Being an RPG with a wide array of party members, jobs, and skills, it's inevitable some of the aforementioned are more powerful than its competitors. Even moreso during the endgame when enemies suddenly become tougher and getting certain skill combinations are almost a must to get by.
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Characters/Jobs
- Fitting for being the hero of this story, Ichiban's "Hero" class is disgustingly strong throughout the entire game. It can buff the attack of everyone in the party, revive them for a small amount of MP, and can hit very hard with the Bat Breaker series of moves. It's great in random encounters too, since a well-aimed Mega Swing can take out two or three enemies in one move for a measly 30 MP. As a boss killer, a random encounter sweeper, and a strong semi-support all in one, Hero is easily Ichiban's best class and the one a skilled player should build towards. On top of all that, the Shock element is considered the strongest of them all, and the Hero class' Infinity +1 Sword is a horned, golden, spiked bat with an electric aura that can hit multiple times per action, further amplifying Ichiban's damage output into the highest in the entire game.
- Eri, on top of being a Disc-One Nuke, has powerful specials in her Clerk Job (especially Thumbtack Scatter, which can clear encounters in one turn when aimed right), has access to one of the top tier damage dealer jobs, the Dealer, and can use female-exclusive damage Jobs without losing a dedicated healer, and breaks the game's balance for a couple of chapters, since you'll be one party member higher than the three person limit you'll have after Nanba goes turncoat temporarily.
- Joon-gi Han is the strongest party member in the game by a wide margin, but his default "Hitman" job pushes him into this territory. While Hitman has no supportive capabilities whatsoever, Han does massive amounts of damage while in this job thanks to a number of beneficial traits. To begin, Hitman is the only job that can deal all three types of normal damage (blunt, sharp and gun) without needing to rely on Kiwami skills, meaning he can target enemy weaknesses very effectively. Han also has a number of ways to apply negative debuffs on enemies, such as poison and bleed. This means that even if enemies resist all three types of normal damage, it's almost never a bad idea to bring Han along anyways, since he can just apply these debuffs on enemies and keep consistent amounts of damage up. His basic attack is a four hit combo that ends in a knockdown and does a solid amount of damage by itself, and he's fast enough that he'll likely go first in every fight and have his turn multiple times before the slower participants in battle even get their first turn. Finally, there's Rapid Shot, one of his transferrable Skills, which deals over a dozen hits of Gun-based Scratch Damage and is by far the best move to use to defeat Invested Vagabonds. Plus, once he grabs character skills from the relevant jobs, he will be the one party member with access to all damage types so he will always have some option to hit an enemy weakness. Couple this with great stats, one of the best skills in the entire game in Head Trauma and even a good amount of area-of-effect attacks, and it's likely that Joon-gi Han will never leave your party the second he becomes available.
Attacks/Skills
- Joon-gi Han's Head Trauma, which he starts out with when you unlock him in Chapter 10. For a tiny 6 MP, you're all but guaranteed one less enemy to deal with in most encounters. Even if said enemy resists Blunt attacks, this'll still do a solid chunk of damage and it will always floor the target, leaving them open to a follow-up attack. The only downside is that Han has to grab the enemy to inflict damage, which isn't exactly possible on bosses like, say, Heavy Machinery or Sojimaru.
- Related are the Dragon Knuckles, a Hitman weapon that is fairly easily obtained from the Sotenbori Battle Arena and has great stats by itself, but is pushed over the edge by it granting a +10% damage boost to Blunt attacks. Dragon Knuckles + Head Trauma is a lethal combo that will serve you well for the entire rest of the game.
- Ichiban's Stack Slap series of attacks. As hilarious as it is handy, these attacks are awarded to you as you progress through the Company Management minigame, with each one doing more damage and are always available regardless of the class you assign Ichiban to. However, just the base version is enough as is - it costs a reasonable 21 MP (or 43 and 50 MP for the Fat and Ultimate versions, respectively) to cast and, if timed right, can do quite a bit of damage while flooring the enemy for a free follow-up if you're quick enough. Even enemies that resist Blunt attacks are still vulnerable to getting knocked down and, unlike Han's Head Trauma, can even be used on bosses immune to grabs.
- Ichiban's Release German Suplex is his strongest individual attack, managing to out-damage even the Stack Slap. The caveat is it is locked behind the Freelancer Job and requires you to get to rank 24 to unlock it. Should you make that commitment however, your are rewarded with a very devastating attack.
- Zhao's Dragonfang Decimator is one of the better single-target skills in the game. Costing a reasonable 35 MP, being one of his Character Skills (meaning it's unlocked as Zhao himself levels up), doing very chunky damage, and flooring the enemy... this skill is every bit as effective as the Stack Slap series of skills at roughly the same cost (if not less in the case of the higher tier Stack Slap skills.)
- Eri's Lucky Punch is also a strong contender for best single target skill in the game alongside Han's Head Trauma. It costs a reasonable 35 MP to cast, is one of her Character Skills (meaning she can still use it regardless of what class you put her in), has a high chance of landing a critical hit, doing a colossal amount of damage, and often flooring the enemy if they don't guard the attack.
