Is it too late to unlock third semester?

[Ionicstorm95]

I just found out the third semester was a thing and I mostly neglected maruki's link, I just got it to 4 and I'm currently on 10/8 evening. Kasumi's is at 5 and akechi's is at 6, am I screwed? How was I supposed to know this was a thing anyway?

[Stormwinds]

All you need is to get the Councilor to rank 8 before he leaves in November. Akechi rank 8 is only needed for extras, and Kasumi can't go past 5 until you unlock the extra semester.

The game warns you like 5 times before the Councilor leaves, so you can't forget about it.

[Dragon Master]

Councilor rank 9 by November 18th, Akechi can be level 8 for extra content, and if you want to max Kasumi out in the third semester she needs to be at rank 5 by then as well.

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by Ionicstorm95:

I just found out the third semester was a thing and I mostly neglected maruki's link, I just got it to 4 and I'm currently on 10/8 evening. Kasumi's is at 5 and akechi's is at 6, am I screwed? How was I supposed to know this was a thing anyway?

You WEREN'T supposed to know... either you get there naturally by maxing out the social links (as you're supposed to) OR you get there via Newgame plus when you max links you neglected the first time around. Persona is not a game meant to be run to 100% on your first attempt.

[archonsod]

Originally posted by Ionicstorm95:

I just found out the third semester was a thing and I mostly neglected maruki's link, I just got it to 4 and I'm currently on 10/8 evening. Kasumi's is at 5 and akechi's is at 6, am I screwed? How was I supposed to know this was a thing anyway?

You're doing fine.
Kasumi is as far as you can take her prior to semester 3.
Akechi is likely as far as you can take him at this point (you'll see him hanging around outside of the darts club occasionally, but if you ask him to hang out he'll tell you he's busy). You need to wait for a particular story event (after the school fair) to finish his last few levels.
Maruki's availability goes up towards the end of the deadline (Kawakami will announce in class that he's now on call and you'll then be able to meet with him most days). You'll have ample opportunities to level him up before he leaves.

The November palace will kick off towards the end of October and gives you until November 20 to complete it (though it's a two day infiltration). There's a few story days before that which will keep you in the cafe, but you've still got plenty of time at the moment.

Funnily enough I was in a similar position in my current game (I'm just about to do November's boss). I was able to max out Maruki prior to the school fair, did Akechi during the palace countdown. Still had ample time to do a bunch of others too in the meantime (Haru, Futaba and Shinya most notably), not to mention max out three stats.

[Ionicstorm95]

Originally posted by archonsod:

Originally posted by Ionicstorm95:

I just found out the third semester was a thing and I mostly neglected maruki's link, I just got it to 4 and I'm currently on 10/8 evening. Kasumi's is at 5 and akechi's is at 6, am I screwed? How was I supposed to know this was a thing anyway?

You're doing fine.
Kasumi is as far as you can take her prior to semester 3.
Akechi is likely as far as you can take him at this point (you'll see him hanging around outside of the darts club occasionally, but if you ask him to hang out he'll tell you he's busy). You need to wait for a particular story event (after the school fair) to finish his last few levels.
Maruki's availability goes up towards the end of the deadline (Kawakami will announce in class that he's now on call and you'll then be able to meet with him most days). You'll have ample opportunities to level him up before he leaves.

The November palace will kick off towards the end of October and gives you until November 20 to complete it (though it's a two day infiltration). There's a few story days before that which will keep you in the cafe, but you've still got plenty of time at the moment.

Funnily enough I was in a similar position in my current game (I'm just about to do November's boss). I was able to max out Maruki prior to the school fair, did Akechi during the palace countdown. Still had ample time to do a bunch of others too in the meantime (Haru, Futaba and Shinya most notably), not to mention max out three stats.

They give you more chances to hang out with him? Nice! Then like you said I'm sure I'll be okay, thank you for letting me know that.

[Admod, the Equivocal]

I focused on stats my first playthrough. I kind of wish it simply weren't possible to max all of them in a single playthrough so you'd actually have to make a more meaningful decision on what you'd do for one playthrough. Then carrying over stats for the next game would still give you things to do for the next one.

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by Admod, the Equivocal:

I focused on stats my first playthrough. I kind of wish it simply weren't possible to max all of them in a single playthrough so you'd actually have to make a more meaningful decision on what you'd do for one playthrough. Then carrying over stats for the next game would still give you things to do for the next one.

In fairness; anyone NEW the the persona franchise AND playing blind (not using a guide or scrounging the forums often) won't be able to max out their social links on the first run and even for the people who DO know the franchise but go in blind they still need to level up the right social links in order to get them ALL fully unlocked...

After all (AND SPOILERS PEOPLE!!!)
Temperance's Social link saves you up a LOT of free time, allowing you to spend more time maxing out those links... without it you will notice you're on quite a strict deadline.
Death's link granting you SP regen items allows you to splurge on abilities whilst in the palace or in memetos; making it more likely you'll have an easier time and won't have to have to spend as much time prepping for your next run
Fortune's Social link allows you to max the gains from social interactions; making them rank up more efficiently, thusly saving you more time

In addition:
Sun's Social links will ensure you're never low on items, money or personá to fuse ever again (but doesn't directly save time)
Chariot's social link, in combination with Sun makes this process just THAT much more efficient by just running insta-killing trivial encounters
Moon's social link boosts your exp from combat...
Combine all 3 and you can easily get OP in comparison to your current dungeon via some mindless driving in Mementos... no combat needed. Millions of Yen, overfused persona's, all the gear you can dream off.... it won't save you much time but boy does it make the game trivially easy..