Supplemental: Protagonist FES/Portable/Reload
"Persona!"
As I am wont to do for my RPG LPs, I'll be writing out supplemental posts regarding mechanics, characters, and strategies. I do this to give a better idea of why I approach things the way I do, as well as get a more organized thought dump out there since I know I can stumble over my words and lose my train of thought frequently. What better place to start with discussing characters and mechanics than with our protagonists?
Now it's important to note, there's quite a wealth of changes and additions when it comes to mechanics in Persona 3 Reload, and some characters function almost completely differently in the remake compared to how they used to be. Even disregarding that, many of the characters have been overhauled to the point that even if they serve the same role in the party, the ways you can use them at various stages of the game are often vastly different. I'll eventually write up dedicated Reload posts for each character in the game, but I'll be saving that for once we gain access to every unique mechanic related to characters in that game. Up until then, I'll just write brief blurbs regarding the characters in Reload in their FES/Portable bios.
Of course the main character kind of falls outside of this consideration due to their central mechanic. They are not bound to a single Persona, and will indeed be obtaining and creating many new ones throughout the game. No doubt, the average player will have their protagonist run through every possible specialization they could have through the course of the game, and a well equipped protagonist with meticulously fused Personae will likely be able to swap between specializations on the fly come the end of the game. There are some things to consider beyond that though, especially in comparison to Reload.
In FES
The Main character has several unique considerations in the PS2 versions of Persona 3 compared to later revisions. First and foremost, as demonstrated in Part 5 the Vanilla/FES Protagonist is not bound to a single weapon type, and can equip almost any weapon that is wielded by the members of his party. Since weapons aren't dogshit in Persona 3 PS2 and there's 3 physical types to consider with every one having an opportunity to strike weaknesses, this is a pretty good attribute to have. Even beyond that, if you don't care about the weapon type specifically, the main character still gets full control over what bonus abilities he's getting from his equipped weapons. Another thing to consider is fusion spells, which I will list below and update this post as we encounter new ones. By having two specific Personae in his stock and equipping one of them, the protagonist can bust out unique powerful spells that have a high SP cost of a fixed percentage, but often have incredible or at least interesting effects. Some of these are garbo, but there's quite a few that are unbelievably powerful if you can think to work them into your load out. Finally, the protagonist on PS2 is the only character who can tap into your item supply in battle. Items can be critical to surviving battle, and many of them can replicate powerful spells or do things that spells cannot accomplish, making this a nice feather in his cap. Other minor considerations are that you can only modify team tactics on the MC's turn and that at the end of the day due to AI control governing your team, the MC is the only one you can truly rely on to accomplish a specific task for a given turn. If something absolutely needs to happen in a turn, make sure your protagonist is the one doing it.
Not specific to FES, but always keep in mind that it's game over if your protagonist is knocked out in battle. Something that does need to be kept in mind is that the protagonist's HP cannot be boosted independent of equipment and level ups, making these things much more valuable in FES and Portable.
In Portable
Several retools to the mechanics on the account of them being air dropped in from Persona 4 means that the MC/FemC are a mix of weaker and stronger here. Gone is the ability to use multiple weapons, but weapons are in that awkward phase of being nerfed into uselessness outside of their abilities, so that's not a huge deal most of the time. You enjoy the general QoL bonuses such as not being the sole item caddy with direct control for party members and having a guard command, but the use of Persona 4 mechanics make critical hits from the enemy anathema to the protagonist now, especially on Maniac mode with multi-target physicals from the enemy. We'll see that in due time, trust me. Fusion spells still exist, but are now items that can only be replenished after a certain point in the story and require other unique items to trade for. On the bright side again, this means you don't need to cart around outdated or useless Personae to use them. The FemC herself has a few fringe perks, mainly regarding equipment selection. Her ultimate weapon becomes available much earlier than the MC's, and she has access to some powerful female exclusive armors at various points in the game (though she has the same ultimate armor as anyone else.) Overall, the changes to the Portable protagonist are most prominent early on and are largely superficial later in the game. In the beginning it's a good idea to keep a lot of this in mind though as it tends to be relevant to the early game bosses which were not rebalanced for the Persona 4 mechanics. One major boon the Portable protagonist has are skill cards. These items allow them to just simply teach Personae new skills independent of having to fuse them with the skills, making it much easier to customize up a stock of ass kickers. This is especially prominent in the late game and can literally save dozens of hours if you plan to take on the ultimate bonus boss.
