Yukari is one of the protagonist's first allies in battle, together with Junpei Iori. She is available for every major fight in the game, and is the only required party member for the Full Moon bosses on July 7th.
Yukari's magic stat and SP is the highest out of everyone, allowing her to cast powerful Magic attacks. Before passive Boost and Amp skills are considered, Yukari has the potential to deal the most damage in the game, likely surpassing the protagonist. With both single and multi-target Garu skills, along with Wind Break, no enemy is safe.
In addition, she excels at support; being the only party member with capable of curing certain status conditions, one of two party members (alongside Ken) to have party-wide healing through the Media skill line, and revival spells. In conjunction with her high magic, she heals the most from Dia/Diarama, and her high SP allows her to cast more of these spells than any other member. All of these attributes make her the most effective healer out of everyone.
In spite of her rich variety of powerful abilities and sky high Magic and SP, her other stats are greatly reduced in turn. Her Strength is the lowest, and Endurance and Agility second lowest out of the available party. Her low Agility leaves her with the lowest effective Magic accuracy and general evasion out of the cast. She may also have a late turn order and be prevented from acting early, negatively impacting her otherwise excellent healing ability. And with her low Endurance and HP, she's more vulnerable to being knocked out in battle, which makes it necessary to keep an eye on Yukari to protect the rest of the group in turn.
As she wields bows in battle, missing a melee attack will not cause her to stumble. Despite the high power of bows in comparison to other weapon types, her very low Strength, Agility, and low bow accuracy results in her dealing little weapon damage while simultaneously having a much higher chance of missing.
Before equipment is factored in, Yukari's damage ultimately falls behind that of party members that access Boost/Amp skills (Akihiko, Mitsuru, and Koromaru), along with any physical-oriented party members (Junpei, Aigis, Shinjiro, Metis). However, by giving her equipment such as the Wind or Vayu Bracers and the FES/Portable-excludive Saarnga bow (Vayu Bracers and Saarnga in conjuction for optimal damage), she surpasses all of these characters in damage. With that said, Yukari may alternatively benefit more from other pieces of equipment. For instance, it may be more beneficial to give Yukari an item that either gives her more SP, regenerates SP, or allows her to use less SP to offset her insanely high cost skills. Regardless, Yukari serves to gain the most from proper equipment, so it is recommended to choose wisely and change depending on both party formation and expected enemy encounters.
General magic combatant with emphasis on all-purpose healing. In addition to healing and revival, can cure certain ailments to ensure freedom of movement.
In The Answer, although not detrimental to Yukari's playstyle, her stats are slightly different than in The Journey, having +1 Strength and Agility, and -1 Magic and Luck. This is most likely an oversight rather than a conscious balance decision, as Yukari's stats at level 1 are 1,3,2,1,3 in The Journey, and the new stats would give Yukari effective bases of 2,2,2,2,2. Junpei's new stats have a similar change as well, albeit his increased bases make it less obvious.