100% it'll be Kasami https://i.imgur.com/3PSJ1iW.jpg

hot topic: makoto. she's a mediocre healer (mona's better), not good at physical and gun, and her only good magic is nuke, which you could find yourself a persona to easily replace her. her character is pretty cool, but in battles everyone is better than her at everything.

idk about that one chief for one, I think he meant in a sense other than gameplay, and honestly makoto's like the only intelligent person in the group up to the time she joins so she has that going for her gameplay wise, sure, morgana is a better healer in terms of simply raw healing, but makoto's packing rakukaja, nuke damage, and decent phys skills that actually do something to bosses, on top of that she's a fair bit bulkier than the cat so she's much less prone to dying from a random crit or magic she's weak to than morgana is I'd go as far to say that once you get her, if you really want to be """""optimal"""", you should run her in battles and use morgana for out-of-combat healing

None of them

Cracks knuckles lets go down the list, shall we? Mona is the original PT who was able to teach new comers the ropes, and gave Joker the knowledge to create the tools needed to pull through the heist with lockpicks, and overall strategy of how to use the core PT powers of stealth, breaking in, and rest points. Joker takes the teachings from Mona and is able to micro manage the team, using the thief tools Mona taught him to be able to keep the team in a straight edge pattern and move forward in terms of strategy. Something Mona is not capable of. Panther brings nothing of actual use to the team outside of being a pretty face and extra pair of hands. She does attempt to raise Morale though with optimism. Skull brings nothing of actual use to the team, and often brings morale down. Fox is an artist that is able to enhance the PT's calling cards, but as it was showing with Skull's first calling card, he's not actually critical. He's good for asthetics, but is not required Queen is hailed as the team strategist, but all of her strategies thus far have been "Do what you've been doing". At best, she's a get away driver, but Joker has been seen driving, so she's not exactly required for the team Oracle has the ability to scan areas outside of what Mona is able to see in the depths of Mementos. When it comes to target's palaces, she's not required, but if a dark depth search is needed, she's up to the plate. She's also able to alter metaverse reality to favor the Thieves. Strong contender for most useful Noir does not contribute to the PT outside of combat, and is completely unrequired. She does have outside influence from her company, but is never utilized. Crow was shown to be smarter than Queen in nearly every regard, and has the ability to outplay the puzzles coming at the team. Kasumi was not there at all during the core game, and by default is not required. tl;dr - Mona is the teacher, Joker takes Mona's lessons to guide the team, Oracle is the eyes and ears, Crow can dismantle puzzles like no one's business. Everyone else is just extra hands, realistically. Does that make them all useless? Not entirely. As seen, groups are needed to pull off heists with minimal issues, but it does make them replaceable. Overall: Skull is my vote for most useless PT.

I mean. Haru is the only one that has frequent SP access with her gardening so there’s that. And Yusuke further helps Joker with his ability to draw skill cards I do agree that Ann and Ryuji are pretty evenly matched in uselessness. But whereas Ann is useless. Ryuji is not only useless. But is in some cases, hazardous to the team because he can’t go five minutes without nearly blowing everyone’s cover.

Everyone always debates between Ryuji and Yusuke on who’s the heaviest hitter. But I honestly think Makoto is stronger than Ryuji in combat.

I think separating gameplay from narrative can help a little here. The casino is probably the best place to look for a palace that is, for the sake of this conversation, neutral to every member of the group. Ann is, generally, just another pair of hands. Most of the group can end up like this in the end, but as Joker put it Ryuji is actively detrimental to the group at times. To his credit, he's the only one of the group who has actual athletic training, and that can go a pretty long way. It comes down to whether or not that's worth the downside of having him around, his immaturity. In the end, the entire group is good at what they're doing, but most of them are, again like Joker said, replaceable.