Fusion Spells
Cadenza: Requires Fool Oprheus and Priestess Apsaras. In Persona 3 Portable, this can be obtained at the Antique Store for the cost of 2 Malachite and 1 Amethyst. Costs 20% of your Max SP in FES, and restores the party's HP by 50% while also giving a unique evasion buff status. This status gives the same evasion bonus as Sukukaja, though without the accuracy bonus to go with it. It also only lasts two turns, but uniquely can be reapplied before it expires, extending the duration. It is the only buff or debuff that works like this in FES and Portable, as it wasn't until Persona 4 Golden that they changed it so that you could recast buffs/debuffs before they expire to extend the duration. Needless to say, this spell is crazy good and is absolutely critical for surviving on Hard mode in FES. 50% HP multi target is the best healing possible you can have at this stage of the game, and it pretty much always outclasses Mediarama once we get that. The evasion buff can also go a long way to minimizing damage, even if it isn't reliable. This is the main thing that makes Orpheus worth hanging onto, and it's a serious consideration to buff him up with EN boosting items when you have the chance just so this spell can stay relevant. Definitely keep Orpheus and Apsaras around so you can make regular use of this spell, and do not fuse off Orpheus early on since it will be awhile before you get him back and the absence of Cadenza can make several battles beyond infuriating. Once you can trade for these in Portable, it's a great investment there as well though slightly less helpful because your party is a bit more reliable with direct control. At least you don't have to haul around beginner tier Personae to use it in Portable.
Justice: Requires Justice Angel and Justice Archangel. In Portable, this can be obtained for the cost of 1 Malachite and 1 Diamond. Costs 30% of your Max SP in FES and will reduce all enemies current HP by 50%. Although it is technically a Light element attack, it cannot trigger weaknesses. Naturally, bosses are immune to this spell. If it cost a bit less and triggered Light weaknesses, this spell might have been worth something in spite of the really weak Personae it's locked to. As it is though, it's too situational and far too expensive to rely on. Might be worth something against Strong Shadows, but those also have more reliable counters. Just grab this to complete Elizabeth's request and call it a day. It's a little more worthwhile in Portable due to not costing SP, though your mileage will definitely vary on if it's worth the resources it takes to get it.
Jack Brothers: Requires Magician Jack Frost and Magician Pyro Jack. In Portable, this can be obtained for 1 Malachite and 1 Emerald. Costs 15% of your Max SP in FES. This one is really weird, it's classified by the game as an almighty skill but it does not deal damage. Instead, it has about a 50% chance of putting an enemy into the Down status. It's multi-targeting, so it has lowish odds of downing multiple enemies without needing to strike their weakness. Far to unreliable to ever be put to good use, the required Personae for it a generally better off attacking. I believe this one can work on bosses, but again it's just too unreliable to shoot for and the fact it deals no damage directly makes it a less than ideal use of your SP. Again, it's less of an SP drain in Portable, but I'd be hard pressed to say it's worth the resources it takes to get access to it.
Frolic: Requires Lovers Narcissus and Lovers Pixie. In Portable, it requires 1 Malachite and 2 Amethyst to obtain. It costs 10% of your Max SP in FES. This is an interesting one, something of a sideways upgrade to Cadenza. Frolic effectively casts Mediarahan on your party (full healing to everyone!), and it's available to use about 35 levels sooner than any Persona that allows you to cast that spell. This sounds pretty good, but there is a catch. Anyone healed by Frolic has a flat 30% chance of being Charmed, meaning that using this to heal your party has a not inconsiderable chance of turning at least half your party into hostiles, with your Protag being among those who can be affected! Here in lies a trick though: Charm resistance does block out the Charm aspect of Frolic, meaning that if you're immune to Charm it's essentially Mediarahan but available close to the mid-game as opposed to late game. It's something you have to build around, but it is possible to make practical use of this skill for a decent while, and Narcissus has pretty good resistances making it an interesting way for the Protag to function as some kind of off-tank healer in FES. It's one of the cheaper fusion items to get in Portable as well, so if you find yourself in situations where this kind of healing might be critical, it's worth keeping in mind.
