – Haru

Haru gets more fleshed-out in Strikers, but she’s pitifully shallow in Persona 5.

She’s introduced to the group way too late, and her entire character felt like an unnecessary plot device more than a close friend. At least she was fairly strong in battle.

17 – Sophie

One of the two Strikers-exclusive characters in this list, Sophie was fun to have around at times but a little tedious at others.

She’s the classic ditsy / fish-out-of-water character, and I only really started to appreciate her arc in the final few hours of the game.

I Liked Them

16 – Zenkichi

The other Strikers character, I liked Zenkichi a smidge more than Sophia for how he went from hard-boiled detective to loveable Gramps.

His interactions with the group are really funny, and he’s an absolute beast in combat.

15 – Kasumi / Sumire

Kasumi is a character from Royal that only becomes truly relevant in the last Palace of the game, but she uses her limited screentime well.

Her backstory is one of the most tragic of the bunch, and her optimitic can-do attitude was a breath of fresh air.

14 – Chie

Chie is one of the characters you meet first in Persona 4, and as a result she has a lot of screen time. I didn’t hate her by any means, but she could be a bit much at times.

She’s quite a loud, boisterous character, and she’s at her best when taking Yosuke down a peg.

13 – Yu

The protagonist characters are a little tricky to place in a list like this, as you don’t really get to see their personality as much as the rest of the cast.

Yu from Persona 4 is my least favourite of the two protagonists, but some of his chad responses cracked me up.

Great Allies

12 – Joker

I can’t quite place my finger on it, but Joker is my favourite protagonist character in the series.

He’s got a slick style and a charming confidence, and he’s a great friend and team leader. But he is just the protagonist, so he can’t rank that high.

11 – Futaba

Futaba had one of the most engaging dungeons / arcs in any of the Persona games, and I loved her personal battle of becoming more outgoing.

Her character never evolved beyond introverted gamer girl, however, and her role as Oracle meant she felt a little removed from combat, but she was a fun addition to the cast.

10 – Yukiko

I’ve seen Yukiko get a little backlash recently for being a bit of a wallflower / pushover, but that’s what made her character so interesting to me.

She was the rare case of somebody being too reliant on their friends in the Persona series, so it was great to see a character learning to stand on their own two feet.

9 – Rise

Rise replaced Teddy as the voice-in-your-ear overseer in Persona 4’s dungeons, which immediately bumped her up in my good books.

Her flirty personality could get a little OTT at points, but there was a vulnerability within her character that Laura Bailey acted to perfection. And her party-wide abilities were really powerful!

8 – Yusuke

Mr. Poor Oddball Artist himself, everyone knows – or is – a Yusuke in their life, which makes him one of the funniest characters of all.

Bonus points for being played by real-life legend Matthew Mercer, but points lost for kinda weak battle abilities.

7 – Ann

I was expecting Ann to be yet another Rise love-interest / cheesy female anime character, but as the game went on I respected her more and more.

She has way more depth than a lot of the female characters, and her combat abilities still felt strong even in the endgame.

6 – Makoto

I knew nothing going into Persona 5, so I just assumed that Makoto would be a thorn in the party’s side and nothing more.

I should’ve known that she’d become a core member of the group – not only that, but she was far more competent and powerful than a lot of other characters on this list.

Best Friends

5 – Yosuke

Yosuke is one of the first characters you meet in Persona 4, and I could tell we were going to become best friends almost immediately.

He’s earnest and endearing through and through, and you can tell he values his friendships more than anything else.

4 – Ryuji

Maybe this is a controversial opinion, and maybe this is just recency bias, but I slightly preferred Ryuji as the best-mate character to Yosuke.

His sharp bite and aggressive attitude always served to protect those closest to him, and his arguments with almost every party member at certain points was lots of fun.

3 – Naoto

Considering Naoto is the final party member introduced in Persona 4, it’s remarkable just how much of an impact she makes.

Her arc is my favourite in the game, and quite possibly in the whole series, with genuine emotion at its core that still affects players over a decade later. And she was an absolute unit in battle!

2 – Kanji

I don’t know how he does it, but every time Troy Baker portrays a character I’m instantly hooked.

Kanji seemed like the typical jock character at first, but the longer I spent with him the better I got to like him. By the end of Persona 4, he had become a mainstay in my party as well as my favourite character in the game.

GOATed Frenemy

1 – Akechi

He might not be a typical “party member”, and he barely even qualifies as a “friend”, but goddamn was Akechi the best written character in the series.

His bitter rivalry with Joker and his penchant for drama and revenge made him the most engaging character of the bunch, and Robbie Daymond’s voice acting could be outright heart-breaking at points. In terms of the character that made the most impact on me, Akechi had to come at top spot.

Aaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: