Your list is bad as well. You have 2 things right, and I’ll go through it really quickly.
This is the SO3 Tier list for you controlling the character. In the NTSC version of this game, the CPU does not cancel most combos correctly, thus the characters are at a severe disadvantage.
[ S+ ] Maria: Why? Point blank Scatter Beam chains do the most damage in the game beyond a shadow of a doubt. Maria alone can destroy most bosses just chaining Scatter Beam in their faces. She is also the queen of silly damage from long range by doing Aiming Device chains. Once she gets Pulse Laser it’s all over. You can put the game down and laugh. She has the highest damage in the game. Period.
[ S ] Cliff: Sphere of Might on short minor and Hammer of Might on strong minor. Why did they give us access to Hammer of Might at the beginning of the game like this? It was a silly decision, one that I’ll never understand. However Cliff is one of the best stun lockers in the game simply because he has Sphere of Might chains. Once you unlock Hammer of Might, Cliff becomes and unstoppable powerhouse. Hammer of Might is an AOE knockdown skill that causes extreme damage. Most bosses will outright die after 3 or 4 combos from Cliff. It’s ridiculous. Once cliff gains access to Aerial Assault and Fist of Fury he becomes a killing machine the likes of which only Maria is comparable to. Sphere of Might on short minor and Aerial Assault on short strong usually means someone is dead. Fist of Fury is great for stun locking enemies, and later he gains Acrobatic Locust for even more insane damage. Then…he gets Max Shockwave (lol). In short. Cliff has a massive health pool and just…dishes out damage like no one’s business. The only person who will ever eclipse him damage wise is Maria.
[ S ] Fayt: Before any of you assume I’m going list sidekick as the reason, you’re wrong. Sidekick is a good move, however it’s bugged. When using Side Kick on human sized and smaller enemies, every 2nd Side Kick (usually the strong minor), will either completely whiff, or miss most of its hits. This results in Fayt losing a sizable portion of his damage. Thus, Side Kick isn’t the holy grail of moves unless the enemy is huge. Fayt’s dps is actually MASSIVE if you understand what skills to cancel with. Blade of Fury is probably the best cancelling melee move I’ve ever seen, unless you’re comparing it to Sphere of Might. You can cancel Blade of Fury incredibly fast, which makes getting chains of 300% really easy with Fayt. Once Fayt unlocks Air Raid the rest is history. Berserk + BoF + Air Raid means that Fayt is pumping out a ton of damage relatively quickly from melee range. Then he get’s access to Dimension Door, which in itself makes Fayt far more powerful. Dimension Door is great for getting incredible amounts of DPS from Fayt, plus you get the bonus of stun locking multiple enemies. Last, you have the silly combo of No Guard + BoF + Ethereal Blast, this is just nutty. Fayt is a very good character, he’s only out shined by Cliff and Maria.
[ S- ] Nel: You already know why she’s here. She will more than likely be your parties best healer, she can pump out considerable damage via Ice Needle and Flying Guillotine chains (with Berserk of course), and Nel has a really good long range strong attack. Her early skills are pretty pitiful. Shockwave and Shadow Wave are good, but definitely lose out to Sphere of Might + Hammer of Might or BoF/BoF chains. However, she becomes a powerful long range combatant when she unlocks Ice Needles and Flying Guillotine. Flying Guillotine alone is what really puts her up here. Spammable, great damage (both HP and MP), and compliments her relatively safe playstyle. Before director’s cut, Flying Guillotine was so broken, they nerfed it to the floor and it’s still an insane move for her to have. She also gains access to Whirlwind (which is no slouch), and Mirror Slice (which is really good for her)
[ A ] Peppita: Kaboom! Is a great battle skill, and really compliments her moveset, however the main reason why Peppita is in A tier is because of one move: Power Dance. The skill makes it so that Peppita can boost her team mates attack power to ludicrous levels, and the move has hilarious invul frames allowing Peppita to dance her way to victory.
[ A-] Mirage: Mini Cliff, enough said.
[ B ] Sophia: She has great long range spells, and is a suitable substitute for if you lost Nel as a party member and desperately need some one to fill that mage slot. She is leagues better than Adray and has commendable skills and can even set some Symbology spells to her battle skills slot.
[ C ] Roger: Start up. Start up. Start up. Most…of Roger’s skills have a horrible start up time meaning he will more than likely get himself killed before he can actually launch a skill. However! There is a silver lining to the small boy. Charge. He has the fastest Charge in the game. It is lightning quick and can get Roger through the most grueling portions of his leveling.
[ D ] Albel: Oh how the mighty have fallen. This is something that will be debated on by people, but I feel it’s pretty set in stone. Albel quite frankly…sucks. The new system that they put in place for the Director’s Cut/Int Version of this game does not suit Albel. Why? Most of his skills either have horrendous start up, or they knockdown on hit. Meaning that Albel can’t even build up to high damage cancel chains to squeeze the most out of his pitiful skills. Dragon Roar would be his saving grace, however it was nerfed to the floor from the original game, making it so that Albel has to make due with other skills. Air Slash is a great move to sling from long range, however it’s start up is still pretty poor. I think Albel is great a pure stun locker, using Aura Wall to really lock someone down is great, however there are other character who can lock enemies down better. Albel also comes with the distinction of being the male fighter who can’t equip heavy armor, meaning he’s regulated to the armor the girls wear. So he is a frail…frail…paper thin fighter who can be ko’d quite easily. Add in the fact that they de-clawed and de-fanged him, he isn’t very useful in this game outside of specific set ups.
[ D- ] Adray: How do I…describe Adray accurately…uh…well…he sucks. To be quite honest Adray is a waste of a slot. Being forced to take Adray with you is well…appalling. I don’t understand why the game forces you to hold on to him, especially considering Sophia is far above and beyond Adray in terms of damage and versatility. Chaos Tide is good, but…theres not really much else to write about him. I guess he’s good for making items…and crafting certain swords…although…you’ll probably find better one to replace them. Yeah…Adray is just bad.