Thunder Call: Requires Chariot Thor and Take-Mikazuchi to use. Thor himself requires the Chariot social link to be maxed out in order to fuse, adding that on as a secondary requirement. In Portable, it requires 4 Malachite and 1 Topaz to obtain. It costs 15% of your SP to cast in FES, which is surprisingly low considering the next couple sentences. This spell is a multi-targeting Elec spell that deals to tune of 50% more damage than Maziodyne. More importantly than that, it has a 100% chance of inflicting Shock on what it hits, allowing you to easily tee up for guaranteed crits provided the turn order allows it! This can be a pretty potent option for Thor, super damaging with the relevant boosts and with excellent utility. While Odin and Thunder Reign are more generally useful, a good turn order for Tartarus bosses can make this a really easy way to set up All Out Attacks and bypass the intended way to handle the fights altogether. I don't use it too much once I get access to Odin, but I'd say it's a step above a gimmick and there's a couple fights it can be handy for, even after Odin becomes available. You can get this surprisingly early in Portable, but it's more of a pure utility skill there than anything with real damage potential. Spells cast via items do not benefit from Boost and Amp passives, which absolutely guts the damage potential of the element fusion spells as those boosts are critical for these to do good damage. Since Thunder Call has its utility with Shock to fall back on, it's the one elemental fusion spell that wasn't rendered completely useless.
King and I: Requires Emperor King Frost and Fool Black Frost. In Portable, it requires 2 Malachite and 1 Emerald to obtain. It costs 15% of your Max SP in FES. Because it requires Black Frost to use, you cannot access this until Special Fusions are unlocked post typhoon in September. This is a bigger deal than you might expect, as by the time Black Frost is available you've already move well past his level bracket. As for what it does, it's a marginally stronger Ice skill than Mabufula (multi-targeting too) that carries a 50% chance to freeze the enemy. Mabufudyne is more than twice as strong, so this has a pretty brief time where it can be a better option than conventional skills. Due to the aforementioned weakness of Skill cast via items, it is completely worthless in Portable despite being potentially usable much sooner. Great Theurgy, as detailed below, but complete trash as a spell.
Best Friends: Requires Emperor Forneus and Fool Decarabia to cast. In Portable, it requires 2 Malachite and 2 Topaz to obtain. It costs 15% of your Max SP in FES. The effect of this spell is all -Kaja buffs being cast on a single target. Not useful for most of the game due to Persona 3 not really supporting hyper focus styles, but it is very much worth your while to keep this in mind for the bonus boss of the game. Creating a Forneus/Decarabia that can make effective use of this can give you a huge leg up in that battle. This skill is a lot better in Portable where you can use it independent of its constituents, making it much easier to use regularly in the bonus boss battle, and potentially useful in more standard situations as well. Definitely don't neglect it when these situations come up!
Summer Dream: Requires Emperor Oberon and Lovers Titania to cast. In Portable, it requires 5 Malachite to obtain. It costs 15% of your Max SP in FES, which is insulting for reasons we'll get into. Because I guess Oracle wasn't enough, this is another random effect spell that is instead used by the Protagonist. And it is complete dogshit. When cast, Summer Dream will do one of the following
EIGHT things.
1.) All Enemies Knocked Down
2.) All Enemies Fully Healed
3.) All Allies Knocked Down
4.) All Allies Fully Healed
5.) Effects 1 and 3 at the same time
6.) Effects 2 and 4 at the same time
7.) The game says "fuck you" even harder and gives the protagonist a random status ailment
8.) Nothing
This somehow makes Oracle look good. There are only 2 unambiguously good effects here in the full heal and the enemy knockdown, meaning this skill has a greater chance of screwing you over, if it even does anything at all! I have to imagine this is deliberately joke skill to troll anyone who lucks out on the full heal the first time and then gets nothing but garbage every time after.
Dreamfest: Requires Devil Incubus and Devil Succubus to cast. In Portable, it requires 2 Malachite and 1 Garnet to obtain. It costs 10% of your Max SP in FES. This is a multitargeting Charm skill with an 80% base chance to succeed. For comparison, Sexy Dance is a base 40% chance to succeed. In many different SMT games, and including some of the future Persona titles, this would be an amazing skill. Sadly, most random battles in Persona 3 can be cleared in a single action, and most bosses are just immune to Charm outright. Crowd control is not that helpful in this game, which is a shame because like I said, this actually is a fairly powerful spell in the context of the entire series. If there were more random battles that had high chances of last more than a turn, I could see this being handy to have in the back pocket if you can get Charm Boost onto either of its constituents.
