What's the point of social links?

[Gu]

Hello, I'm coming off of P5, which was my first ever Persona game and is one of my fav games of all time.

What I loved in P5 is how spending time with your confidants not only gave you nice stories but you could also unlock new features. From small ones to some that change the entire flow of the game. Is that something that debuted with 5?

I love 3 so far but I get a little bummed out by how I don't seem to gain much from social links except fusion XP bonuses. Seeing what new feature I get from a confidant was kind of my favorite thing in P5. It really felt like I could directly influence my RPG playstyle by partaking in the Life Sim elements.

I should also mention that the max rank I achieved with someone up to this point is 5. So is there maybe something big you unlock at the end of social link or is it really just fusion XP and a story?

Cheers!

[Blackened Halo]

Well besides you can uncover some interesting backstories, you also strengthen your ability to fuse demons which makes the fusion to be much more effective

Gameplay-wise Persona 5 is the most advanced Persona game ever made. Persona 3 was the first Persona game with social links etc. so ....

[Gu]

Originally posted by Blackened Halo:

Well besides you can uncover some interesting backstories, you also strengthen your ability to fuse demons which makes the fusion to be much more effective

Gameplay-wise Persona 5 is the most advanced Persona game ever made. Persona 3 was the first Persona game with social links etc. so ....

Good to know, thank you. It seems a little more straightforward than P5 and is not quite as overwhelming with its content as P5, especially Royal sometimes. At least it has the JRPG-goodness of sprinkling in new features as the story progresses, even if they're not directly linked to confidants. I guess I'm content with that.

[Someone]

Honestly I prefer it this way, some of the P5 links bonuses made the game way too easy

[Scyris]

Naw this was also in Persona 4, where as u leveled up the social links with party members they could start doing followup attacks etc, it Started with P4, in P3 all that sort of stuff iirc is all linked to the fool arcana that goes up with story progress. I'd say it evolved great, P3 was their first time trying this gameplay style, as persona 1 and 2 were more like old jrpgs like ff6/7 etc. Playing P3 reload after P5 is a good way to see how much the series has evolved between p3 to p5. yes its techancally going backwards as it has less features than the more moden games, but it gives u an idea of the evolution.

Mind you P3 reload does incorporate some features from persona 4 and 5 that did not exist in the orignal game or in FES. EG In the base p3 game I don't think u could pass your One More! to another party member. It basically made the main char who was the ONLY char you could direct control in the orignal game basically the total main focus, as he was the only one able to down a entire pack of shadows usually. In the orignal P3 you could not control your party members period, it was all pure Ai. This was doable in P4 I believe and they added it into the remake of P3.

[Scyris]

Also in persona 4 social links are VITAL to have maxxed due to how the last battle in the true end goes. I won't say anything else, but if you don't got the links maxed on the true end path your in for a bad time *Megalovania from undertale starts playing*.

[Someone]

Originally posted by Scyris:

Naw this was also in Persona 4, where as u leveled up the social links with party members they could start doing followup attacks etc, it Started with P4, in P3 all that sort of stuff iirc is all linked to the fool arcana that goes up with story progress. I'd say it evolved great, P3 was their first time trying this gameplay style, as persona 1 and 2 were more like old jrpgs like ff6/7 etc. Playing P3 reload after P5 is a good way to see how much the series has evolved between p3 to p5. yes its techancally going backwards as it has less features than the more moden games, but it gives u an idea of the evolution.

This, I found the way they did it in P4 way better, because it was just a nice help in battle and not a complete game breaker like in P5

[Gu]

Originally posted by Scyris:

Naw this was also in Persona 4, where as u leveled up the social links with party members they could start doing followup attacks etc, it Started with P4, in P3 all that sort of stuff iirc is all linked to the fool arcana that goes up with story progress. I'd say it evolved great, P3 was their first time trying this gameplay style, as persona 1 and 2 were more like old jrpgs like ff6/7 etc. Playing P3 reload after P5 is a good way to see how much the series has evolved between p3 to p5. yes its techancally going backwards as it has less features than the more moden games, but it gives u an idea of the evolution.

