All of the characters in the Persona 5 games are pretty great in their own ways, and in the past I’d always considered folks like Makoto and Goro to be my favorites. However, as I went through Persona 5 Tactica, I kept coming back to Haru and realized how in so many situations, she was the absolute best.
Simply put, the range of abilities Haru possesses makes her one of the best characters in Persona 5 Tactica. In so many ways, Haru shows herself to be an absolutely exemplary party member. To start, her guns have a fantastic area of effect attack due to them being grenade launchers. (This is the same type she uses in the mainline games.) So when she’s hitting foes, she has the potential to deal a substantial amount of damage to a whole horde.
This is further bolstered by the buff she provides to the team when she’s around. She’s one of the folks who provides an attack boost. She has an additional two upgrades to this in her tree, making her and everyone else around more devastating.
Pair this with Milady’s Psi attacks, which have the Hypno effect, and it really makes Haru one of the most valuable team members. Investing heavily in the Mapsi line is great, since the status effect forces a group of foes out of cover and closer together. While that might not line up a One More for her, it does set things up well for her allies. All combined, it means she’s a fantastic person for any map where the goal is to defeat every enemy. Her Voltage attack with her Persona also features this same sort of ability, even with the lowest level Noble Lady’s Invitation.
But it isn’t just the fact that she’s good at dealing damage to a group, potentially getting lots of enemies out of cover at once, and increasing all allies’ damage just by existing. She’s one of the party members who can heal others. The first healing skill you can unlock is Diamrita, which is a substantial heal and cleanse for a single ally. While it isn’t going to hit a group, it’s a perfect saving grace in many situations.
There’s only one way in which Haru fell behind the other Phantom Thieves. Her movement is one of the lowest in the game. She’s set at four, just behind Ann with five. Considering others tend to have six, it’s a noticeable weakness! However, it’s really only a problem in the case of maps involving reaching a specific point by X number of turns. That lower movement speed gets a bit frustrating there unless you can work out One-Mores, and it’s easy enough to just… let her sit that fight out. Not to mention she does have a Lightning Speed passive that will boost that by two squares when she’s in a Charged state. Plus if you upgrade so she gets the Spring Storm passive, that increases her ranged attack’s range to help mitigate that too.
Haru is just a fantastic character for players to use in Persona 5 Tactica, and she’s one of the best allies. She works in pretty much any party. She’s also great in most situations. As long as you don’t need to get her from one end of a map to another fast, it feels like she should be a staple.
Persona 5 Tactica is available for the PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.