Scarlet Havoc: Requires Chariot Ares and Strength Siegfried to cast. In Portable, it requires 4 Malachite and 2 Sapphire to obtain. It costs 15% of your Max SP in FES. That previous sentence is notable because this is actually a physical skill, a multi-targeting slash skill to be precise. While having a physical skill take SP to cast is novel I guess, this skill is actually quite bad. It has a power value of 320, which is actually strictly inferior to Vorpal Blade which has a base power of 500, and that's not factoring in the double damage bonus it gets from being in Great Condition. And it is impossible to not have that skill on Siegfried in FES since he's the Ultimate in this version, meaning you're guaranteed to get the 4 levels he needs to learn it on fusion. Theoretically it's better in Portable since you can technically get it well before you get access to Siegfried, but it requires the incredibly rare Sapphire gem to trade for, which doesn't become relatively common until around when Siegfried is available anyway! Not really sure what they were cooking with this one.
Valhalla: Requires Strength Valkyrie and Emperor Odin to cast. In Portable, it requires 1 Malachite and 2 Topaz to obtain. It costs 40% of your Max SP in FES. This is a support spell that makes a character completely invulnerable for 1 one turn... including to Almighty damage! A powerful effect for sure, but it has a devastating drawback. When the next turn comes around, the character that had this will be reduced to 1 HP and 1 SP. Definitely not worth it, though it is a pretty cool effect. It's also not worth it because there's another fusion spell that does literally the same exact thing but without the drawback, which we'll go over a few more fusion spells down.
Shadow Hound: Requires Priestess Scathach and Tower Cu Chulainn to cast. In Portable, it requires 5 Malachite and 1 Sapphire to obtain. It costs 20% of your Max SP in FES. This is a multi-targeting strike move that costs SP... and that's about it. Similar to Scarlet Havoc, it's not really stronger than anything else available around it and is in fact weaker. This gets by on the novelty of being a physical skill that costs SP or is used via item, and that's it.
Raktapaksha: Requires Star Garuda and Moon Gurr. In Portable, it requires 4 Malachite and 1 Pearl to obtain. It costs 15% of your Max SP in FES. This is similar to Jack Brothers with Dekaja thrown in as a treat. It's kind of interesting, and it is a form of Dekaja outside of having the skill itself or a Dekaja rock, but it's not something I've ever felt the need to pick up. Dekaja in general is less useful here than other MegaTen games as surprisingly few bosses actually opt to buff themselves up. It's a bit more useful in Portable as an item, as the specific Personae requirement in FES means you're just less constrained if you just grab a Persona that has Dekaja already.
Trickster: Requires Fool Loki and Fool Susano-o. In Portable, it requires 2 Malachite and 1 Pearl to obtain. It costs 15% of your Max SP in FES. This attempts to inflict a random ailment on every enemy, which is wildly impractical compared to just using a specific ailment you can maximize for effectiveness, if you had any plan to use ailments in battle to begin with. This one can also potentially backfire and target your team instead, which is especially undesirable. A very underwhelming spell in FES for the point you get it at, though if nothing else you can use it relatively early in Portable if you're a gambler.
Infinity: Requires Aeon Ananta and Sun Vishnu to use. In Portable, it requires 4 Malachite and 4 Pearls to obtain. It costs 30% of your Max SP in FES. This is a multi-targeting buffing spell that makes its recipients flatly immortal, including to Almighty skills. If you are willing to foot the SP cost for it, this can be used to make your party unkillable for most of any battle in FES, and it requires relatively common gems in Portable so it's not half bad there. This is mainly used for the bonus boss, but it's a very powerful effect that a more creative player than I could probably find interesting uses for. Again, you'll definitely need it for the Bonus Boss, and the Vision Quest in Portable gives you enough of them for that purpose as well.
Ardhanari: Requires Priestess Parvati and Tower Shiva to use. In Portable, it requires 3 Malachite and 2 Rubies. It costs 30% of your Max SP in FES. This is a multi-targeting Fire spell, and it's a pretty interesting one in FES. This is the strongest Fire spell in the game, with a whopping 900 power backing it, compared to Ragnarok's 600! It is entirely possible to build around this skill, and while it's definitely something you'd only really do if you're clowning around, it is a pretty fun thing to optimize. In Portable, this spell is trash because as an item, it cannot benefit from element boosting passives. That absolutely guts the damage it can do, making it completely useless and absolutely not worth the Rubies. If you want to mess around with a Fusion Spell focused build in FES though, this is definitely one of the better ones out there.
