Does anyone like ALL the social links?

[Yorginvik]

Short version: I liked all the social link characters in this game. How about you?


To be honest I haven't played through all the social links (I only played with the male protagonist) but even though I have preferences, I liked every social link interaction and the story this game provided for its characters.
I saw on other internet websites that some people disliked social links with characters they didn't like, which makes perfect sense since I can understand why someone wouldn't care about the mage arcana...
But I found that that I liked every character despite their flaws. I think the game also tries to show you the path for this because the subtle themes of the gaming reflect off your social links very well. Some of the characters are irrational, impatient, or snap too quickly, but I found that to be part of their charm as 'realistic' characters even in a cartoonish portrayal. For example, the Moon arcana "Nozomi Suemitsu" seems generally unlikable and he understands this. But, at the end of the day, you're protagonist is still bonding with the guy even if he isn't great.
One message, which I think this game is trying to send, is that it's good to form social bonds and take responsibility for them. And although I think the game doesn't actually say this or maybe goes against this: You should genuine bonds with people for the sake of the bond rather than the usage of those bonds. This makes you stronger. But at the same time, since this is a game, it encourages the Player to form bonds for the sake of utility. I found out that I didn't care for these bonds because they helped my personas become stronger and helped me beat the game, but because I (the PC protagonist) shared memories and forged a connection with all sorts of people from all walks of life.

I haven't played Persona 4 or 5 but I hear that the social links and the narratives there as presented by the game are generally better. I believe I can sense that the gameplay for those social links is overall more interesting and higher quality than what's presented especially in this portable version of P3. However, I think it's a mistake for people to disregard the characters with social links in this game, no matter how boring or dumb those characters might be. After all, the game centers itself from the perspective of a high schooler, their peers are also 'irrational' high schoolers or people who are touched by the theme of "death" and "living life to the fullest" (or something like that)

[Endora]

I not dislike Star and Hermit on the male version, but I pretty much prefer those two at female version can't really understand why Akihiko isn't Star on the original to begin with . On the other side, on the female version, while I liked Death, I found Fortune very suspicious even before Aigis say something, and still found suspicious after he admited he's the same entity . Even Magician had a very good development, so I agreed with you, there isn't anyone that I disliked.

[Blair Fujin]

Originally posted by Yorginvik:

I found out that I didn't care for these bonds because they helped my personas become stronger and helped me beat the game, but because I (the PC protagonist) shared memories and forged a connection with all sorts of people from all walks of life.

which is why I prefer P3's social links to P5's system where it got more gamified with some social links providing you so much gameplay benefit that you hang out with them just for their skill and not because you enjoy them as a character and want to get to know their story (shogi girl - I found her boring, didn't like her story, heck, can't even remember her name 'xD but at some point the skill she provided felt pretty much mandatory to progress)

[mutantbeth]

i enjoyed the social links more in 3 than 4, I haven't played 5. The only ones from 4 I can remember enjoying is the one involving the step mom and also yukikos. Oh and maries too of course.

[Kapika96]

I think I liked all of Kotone's, at least none stand out in my memory as being bad. For Makoto though there were a couple bad ones. Like the fat cultist kid. He was an arrogant prat even before he started trying to get you to join his cult!

[Yorginvik]

Originally posted by Kapika96:

I think I liked all of Kotone's, at least none stand out in my memory as being bad. For Makoto though there were a couple bad ones. Like the fat cultist kid. He was an arrogant prat even before he started trying to get you to join his cult!

Yeah I think that guy might've been the worst personality but I like how real he was with himself at the end. I honestly didn't read much into his 'paradise' talk because I was more interested in his behavior since the 'paradise' talk was more like a front cover to the dude. Also, maybe because I was looking for someone to fill in the afternoon time (for gameplay) that I wanted to hang out with him cause I imagined that Makoto was just watching his pal eat a lot and be an arrogant prat but for whatever reason Makoto seemed to like hanging around with him anyways

[vkobe]

no, because they ask us to date them sunday and is mean i cant buy stuff from takada

[Future Pirate King]

No most of them are terrible

[toughnails]

Haven't played as FeMC, but most of the original (FES) social links are awful. You're either enabling terrible people (a classmate that wants to f*** a teacher, an obese cultist, a scam artist, a drunkard and so on), or they're just incredibly shallow, e.g. Emperor is just "grrrr who smoked in the restroom" on repeat, Chariot is "my knee hurts but I must train", and Temperance is the baka gaijin stereotypes. Sun and Hierophant are pretty much the only good ones. Well, maybe Hermit and Hanged Man too if we're being generous.

