How strict is maxing out social stats and links all in 1 playthrough?

[UwU OwO]

Without using any guides but just the online network functions

[AngryChair]

Maxing out social stats is a given since you need it to start certain social links. The schedule is extremely tight and now you also have Link Events, so if you want to see everything there is to see in a single playthrough you should just use a guide. If not, then just play blind, enjoy the ride and leave that to ng+

[Viper]

Not going to happen probably without a guide. And playing with a guide ruins the game for most people. YOu don't need to max out social links to finish this game..

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Your choices are to be miserable and worry about everything, or relax and have fun.

[Soulkey]

It's tough.
I played without a guide, and barely got all Social Links maxed out (last social link was complete on Jan 28), but ended up missing out on several Linked Events, thus I was not able to complete the Compendium on NG.

[bulldog0890]

unless you're riding a guide every step of the way theres no way you'll pull it off. but i'd say don't worry about it, just enjoy ng and if you care enough to ng+ it do that

[Endora]

I made max social stats without a guide at early october. Although I'm not aiming for the social links on the first run, I never put the stats over the social links, so I'm sure it is possible to do all at the first run (I just don't want to do Moon).

[RavenHunter]

stats are mostly easy, by late september or early october you should have everything maxed. The strict part is not messing up the social links remaining during December or January since you get alot of free time where you cant do anything(would recommend the shrine to get more points in case you get the wrong answer in the links)

[LouisKM124]

It most likely impossible to max all social link in your first playthrough if you don't follow any sort of guide or save scum.

[lawjax]

I do not think it would be possible on a blind playthrough to achieve full social links in this or any other Persona game for a number of mechanical reasons. Even with a guide the timeframe is unforgiving; you can do everything right and may only have a weeks' worth of free time available when all is said and done at the very end of the game. The likelihood of completing all of the relevant Linked episodes on top of it does not seem plausible at all.

This is part of why there is a NG+ at all--you can simply go through the story a second time on narrative easy-mode since your maxed-out social stats carry over and you no longer spend half of the game trying to level all of them up. If you do decide to use a guide, follow it exactly as it is planned as while some of the schedule arrangements may seem bizarre or irrelevant to your interests I can promise you that most of what ends up on the all-in-one guides is almost always there to fulfill a purpose--I've missed and skipped a couple of steps for this, P4G, and P5R, and the consequences of those skipped steps had some terrible implications later on since I was now trying to make up for lost time while competing with confidant/social link availability.

Personally speaking I would never play any of these games with a guide on my first playthrough, as that would rob me of all my joy and pleasure and the whole thing would seem more like work.

[Lvl 10]

Originally posted by lawjax:

This is part of why there is a NG+ at all--you can simply go through the story a second time

NG+ is useless if you want to play on Merciless, then practically nothing carries over.
Finished the New Game on Merciless and thought I'd keep my stuff and play Merciless again, but nope: only costumes and game time are kept.

[lawjax]

Yes, well, that does sound like a rather merciless experience.

[UwU OwO]

My first P game is P5R and maxing out the confidants and social stats on a single play-through was already impossible for me even with the online network data so I thought that they made P3R easier, seems like it's just as hard. I'll just do NG+ afterwards, then.

[Demiurge]

use a guide. I always do in persona games to get and do everything because I never plan or want to have more than one playthrough.

[DilTinman]

I used a guide but as of right now there's no real complete guide i don't think. The one i used did get me max social links but it had alot of mistakes in it and literally didn't get the last social link maxed until the very last day i could have, as well as i missed one Koromaru linked episode so i couldn't fuse Byakko, and by extention, Kohryu.