Last Judge: Requires Aeon Metatron and Temperance Mithra. In Portable, it requires 10 Malachite and 1 Ruby to obtain. It costs 30% of your Max SP in FES. This is another multi-targeting attack spell, this time Almighty in element. It has 800 attack power and can't be boosted by passives, so it really has nothing going for it over Ardhanari beyond working equally on everything. At least in Portable the fact it doesn't get boosts from passives is irrelevant I suppose. Note that Helel's signature spell Morning Star has the exact same power as this spell and does the same thing, so there's really not much reason to spec for this spell even if you think Almighty spells are cool.
Armageddon: Requires Judgement Satan and Star Helel. In Portable, it requires
99(!!!) Malachite and
10(!!!) Rubies to obtain. It costs 100% of your Max SP in FES, as in if you are missing even 1 SP point you cannot cast it. This deals 9,999 damage to all enemies, no questions asked. Needless to say, this is an intentionally overpowered spell meant to either reward players who grinded out to obtain the relevant Personae, or make New Game + breezier for those who just want to coast through it. Regardless, this wins every battle in the game save for one, and the one it doesn't win immediately is the Bonus Boss where you are required to use it at the proper timing regardless. What a glorious time it will be when we finally get to use it!
In Reload
"Alright."
Reload brings in a number of mechanical updates and changes that don't directly affect the Protagonist but do affect the tools at his disposal. The most obvious boon the Protag gets coming into this version is that he is now able to manually select the inherited skills when fusing new Personae. On top of skill types being less restrictive, it is much easier to have a Protagonist who can cover every situation in this game. Jumping off from Portable, the Inari shrine has also been retooled to be much more helpful. Not only can you now directly select skill cards to duplicate, the card is duplicated immediately and the service can be used once per day. The only annoying RNG point involved with skill card duping now is that you no longer get cards from leveling up Personae and instead have to rely on Shuffle Time for a good number of them. One last mechanical change that is something of a nerf to the Protag but a buff to everyone else is that the old stat raising cards have been removed, replaced with Incenses. Incenses can be used on your party members and also have a higher cost to trade for in comparison to the old stat cards, meaning it's a bigger investment to max out any one Persona for the Protag. Finally, the Persona Compendium is much cheaper in this version of the game, and you get further discounts as you raise your registration percentage. This allows you to play around with fusion a lot more without losing tried and true Personae in the process.
Onto direct changes to the Protag himself, like Portable multiple weapon types have been removed. Not a big a loss though since weapons kind of blow for the purpose of dealing damage in this game, though you have less ability options at your disposal. As we go further into the game, the Protagonist will also pick up upgrades to his capabilities out of battle in Tartarus. There are a couple of computer programs we can use that upgrade our Preemptive strikes, improving our standing vis-a-vis the enemy at a battle's offset. Next up is the Protag's
Characteristic, his unique passive that will always be in effect when unlocked. While Characteristics are typically unlocked via hanging out with a SEES member 3 times for a specific event, the Protagonist can't very well hang out with himself (Well I mean I guess he can but it's against the spirit of the game). The Protag's Characteristic is instead unlocked via Compendium completion percentage. At 30% completion, you gain
Weakness Boost, which is an additional 1.1X Multiplier (10% bonus if it's the only damage boost being considered) to damage dealt when striking an enemy's weakness. At 60% completion, this upgrades to
Weakness Amp, which is a 1.2X Multiplier! Given the Protagonist can easily have every single potential weakness covered, this is a fantastic passive to have for him and helps a ton with closing out fights within a single turn once you have it. The Protag's Characteristic is obviously not the only feather he has in his cap, it's time to talk about
Theurgy!
Theurgy
Theurgy is the functional replacement for Fusion Spells in Reload as far the Protag is concerned. Theurgy is much easier to work with than Fusion Spells are though, as you merely need to have fused the constituent Personae at some point and have their compendium data. Once the requisite Personae have been fused/obtained, their Fusion Spell will be added to the Protag's Theurgy menu and can be used whenever he pleases, provided he has a fully charged Theurgy gauge of course. All Theurgies in the Protag's arsenal are buffed or retooled versions of fusion spells from the older games, though a number of fusion spells were cut in the transition to Reload (Likely because a good chunk of them were overly gimmicky trash). Like everyone else, the Protagonist has a special condition for gaining extra Theurgy charge. His condition is "After summoning a Persona, power within gradually enhances." What the fuck does that mean? Basically anytime the Protag switches his Persona and uses a skill with the freshly swapped Persona, he gains a little extra on his gauge. It's definitely one of the weaker conditions for a couple reasons. One is that is just doesn't yield very much extra gauge. The other is that in prolonged fights, you're likely going to have a dedicated counter Persona for the boss or tough enemy you're fighting, and aren't liable to switch too much. Because of this, the Protag will likely proc most of his gauge charge from hitting weaknesses, landing crits, and being Shifted to. This does mean his Theurgy charges somewhat slow, but thankfully in compensation the Fusion Spells available are very potent!