And that's not even talking about the 6 romances. None of the love interests can be turned down, you HAVE to cheat on them, and in the original FES version there's even a (semi) hidden game mechanic where you need to juggle the dates just right in order to not make the girls mad.

Persona 4 and 5 are huge improvements. The characters are nowhere as shallow or unpleasant and have a lot more to say.

[Yorginvik]

Originally posted by toughnails:

Haven't played as FeMC, but most of the original (FES) social links are awful. You're either enabling terrible people (a classmate that wants to f*** a teacher, an obese cultist, a scam artist, a drunkard and so on), or they're just incredibly shallow, e.g. Emperor is just "grrrr who smoked in the restroom" on repeat, Chariot is "my knee hurts but I must train", and Temperance is the baka gaijin stereotypes. Sun and Hierophant are pretty much the only good ones. Well, maybe Hermit and Hanged Man too if we're being generous.

My interpretation of the shallow people you have social links with is that they are examples of why you shouldn't be shallow, since the game is about getting to know about death, these people are too focused on petty things or are petty but eventually come around-sort of. And in some ways, you can't or shouldn't be able to influence these people to change to become totally better than before because that's either unrealistic or something like unfair to them. Or maybe I'm giving too much benefit of the doubt, but personally I didn't mind things like the chariot "knee is hurt but still want to train because of pride" since they are a teenager, and we are playing from the perspective of a 'loner' teenager (at least that's the impression I get from the male). But I get what you mean. Enabling/helping a scam artist, with the literal devil's arcana, isn't ideal.

Also the part about the 6 romances, that's so true that the next persona games do a better job at giving you an option to decline after ranking up the relations. If I had to make an excuse to why it doesn't allow you in this game is because your protagonist (Spoiler) doesn't get far enough to decline, if you know what I mean.

[Icedfate]

if you play through all the social links to the end, you often find out that they turn out in a different way than expectec ,like
the tower guy is actually a good guy who cares about his family and MC inspires him to go back and make amends with them
the devil guy is a real jerk, but in the end, MC inspires him to start giving his money away to help orphaned children
even the magician that seems super unethical. you realize that he was misreading the signals the entire time.

i kind of didn't like though, that the MC as to encourage them in their misguided paths. like you have to keep the chariot's secret and encourage them to "toughen up" until the rest of the team finds out anyway, but it still turns out with a good lesson

or Emperor, i really don't like this guy and his attitude and the MC has to validate his attitude, but then i haven't finished it all the way to the end and he seems to soften up near the end and it seems as if he's acting the way he does because of the pressures his position places on him

i like how each one thematically ties in to the specific tarot card it represents. during the mandatory summer school that it sends you to, even if you maxed all your stats already, the teacher explains all the tarot cards to you and their meanings , which i assume the game considers this super important and that's why it makes you go anyway. .

[Blair Fujin]

About the enabling bad behaviour part, let's be honest, if someone you've met a few days ago came up to you like "You're full of sh*t! Do something about yourself!", would you really keep on hanging out with them? 'xD

[Icedfate]

yeah, what it sounds like is that the writers are trying to say that's it's better to just be there and listen to your friends and be supportive than to try and tell them what they should or shouldn't do. and then they'll often just come up with the right answer on their own.
but then sometimes it does just give you the choice to say something direct like "why not just go talk to that person?" or "you should go home" or "confront them".
it does seem mostly that you have to figure out how to tell them what they want to hear and it's not always obvious. of which yeah, there's guides out there that tell you the right thing to say.

an example is the emperor he's trying to figure out who did it and he keeps on running around the school just randomly accusing people and you have the option to say "you need to lighten up" (which is wrong) or saying "good work!" (which is right) and later he asks what you think should happen to the culprit and you can say "go easy on him" (which is wrong) or "they should suffer!" (which is right, that's what he wants to hear). but then later, the teacher wants him to accuse you and he comes to your defense. . .

and i guess you can say anything you want. i read that you can still max the link even if you choose all the jerk answers, but it's gonna take longer and then you won't max all the links in one playthrough. if you wanna max all the links, you have to always say the best possible thing