Persona 4 Golden follows a group of high schoolers in the quiet town of Inaba as they try and uncover the mystery surrounding a string of murders that began shortly after the protagonist’s arrival. They quickly learn about the TV World and how it is being used by the murderer and can also be used to save the victims seen on the Midnight Channel.
As the game progresses, you’ll have access to more party members, but you can only ever explore and fight with three others, along with the protagonist. In the game’s later stages, bosses can become relatively difficult, and you’ll have access to multiple party members to choose from. While they are all decent options, some stand a bit above the rest in battle capability.
7/7 Teddie
While Teddie is one of the most interesting characters in the game, unfortunately, he lacks in the combat department a reasonable amount. You don’t initially get him as a combat party member, and he acts as your navigator for the early dungeons but later awakens to his persona — just a bit too late.
Teddie is a more magic-heavy fighter who utilizes ice-based magic. His magic stats fall behind other users you’ll already have at this point, and Chie will also use ice magic if she’s still in your party. His social link is also linked to the main story, keeping you from getting all of his bonus abilities as quickly as you get them for other team members.
6/7 Chie
Chie is the second additional party member you receive and focuses more on physical damage than magic. She has ice abilities, and while her strength is high, it is soon out-classed by Kanji, leaving her a well-rounded character but not incredible at any one thing.
Chie is powerful early on, as her physical attacks deal decent amounts of damage, but she will eventually reach a lull in the middle of the game as she waits to unlock her better abilities. In the late level 60s to early 70s is when she learns her best physical attacks, but this is a bit too late as other members may be more potent at this point in the game.
5/7 Naoto
Many characters excel in either magic or strength, while the other stats lag behind. Naoto is one of the few characters who is decently powerful in both aspects and has access to a great range of spells.
Naoto is one of the few members to learn almighty and very powerful spells. Naoto is immune to both light and dark attacks, protecting herself from insta-kill abilities. Naoto also has access to light and dark spells, which can make very short work of many fights, especially those who are weak to those elements.
4/7 Kanji
Kanji has the highest strength stat of anyone in the Investigation Team. While he does little damage with magic, his physical damage is incredible, and that’s all he needs in battle. Kanji also lives out the WWE fantasy of beating shadows with a folding chair, which is by far the most entertaining weapon in all of the Persona series.
Kanji will have high health in the later sections of the game, making him a great backup healer with items should some of your team members go down. Mixing in buffs and debuffs with Kanji’s strongest attacks can let him do incredible amounts of physical damage to the many tanks bosses of Persona 4 Golden.
3/7 Yukiko
Yukiko is the strongest magic user in the Investigation Team, using powerful fire magic and healing spells. Yukiko’s base damage with fire spells does incredible amounts of damage and should also be her go-to form of damage output.
She also has access to some of the best healing spells, which makes her the best healer you can have on your team. Her high magic stat will also make those powerful healing spells even more potent. She comes with a very high SP pool that will help her cast the strongest spells continuously, even in more prolonged battles.
2/7 Yosuke
Aside from the protagonist, Yosuke is the most versatile member of the team. He is excellent for both magic and physical attacks and learns useful buffs and debuffs while also having a few healing spells. While he doesn’t learn many physical attacks, the ones he flexes are excellent options — the final attack he learns is one of the best in the game.
Yosuke is the first additional party member you get, and there is no reason to ever switch him out of your party. While he doesn’t offer enough healing to be the main healer, he pairs well with Yukiko and can fill in when more healing is needed in a single turn.
1/7 Rise
While Rise isn’t a party member that can be used in combat, she operates as your support and navigator. By maxing out her social link, she’ll learn incredible abilities that can significantly buff or randomly heal your party in battle. These abilities are based on a chance for them to go off, but they happen much more often than navigator buffs in other Persona games.
Rise’s early abilities are great for showing an enemy’s weakness right away or helping decide if a spell would be effective against an enemy. In the later levels, Rise will gain the ability to randomly heal your HP and SP or randomly give different buffs in the battle between turns. This happens quite often and can quickly turn the tide of a boss battle. She will also restore before HP and SP after all battles when exploring a dungeon, helping make a single day in the TV world much more effective.