Cadenza: The first Fusion Spell you're liable to see in FES returns, and it's actually mostly the same as it was in FES and Portable. Cadenza is your default Theurgy, technically requiring Orpheus and Apsaras to be registered in order to use, but Reload does not ever give you the option to have that not be the case. Like the FES/Portable Fusion spell, it restores 50% HP to the entire party. Unlike the older games though, the buffing effect is slightly different. Cadenza in Reload simply applies Masukukaja, rather than the unique Evasion Buff status that it does in FES/Portable. This is for the better though, as Masukukaja not only increases our accuracy in addition to our evasion, it also lasts 3 turns to the Evasion Buff status' 2! All buffs can be refreshed by reapplying them now, so it's not like that unique aspect of Evasion Buff even matters anymore either. That all said, this Theurgy is actually a fair deal less useful than it is in FES and Portable. The healing was always the big draw of this skill, and Reload introduces a bevvy of new options on that front. Not only do stronger healing options become available to the Protagonist and the dedicated healers in the party far earlier, Aohige Pharmacy also now sells Mult-target healing items that are more than adequate for your purposes in most fights. As a result, I don't typically use Cadenza too much in this game, though that doesn't mean it's bad at all.
Jack Brothers: Unlocked once you have fused/obtained Jack Frost and Jack O' Lantern. In FES/Portable, this is a useless joke skill that has about a 40% chance of knocking over enemies for way too much SP spent. Reload salvages this skill by not only massively buffing the Knock Down chance to something around 70% or so, it now deals Almighty damage to all enemies to sweeten the pot! Now all Theurgies pierce elemental resistances, so being Almighty in element is actually kind of unhelpful since the Almighty Boost passives aren't available until the end game. There are some boosts that can power this up a bit though, such as Multi-Target Boost. Jack Brothers' damage value is somewhere between Megidola and Megidolaon, which is quite good for the stage of the game where we get access to it. It'll be flatly outclassed by later Theurgies we unlock, but for right now it's a good heavy hitter skill to throw out when you have your gauge charged. The Knock Down effect also works on bosses, meaning this can sometimes create an opportunity to really unload on the enemy if you're lucky. Knock 'em down with this, and have everyone else pop off their Theurgies, and you'll see some beautiful numbers flood your screen.
King and I: Now this is what I'm talking about! Once you have fused King Frost and Black Frost (due to the former requiring an item to fuse and the latter being a Special Fusion, they MUST be fused), you gain access to this excellent spell. Functionally, King and I is almost identical to Mitsuru's Blizzard Edge, same base power and same status as a resistance piercing Ice attack. Where it differs is that it is an AOE skill instead of a Single Target skill and that its base Freeze chance is 50% instead of 80%. The former trait makes it quite a bit more useful in a greater variety of situations, while the latter trait seldom matters. What really puts this skill over the top compared to Blizzard Edge is the fact that the Protag is the one who uses it. Mitsuru has to wait until end game to stack damage boosts onto Blizzard Edge to maximize its power. The Protag can do this on obtainment, and due to the overwhelming power of Theurgies to begin with, stacking Ice Boost and Mult-Target Boost pushes this skill to extreme heights that only a Junpei crit can really reach. King and I is where the Protag really starts to come into his own with the art of violence, and seldom will you ever be wheeling out Cadenza or Jack Brothers once you get it. Keep an Ice specialist on hand at all times once you get this skill, it will tear chunks out of any enemy it's thrown against with the proper passives. Do keep in mind how I said Mult-Target Boost earlier: The Single Target and Multi-Target Boost passives apply their bonus based on if a skill hits single or multiple enemies in general, rather than the actual number of enemies they hit when used.
