Aigis

A robotic weapon with Persona abilities and also a second-year at Gekkoukan. Learns physical skills. Expect high damage in Orgia Mode, but it can cause her to overheat. Best used in the back row. Despite the official character description, Aigis is definitely better suited in the front row, as she is both an offensive and defensive powerhouse. She naturally learns Swordbreaker, making the front line that much more defensive, plus her 4th skill, Aegis Shield, has a chance to negate elemental attacks. On the offensive side, Orgia Mode (boosted attack for 2 turns, followed by three turns of cooldown) combined with something like Dragon Cry and Heat Riser can make short work of enemies.

Akihiko Sanada

A third-year at Gekkoukan High. The popular captain of the boxing team. Learns electric skills. Because his basic stats are high, he can handle almost anything. Best used in the front row. As already mentioned, Akihiko is great in the front row, as he can be a physical bruiser in combat. Once he upgrades to Caesar, Conqueror Title will help him crit a lot more, so make sure you get multi-hit physical skills on his Sub-Persona (like Myriad Arrows). Combine this with his great speed, meaning that he will often attack before the enemies, making him a good linker without having to resort to Dragon Cry. His SP isn’t too high, but it’s good for what he needs to do, but his luck can be low, so you might want to switch his Magic and Luck to make him even more prone to critical hits.

Junpei Iori

A second-year at Gekkoukan High. Easily excited, but sets the tone. Learns fire and support skills. He’s powerful, but not the best stat-wise. He tries hard, though. Best used in the front row. Junpei is a character that doesn’t really stand out much from anyone else, despite him having high attack and defense. He does learn a few decent abilities, but he does have the lowest base SP out of everyone in the game and pretty poor speed as well. In order to set him up properly in battle, especially when using his own skills, it will take a few turns. Golden Gemini helps in dealing extra damage, since there will be a medium chance to execute a skill twice, so something like Hassou Tobi can be a great thin.

Ken Amada

A 5th grader at Gekkoukan Elementary. He lost his mother in an accident. Learns electric and light skills. Though he acts mature, he is still young and his HP is worrisome. Best used in the back row. Ken can be a great character, as his luck and agility are pretty high (his luck is the highest in the game when at level 99). This makes him a great user for status ailments and binds, as Ken has a tough time specializing in anything else. One of the few problems with him is that he has low HP, as well as low SP for being a caster, although the latter isn’t too much of a problem in the long run. His 4th skill, Target Boost, is not as useful as the others, since most normal enemies are dead long before the battle truly begins.

Koromaru

A Shiba Inu with Persona abilities. His owner died in an accident. Learns fire and dark skills. His speed and elemental attacks make up for his low attack power. Best in the front row. Koromaru’s greatest strength lies in his speed, which starts peeling away from the others in the 30/40s, essentially making him the fastest character in the game at level 99. This is great , since he can act before the enemies do, so he’s good for getting battles set up, like using Teardrop (the best defense debuff in the game). Also, he has innate access to Masukukaja, increasing everyone’s evasion and his 4th skill allows others after him to do more damage, which is about everyone. The few downsides he has (low HP and luck) can be offset because he can use his Skill Card slots for defensive purposes.

Mitsuru Kirijo

A third-year at Gekkoukan High. Student Council President and head of SEES. Learns ice skills. Her elemental skills and physical attacks are destructive. Best used in the front row. Mitsuru is a character that might be better suited to the back row, since she is more magic-oriented than others, especially when her Magic stat starts getting higher later on. One of the plus sides to her is that she learns Tentarafoo naturally, which is probably the best status ailment in the game, but her speed and luck are not as great as other people’s. Her fourth skill, Punishment, is not as good as it should be, due to it actually removing Binds.

Persona 3 Protagonist

A second-year at Gekkoukan High. Leader of the Shadow-fighting SEES. Learns fire skills. His defining characteristic is that he has no character. All-around good. He’s best in the front row. Despite the game saying he’s best in the front row, he’s actually better in the back row, as he’s more fit to be a spellcaster than a tank or physical attacker. Of course, this means that physical skills are a problem, since he’ll suffer a damage penalty due to his weapon being melee. In fact, you likely won’t be doing much in the way of attacking physically, since the P3MC can make a good debuffer or someone who inflicts ailments and/or binds. He becomes a debuffer of sorts when his Persona is upgraded to Messiah, as it has Debilitate as its innate skill, so the P3MC will be able to debuff strength, magic and evasion/hit rate all with one spell.

Shinjiro Aragaki

A third-year at Gekkoukan High who is taking time off. Friends with Akihiko. Learns physical skills. He is somewhat slow, but expect great amounts of damage from him. Best used in the front row. Shinjiro is a bit of a mixed bag, as he is strong, but also slow at the same time, making it so you need to use Bestial Roar/Dragon Cry on him. Also, his skillset isn’t bad, as he has Teardrop (best defense debuff), but this gets automatically upgraded as he levels up. While not the best tank, he is still hard to bring down, as his Persona doesn’t have any weaknesses (no strengths either). His 4th skill, Whirlwind Swing, only has a few uses in the late game, but not much else. There’s certainly characters that outshine him easily in his areas.

Yukari Takeba

A second-year at Gekkoukan High, who has a strong will and archery skills. Learns win and healing skills. She excels at elemental attacks, but her low health is a concern. Best used in the back row. Yukari seems to be best at healing, like the official description in the game says, but her lower agility means that she won’t be able to heal before the enemy attacks. Yukari also has high magic, but that is considered kind of useless in this game, so you might want use something like a stat switching accessory to better utilize her. With Ma-Ag, you can load her up with buffs and/or debuffs and even though magic does influence healing, Mediarahan heals all HP, so the magic stat is moot there.