- Speaking of Eri, she also has one of the strongest AoE skills in Thumbtack Scatter, from her default Clerk class. This does a solid amount of damage in a very wide area, is unlocked at Job Level 4 (which is trivial to reach), and will often clear out most early-game encounters almost instantaneously. Especially if you rush through the Business Management minigame and unlock Eri the moment the latter sidequest becomes available.
- Sparkling Cannon from the Hostess class. Costs only 20 MP to cast, is available once the class is unlocked, deals high amount of damage twice, has a chance to leave the target drunk and/or with a cold, and can even damage nearby enemies. This is especially helpful against Saejima and Kiryu, as Ice is their only weakness. Just mash away on that button and make it rain!
- Peppermill Blow from the Chef class. For a 35 MP, it does surprisingly high damage for a simple tool like that, even rivaling many Extreme damage skills. If the initial hit fails to kill the enemy, the 3-hit pepper shake will most likely finish the job. It is unlocked at Job level 10 and, like much of the examples you see on this list, is a Character Skill that carries over when migrating from one job to another, so you don't need to go too deep into the class.
- Electric Prongs from Enforcer class. Unlocked at merely Job level 6 and costing 41 MP, it does a ridiculous amount of damage twice. Enough to one-shot many enemies and take a big chunk of HP from most Elite Mooks. Its lightning elemental attack is also very good to use against many late-game bosses, including Sawashiro and Tendo. Its only drawback is that since it needs to grab the enemy, it can't be used against Heavy Machinery or Giant Roomba.
- Fulminating Forecast from the Fortuneteller class. While it is fairly expensive at 80 MP, it has the added benefit of being a Character Skill, meaning you can carry it over if you switch out of the Fortuneteller class either into, say, the Enforcer class for Adachi, or back into Han's Hitman class. The skill itself is one of the rare Magic-based Lightning attacks in the game, and it does a lot of damage on top of having a high chance to paralyze its targets. This skill is nigh-essential in the fight against Tendo as it's sure to hit his only weakness. That's on top of it auto-hitting up to three targets regardless of where they are, unlike most AOE attacks which require their victims to be grouped together, letting you do big, guaranteed damage to even the toughest mobs of enemies. Some of the 'Essence' attacks that target every enemy on the battlefield are better and cheaper, but Fulminating Forecast is an extremely solid alternative when you don't have one of those or it does the wrong damage type.
- Speaking of all-target Essence attacks, the DLC Devil Rocker job has 'Essence of Fire and Brimstone', which does Extreme Fire damage to every enemy in the battle for 70 MP. The best and most important part is that it unlocks at level 18, whereas most similar skills need you to get to Level 24 or higher in their respective jobs. While a fair number of enemies are resistant to Fire damage, anything that has the potential to erase an entire encounter in a single attack at a level that low for that little MP is just disgusting.
- Devil Rocker also has an incredibly useful early character skill in Vampirism. A cutting attack that deals 6 consecutive hits and will restore the user by a 1/4 of the damage they dealt out, all for only 21 MP cost. To top it off, it unlocks at Level 6 so it's a relatively low investment to get the skill. The fact that Ichiban, Nanba and Adachi do not have normal ways to learning cutting skills note it can be incredibly useful for both Ichiban and Adachi.
- Jackpot Chip from the Dealer class. Unlocks at Job Level 4 (which you'll reach in a single encounter even in the early game, or two at the most), costs a meager 28 MP to cast, happens to be a Character Skill and, has a high critical chance, which boosts its otherwise modest damage output to absurd levels. Expect to be using this as the premier skill when it comes to dealing with the Invested Vagabond for that sweet, sweet, XP.
- While it's not a Character Skill, Dealer also has Darts Airstrike, which, while it is a multi-target skill, truly shines as a single-target attack. This is because all three darts auto-hit the same target if there's only one, basically having the power of three attacks for the price of one. It also has a high critical chance and appears to ignore resistances, making it a valuable source of guaranteed damage against even the most hardened enemies. It helps that it is one of the very few firearm based skill which are normally only available to Han.
- The Matriarch DLC job also has a firearm skill in Bullet of Honor (or Jinyi's Bullet, depending on localization). While unremarkable in that it is a single-target attack, it is a Character Skill, giving Eri and Saeko some much needed extra variety in their movesets. It is also a multi-hitting ability, making it useful for Cherry Tapping the Invested Vagabonds.
Other
- The Paralysis and Charm status effects. Both of them will render enemies completely immobile, allowing you to dogpile on them for free damage, and their skills are usually fairly inexpensive to use - especially the Charm status effect, as most of it comes from the Idol job. Provided you're not on the receiving end, that is.
- The Business Management side story. In addition to Eri, as mentioned above, it also gives you a few powerful moves for Kasuga and enough money to load up your party with all but the most expensive pieces of equipment.
- The DLC employees for the Company Management minigame (e.g., the Bartender, Yuki, Nick, Seong-Hui, etc). They're free to recruit for the first time and effectively trivialize board meetings because of their high Persuasion. How effective they are at actually running any businesses, however, largely depends on what you assign them to. All that said, having all of them around and properly managing them along with any properties obtained makes it easier to not just complete said minigame (which in turn deepens Eri's bonds with Ichiban), but trivializes money matters altogether due to the 3 million yen payouts obtained from completing board meetings at the topmost rankings.