Best Friends: Another Support Theurgy for the protag, Best Friends can be used once you have registered Forneus and Decarabia to your compendium. Decarabia is another Persona that requires an item to fuse, though this time its from a Tartarus boss so you'll always be able to create him after a point just by progressing the game. When used, Best Friends casts the Charge and Concentrate buffs onto a single target of your choosing. This is a very situational Theurgy that is highly team dependents. Characters like Yukari and Koromaru lack meaningful physical options to get good mileage out of Charge, while ones like Ken and Mitsuru simply don't have the numbers for it to really be a worthwhile buff to slap on them. On the opposite end, a character like Aigis is literally incapable of using the Concentrate portion of this Theurgy. Two characters who can make good use of this though are Akihiko and Junpei, especially the former. Akihiko is pretty obvious, he's a true mixed attacker who picks up the best Strike skills in the game as well as having Elec Boost+Amp to augment Electric Onslaught into an earth shatteringly powerful skill. Mix in Buff Amp augmented Tarukaja and Strike boosting equipment, and Akihiko can tee off on back to back turns and easily crack 10K damage. Junpei meanwhile has an incredibly powerful magic based second Theurgy himself, the single strongest skill in the game. Since he also picks up Brave Blade around the same time, he can pull a similar trick to Akihiko, though he doesn't build for it quite as well due to lacking innate boosting passives and only being able to get them through equipment. It's up to you if hyper-optimizing these two characters is worth passing up your protags Theurgy, but it can be a more economic and effective option than you'd think. Outside of that though, there's not really much good reason to ever use this Theurgy.
Scarlet Havoc: Move over King and I, there's a new nuke in town! Scarlet Havoc is unlocked upon the successful addition of Mithras and Siegfried to your compendium. This skill kicks ass, having a base 20% crit rate, the same power as Junpei's Hack n Blast, and it's multi-targeting by contrast! What's more, Siegfried himself is essentially tailor made to use it, picking up Slash Amp, Crit Rate Amp and Charge through his own skills. Card Multi-Target Boost, Apt Pupil and Slash Boost onto him, and you can dump out some serious carnage on the enemy's head with the press of a button! This is my preferred way to dole out punishment with the Protagonist, and it's a big reason why I also really like Koromaru's Power Howling. We'll be making extensive use of this Theurgy going forward, revving it up and uncorking it results in a quick end to most non-story bosses, and the story bosses themselves only fare marginally better!
Trickster: Likely the final Theurgy you'll unlock in a normal playthrough, Trickster retains its component Personae of the Fools Loki and Susano-o. With The Fool social link not maxing out until the end game, it won't be until the final month of January that you can actually use this. It's essentially a buffed Jack Bros, a multi-targeted Almighty spell with a considerable power of 300 and an 80% chance to inflict enemies with any possible status ailment in the game. It certainly looks cool and has the grandiosity of a final skill, but it's ultimately considerably less than Scarlet Havoc in execution. Between being able to stack damage boosting passives and having crits to further augment damage past that, Scarlet Havoc just absolutely dumpsters this skill in the damage race. There's is an Almighty Boost passive, but since Scarlet Havoc can stack a Boost AND Amp for a considerably higher damage bonus to offset the lower base power, there's really no justifiable reason to ever bother with this beyond aesthetics. Makes a nice trophy though!
Armageddon: The ultimate skill of the older versions of Persona 3 returns, this time in Theurgy form! Same again for requirements as well, Judgement Satan and Star Helel in order to cast this potent attack. This strikes a balance between the brokeness of the original skill and the harsh resource drain the Portable version had. Armageddon still does 9,999 damage, but as a Theurgy you can no longer uncork it at any time. Additionally, when it is used, it is unique among Theurgies in taking additional resources to cast, specifically it'll leave the Protagonist at 1 HP and 1 SP remaining when used. Not much of a concern since almost anything it can be used on will fall over dead when hit by it (
Elizabeth and Nyx prior to her final phase being the only exceptions), but it is something to be mindful of at least. This skill does have a greater degree of practicality in this version of the game though: since it can kill the Reaper just fine, you can easily get the first strike on the Reaper in this version, and the Reaper is an absolute EXP pinata, this skill is absolutely wonderful for getting your party to the level cap and grinding up any Personae you plan to use for the
Elizabeth fight. I honestly kind of appreciate the new degree of life this skill has past being a way to stunt on enemies and being necessary for the bonus boss.
I'll get to the more interesting Antique Shop and Weapon Fusion post in due time, but better get this taken care of before it gets lost in the lurch.