Mind you P3 reload does incorporate some features from persona 4 and 5 that did not exist in the orignal game or in FES. EG In the base p3 game I don't think u could pass your One More! to another party member. It basically made the main char who was the ONLY char you could direct control in the orignal game basically the total main focus, as he was the only one able to down a entire pack of shadows usually. In the orignal P3 you could not control your party members period, it was all pure Ai. This was doable in P4 I believe and they added it into the remake of P3.

Yeah the comparison between Reload and OG 3 shows me a little how much better they made this game. I dipped into P4 but missed the features from confidants so I thought Atlus would maybe add those in here. It is nice being able to baton pass and stuff and maybe there will be something more the further the story gets as I've heard there are team attacks now :)

[Gu]

Originally posted by Someone:

Honestly I prefer it this way, some of the P5 links bonuses made the game way too easy

I can see a lot of people seeing it that way. Although for me personally the idea of being able to cobble together your own customized RPG experience by choosing with whom you spend your time is just pure design genius for me. It felt like making a build of a whole game and I loooved that about it :)

[Scyris]

Originally posted by Gu:

Originally posted by Scyris:

Naw this was also in Persona 4, where as u leveled up the social links with party members they could start doing followup attacks etc, it Started with P4, in P3 all that sort of stuff iirc is all linked to the fool arcana that goes up with story progress. I'd say it evolved great, P3 was their first time trying this gameplay style, as persona 1 and 2 were more like old jrpgs like ff6/7 etc. Playing P3 reload after P5 is a good way to see how much the series has evolved between p3 to p5. yes its techancally going backwards as it has less features than the more moden games, but it gives u an idea of the evolution.

Mind you P3 reload does incorporate some features from persona 4 and 5 that did not exist in the orignal game or in FES. EG In the base p3 game I don't think u could pass your One More! to another party member. It basically made the main char who was the ONLY char you could direct control in the orignal game basically the total main focus, as he was the only one able to down a entire pack of shadows usually. In the orignal P3 you could not control your party members period, it was all pure Ai. This was doable in P4 I believe and they added it into the remake of P3.

Yeah the comparison between Reload and OG 3 shows me a little how much better they made this game. I dipped into P4 but missed the features from confidants so I thought Atlus would maybe add those in here. It is nice being able to baton pass and stuff and maybe there will be something more the further the story gets as I've heard there are team attacks now :)

Its vastly improved compared to the orignal P3, Reload has a ton of features the orignal lacked. I agree its no persona 4 or 5 though. Its still a pretty good upgrade when compared to the base P3 game on ps2 though. Not just graphically, but the gameplay systems and such as well.

[Scyris]

Originally posted by Gu:

Originally posted by Someone:

Honestly I prefer it this way, some of the P5 links bonuses made the game way too easy

I can see a lot of people seeing it that way. Although for me personally the idea of being able to cobble together your own customized RPG experience by choosing with whom you spend your time is just pure design genius for me. It felt like making a build of a whole game and I loooved that about it :)

Except in every persona game from 3+ you want to max all the social links, to many benefits not too, especially in 4 and 5. In p4 for example on the true end path, if you do not have maxxed social links your going to probably have a bad time even on normal, unless your lv 99 or something.

[Jay]

I prefer additional bonuses from social links, makes it much more exciting. But I guess in P3R I can just choose my favorites to hang out with lol

[Gu]

Originally posted by Scyris:

Originally posted by Gu:

I can see a lot of people seeing it that way. Although for me personally the idea of being able to cobble together your own customized RPG experience by choosing with whom you spend your time is just pure design genius for me. It felt like making a build of a whole game and I loooved that about it :)

Except in every persona game from 3+ you want to max all the social links, to many benefits not too, especially in 4 and 5. In p4 for example on the true end path, if you do not have maxxed social links your going to probably have a bad time even on normal, unless your lv 99 or something.

I see so leveling social links is meant to be done in order to make it through the game as opposed to getting new features. Also hearing that there are a lot more features here than in OG has invigorated me a bit. I like how you can apparently find new social links from leveling known ones, that's how the game described it to me at least.

[Gu]

Originally posted by Jay:

I prefer additional bonuses from social links, makes it much more exciting. But I guess in P3R I can just choose my favorites to hang out with lol

Seems that way yeah. There are the stories though which seem to be on the same level, if not better than P5's sometime. But I guess if I don't use any Death Personas and don't find the story too appealing there really isn't a point in doing the corresponding social link besides 100% completion, huh