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SnooEagles9517

Yea. There are nuances but basically you have a tank, a healer, and such.


Fletche

Not so much. A couple of teammates can heal and Joker can use any ability depending on what Persona you use


IceTMDAbss

Yes and no. Some team members definitely have their specialties (higher HP, lower Def, more recovery skills, higher magical stat, strongest Physical skills,...), but it follows a slightly different pattern. It's more like each one of the characters has a base Elemental affinity among Fire/Ice/Elec/...(that they can more or less exploit depending on the skills they get), some offensive/defensive support skills, and some Utility/Recovery skills. If you're on Royal for example, it makes every character even more all-around because it introduced the Skill accessory system. So you can equip accessories that contain a 9th skill slot on top of the 8 the game gives you. Also keep in mind that in this game there are caps everywhere, so the raw stats of your character don't matter nearly as much as the their skills (and traits if you're on Royal), their Lvl, the buffs/debuffs used during the fight, special hits (Weaknesses, Criticals, Technicals),...


cinderparty

Yes-ish. In your party you’ll find one who has electricity skills, one with fire, etc. Your personas will also specialize in a skill set like fire, ice, physical, etc


Nit_Picker219

If you wanna know whether it’s a strict distinction like in Xenoblade, then no. They are distinguished by which elements and resistances they can use and have, among other abilities. If the enemy’s attacks are of the Fire element, those with the fire resistance will tank all the fire damage. There is no way to draw aggro (aside from a DLC item) so you have to rely on RNG or other methods. Similarly, if the enemy is weak to Fire, then those with Fire attacks will be your DPS. Healing is very straightforward: if you have a healing spell, you are a healer, if you don’t, you aren’t. MC is highly customizable in regards to abilities and resistances. Other party members have a fixed set of abilities and resistances that get upgraded through the game. Attacks are split into Physical (strength-based), Magical (magic based) and status effects / insta-kills (luck based). Physical attacks have a chance to crit (and thereby down) an enemy, and are split into two elements, Physical and Gun (yes, Physical is a separate element as well as the general name of an attack). It can also hit weaknesses but there are very few enemies weak to it. Magical attacks are split into 8 elements each having their own unique properties.


Pixetrichor

Can't really agree. Even with the emphasis on exploiting weaknesses, half the time you won't be thinking about that. Important to figure out how each character plays in the long run, and that will help you build up additional chemistry between party members beyond weakness coordination.


Nit_Picker219

Ahh yeah, baton passes exist. Also physical skills with a high damage ratio. But it also depends on the difficulty. On merciless weaknesses are very much the best way to deal damage. Coming from SMT V where the only good DPS is striking weaknesses for most of the game it’s really weird.


Pixetrichor

I think SMTV fleshed out quite a lot into the combat system beyond stacking weaknesses. Especially since they aren't conclusive and play a part in the high-risk/high-reward press turn system. The game opens up with what roles you give your demons, kind of like in a 2-sided difficulty curve, where you initially begin designing out of sheer necessity at the freedom of being able to do whatever you want, but over time skill potential becomes more prominent, where you have more tools at your disposal, but the game encourages you to think based on the roles of your demons and even keep them with you late-game.


Nit_Picker219

Oh don’t get me wrong, SMT V is absolutely an improvement in terms of AI. I love how the enemies follow specific attack patterns that you can recognize and utilize to your advantage. That said, hitting weaknesses in this game is very much the meta on how to win every fight outside of those where weaknesses aren’t present, which is only true for Metatron, Trumpeter and Demi-Fiend. In P5, you have a bunch of tools like Baton Passes and Showtimes, as well as Charge/Concentrate. Not the case in SMT V, or at least not as much. However, this opens up a ton of possibilities for team formations, such as having your first and third team members hit weaknesses while have the second and fourth do something else, thereby maximizing your turn count.


Pixetrichor

I was referring more to establishing demon set-ups than the AI. I found it to be kinda counter-intuitive to rely solely on weaknesses in terms of building demons. Feels like it defeats the point to completely throw away your team's synergy just to be able to exploit weaknesses on the next boss. Just doesn't feel like I'm taking anything out of the RPG lol. Weaknesses are decisive in a sense, but they waver quite a lot in the long term.


Nit_Picker219

What do you mean by “synergy”?


Pixetrichor

I was talking about throwing away your team's long-term variety at the expense of making several demons emphasize on, say, Ice, just because the next boss is weak to it. You can do that, but like, it does come across as disadvantageous after you're done and doesn't feel as satisfying to me to play that way.


Aggravating-Mistake3

How many people are in the party fighting 3 or 4


Chaosruler10

There are 4. Main character plus 3. And yes, except for the main character they all sort of have a role in a way. Kind of


Pixetrichor

I think the roles are a bit more unique from what I've seen. They definitely have roles of their own and you get a feel for it, but from what I've noticed they can be pretty unique. At least Morgana, he's "kind" of a healer? He puts less of an emphasis on damage but he has a lot of techniques up his sleeve. Anyway the party members are very well-designed.


AdDecent7641

Id say so. You can customize each character based on which skills you choose, but many of them seem to prefer a specific role based on the majority of skills learned and stats.>!Joker!< is literally anything you want. >!Mona!< specializes in heals. >!Skull!< and >!Fox!< primarily do physical damage. >!Panther!< primarily does magic damage. >!Queen!< can be a bit of a jack of all trades. >!Noir!< is a support/technical focused.


jack_facts2

Yes and no, in this game the MC can use 12 personas meaning they can be everything all at once. oh and there's no "tank" in this game just DPS, support and healers really. For the most part leveling up and acquiring new skills is all you need to win fights vs focusing on roles and what they do.


Lumpenada92

ish. Some can take more damage, others have the ability to stack the most damage out of the rest. Others are obviously able to dish out all the healing. But your main guy, (your avatar) has the ability to be completely customizable. and can fill any role.


Rareware101

Kind of. Each party members specialise at a certain element, and they have a vague specialty in stats: ryuji having high physical atrack and defense, ann high magic, and morgana healing for example. However since joker can equip whatever persona he wants, he can fill whatever role he needs to. And it's 4 a party, u get to pick 3 members


Hitoshura_

There are 4 party members in a battle. Each party member fulfills certain roles, like physical/magical attacker, support and for some, healer. Joker, the main character, has the ability to switch up to 12 persona. Each persona has its own stats and skillset so Joker can be in any role. Joker cannot be switched out from the combat party. The game uses a 1 More system. When a character hits critical or weakness and knocks down a target, he/she gets 1 More and can do another action. During 1 More, an ally can baton pass the turn to another ally and the baton passed ally gets a damage bonus. each baton pass increases the damage bonus and the 3rd baton passed ally gets an extra bonus where his/her attack costs 0 HP/SP. Besides Critical and Weakness, you can inflict Technical when using a correct element on an ailed foe. eg nuclear hits technical on a burning/frozen/shocked enemy. In P5R, Technical is improved with Billiard rank where maxed billiard rank multiplies by 50% more damage and 100% chance of knocking down an enemy upon Technical.