Whats the point of multiple melee skills?

[Ciaran Zagami]

For example, Bash and Sonic Punch both list themselves as doing "light physical damage"

In Persona 3 there was a point to multiple skills sharing the "light physical" designation, because you had blunt, slash and thrust damage types. Rather than just the umbrella of "physical"

Do they actually do different damage? Or is Sonic Punch just a more expensive Bash?

[Blue_Glasses]

They're both share "light damage" but has somewhat different stats.

Like for example, sonic punch has a higher critical rate compared to bash (i think)

[Borger Dorger]

Some of them deal extra status, yes?

[Ciaran Zagami]

Originally posted by Ramen? Amen.:

Some of them deal extra status, yes?

Nether bash not sonic punch have any bonus effects

[Borger Dorger]

I checked the wiki page and it says that sonic punch has 150 power and Bash has 120 power.

https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Persona_4_Skills
You can check the move list here

[Nito]

I would say the point is kinda like spells of the same type

to hit one or multiple foes, to cause a bad stats or using depending on the situation like vile assault that deals more damage on downed enemies....

[Nibbie]

Originally posted by Nito:

I would say the point is kinda like spells of the same type

to hit one or multiple foes, to cause a bad stats or using depending on the situation like vile assault that deals more damage on downed enemies....

Obviously there are those, but there are several skills as mentioned that simply say "deal light physical damage", literally six of them, based on the linked list. "Light" damage (and its relatives) actually cover a range of damage values, so some of those skills deal much more damage than others (Assault Dive has almost double the power of Bash, despite identical text), but the game doesn't tell you this at all. At best you might guess/assume that is the case based on the differing hp costs.

[Nito]

Originally posted by Nibbie:

Obviously there are those, but there are several skills as mentioned that simply say "deal light physical damage", literally six of them, based on the linked list. "Light" damage (and its relatives) actually cover a range of damage values, so some of those skills deal much more damage than others (Assault Dive has almost double the power of Bash, despite identical text), but the game doesn't tell you this at all. At best you might guess/assume that is the case based on the differing hp costs.

Bash also have half of the cost of life to use

i believe that this is something carried over from P3 or before that physical damage was separated in pierce,slash and blunt damage(and there are some damage variations using physical skills with even the same power)

[Freekill]

There is something that I noted is that, Bash, Cleave and Skewer actually can upgrade via Magician's card in suffle time, all the way to God's Hand, Brave Blade and Primal Force (If my memory is correct).

But some physical skills like Sonic Punch are only sightly different and don't upgrade via Magician's Card.

Maybe that's why, it gives room to stick to one Persona, and see the skills it have grow with the user, since is perfectly doable to finish the game with, for example, Izanagi, since he can rock some Deathbound, but I agree with you, they could do something different.