I'm not liking the social links so far

[DorkDroll]

It's my first contact with Persona 3. So far it's been a 9/10 game for me, I'm finding the story much more interesting than 4 and 5. But the game's social links so far haven't pleased me. In persona 4 and 5 I quickly became attached to the characters and wanted to know their stories and their outcomes. But so far in persona 3 I'm only seeing social links as a number to increase like in any other rpg stat. Part of this must be because so far none of my party members are social links, they are all connected to the S.E.E.S social link and I hated that. Was the original like that too? Or will this change later in the game?

[Overeagerdragon]

there's a couple of social links that will work like P4/P5 and yeah; it was like this in the original too... It has narrative (and therefore mechanical) reasons though

[Dagný]

Originally posted by DorkDroll:

Was the original like that too? Or will this change later in the game?

In the original you don't get social links with the male party members
In the portable version you get social links with them all IF you play as female

People said they added a few scenes with the male party member in this version but they're not social links

[Pyro3000]

The Kendo club one is really good. I'd recommend joining that.


Oh... right...

[Freekill]

It is like that in the OG too.

Considering that your party members do have a solid growth in the game proper with Fool SL, it is very well placed. In the case of 4 and 5, you could go too much into a SL and see inconsistencies with character growth (There are plenty, but Ryuji and Yosuke are some that come in my mind instantly).

Also, in 4 and 5, you can for sure see that other than the very late bossfight, the rank you have in most social links in the party (and outside) won't matter at all, which can be strange to see like in the P5 party jail break scene, where they don't have much touch with you at all even though you got rank +10 with them, it is averted here, where we got a smooth ride to make the party stick for life (Junpei, my man, I got you).

You can still SL with the girls in the party and hang out with the dudes tho. But re-awakenings depend on the story.

This will not change at all, because your party growth, both literal and not, depends not sorely on you, it also depends on how far your team work together, face differences and learn to live together.

TL;DR
In the beginning yes, you are coworkers, but not in the mid-lategame.
Yes it was in the original and FES, P3P was a mixed bag on the female route tbh.
Mechanic wise? Nah. Storywise? Hell yeah.

[DorkDroll]

Thanks for the answers guys. I think it's just a case where the system was implemented differently and I have to get used to it.