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With Persona 5: Royal now at home in our lap where it belongs, it's a good time to start talking about the franchise again. The Persona series is by far Atlus's most recognizable franchise and for good reason, it's a ton of fun. One-third dating simulator, one-third classic JRPG, and one-third demonic Scooby-Doo knockoff, and that's how players like it.
Now, there are always a lot of "social links" for players to rank up in these games (or Confidants if you've only played P5), but the ones you build with the playable party are by far the most important.
10 Persona 2: Eriko Kirishima - A Popular Girl With Realistic Hobbies
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The cast of Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment are pretty great. They aren't strictly restricted to just high school dorks, so they're a lot more varied as we'll see with Baofu. Eriko, for example, has already participated in the Persona game before she becomes playable in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. She's obsessed with the occult and seems to genuinely care for her friends past the sociopathic enthusiasm for the situation. Atlus does a fairly decent job of representing stereotypically "pretty" girls as complex characters and Eri is an early example of that. So if you like Persona 5, big surprise, play the older games as well.
9 Persona 2: Kaoru Saga AKA "Baofu" - Wow What Luxurious Hair
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Now players have moved on to what might be the oldest playable character in the Persona series, Baofu. This in-disguise public prosector works with our team to further his goals of finding the boss of the Taiwanese Mafia who killed his assistant. Baofu has an interesting design, and interesting Persona, and an even more interesting way of attacking. The guy flicks anything and everything from his thumb with the force of a gunshot! Basically, Baofu is a real cool dude, and we're sad that the cast is mostly restricted to kids now.
8 Persona 5 Royal: Haru Okumura - She Needed More Time
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Haru just didn't get the time she deserved. By all standard definition, Haru Okumura should be a stuck up brat similar to Ai Ebihara from P4. But, she's not. She's kind and empathetic and self-sacrificing.
Haru made have had a hard life, but she understands that her position is one of privilege that others don't get by default. More than that, Haru has a great Phantom Theif costume, a useful Persona called Milady, and a wide array of Gun/Psy skills. Plus, her social link is just so sickly sweet.
7 Persona 5 Royal: Sumire "Kasumi" Yoshizawa - Two Social Links In One
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Who would have thunk it, but the new character added in for a definitive version of a Persona game is actually pretty great. Don't worry, this isn't another Marie situation from Persona 4: Golden. Sumire who goes by "Kasumi" for a while after we meet her, is one of the more complex characters in the game. Her relationship with her twin sister and the results of a certain event impact most of her development over the course of the game. It's really interesting to see, and super heartbreaking. Cendrillon is also a great Persona design, and Bless skills are absolutely handy to have in the latter parts of the game.
6 Persona 4 Golden: Chie Satonaka - The Power Ranger Party Member
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Chie is arguably the best character in Persona 4. Some people swear by her, saying that both her combat ability and Social Link are the best. Others find her annoying and talk about her overall lack of growth throughout the events of Persona 4.
We personally believe that Chie is one of the stronger members in the cast and we only ever dislike her when she's irrationally mean to Yosuke. Chie has fantastic physical skills/damage in-game, and a few great Ice skills. She's a fighter to her core, and we kept her in our lineup for most of the game, which is usually a great sign.
5 Persona 3 FES: Aigis - A Robot With A Heart, Unique...Right?
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Aigis is arguably the most important character in Persona 3, aside from the protagonist, technically. She follows all the same tropes most cyborgs/machines do in these types of stories. She doesn't understand jokes, she does stuff that would be seen as weird to normal humans, and she can speak to Koromaru who is a dog. Aigis is a fantastic design with an even better Persona design who gradually becomes more important as the story goes on. We know Persona 3 is "old" at this point, but for the sake of spoilers, she becomes especially important before the events of P3: FES. She's a fan favorite.
4 Persona 4 Golden: Kanji Tatsumi - The Toughest Guy Who Can Sew
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Now, onto one of the favorites. Kanji is the best crew member in Persona 4. Hands down, no argument. The guy has a great character arc, his initial Persona, Take-Mikazuchi, looks lame but each awakening looks way better, and he's great in a fight. Kanji is a complex character with an even more complex social link. The guy seems like a thick-skulled delinquent on the surface but is actually one of the most empathetic and skilled people in the cast. And, his journey to figure out his sexuality due to his feelings towards Naoto is one of the best ways Atlus has ever handled anything close to that subject matter.
3 Persona 5 Royal: Makoto Nijima - Just The Best
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Makoto is the best girl in Persona 5, romance included. All of the other girls have plenty of amazing factors to them, but Makoto is the most well rounded.
Her design is simplistic yet dynamic, her Persona is a literal Motorcycle, and her Phantom Thieves costume is the best in the game. Plus, she uses a combination of physical, radioactive, and healing skills to make herself an integral part of most crew-setups.
2 Persona 3 FES: Akihiko Sanada: A Boxer, What More Could We Want?
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Now, let's be fair, who could really compete with Akihiko? The guy is a smooth-talking, shredded, and all-around put-together guy who seems almost too perfect. He gets good grades, he's built, he's quick-witted and sarcastic, and he's kind-hearted. There's not a lot to say here, Akihiko has a few small faults but for the most part, he's just superhuman. While that could be boring for anyone else, Akihiko is hyper invested in the art of fighting and also has his own unique mechanics like the Cyclone Meter in-game.
1 Persona 3 FES: Koromaru - Literally A Dog With A Knife
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It had to end this way. Only thing better than a superhuman boxer is a dog. Because, more than Persona's, more than Shadows, more than even Gods or Demons, dogs are the best. Dogs are mankind's best friends and it cannot be understated how rad they are. Koromaru is even more rad than we expected, being an Albino Shiba-Inu who can fight shadows with a Persona and a knife. He becomes a party Member quite early on and we never took him off our team after. Koromaru is based on the Japanese legend of Hachiko that's based on a self-sacrificing Shiba Inu. And, Koromaru lives up to that, he's always there for the S.E.E.S team, and he's even better in a fight.
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