As characters: Shiki > Beat > Joshua
To play with? Joshua > Beat > Shiki
I um... can't stand Joshua. XD; He realy bugged me through the whole game. The only character I dislike more than him is probably uhh... Higashizawa. :[ But Joshua's godmodding makes any battle with him so easy. Just toss on a few combo extenders and follow the lines all the way to the end and you just massacre everything with his jesus beams; Neku doesn't even have to do anything. Or, since he easily has the easiest fusion to get, you can lower your combos and build up your fusion in no time. 8| Factor in that he FLOATS and can switch between floating and standing on the ground quickly and he's the perfect partner to use.
But for a challenge, I like using Shiki or Beat. If you bump up Beat's attack with food early on, he's really powerful during his week. Once you get the hang of his fusion, too, he's a lot of fun to use, but I find it's way too easy to screw up with him if you need to watch Neku's back too carefully. As for Shiki, it just took me too long to figure out her fusion and I'm not good at it, so I can't stand using her. XD
paired with professor plum.
