Board 8 > Between Persona 3, 4, and 5, which one has your favorite social links?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think for me it's something like...

Party Members: 3 > 5 > 4
Romance Options: 5 > 3 > 4
Non-Party Members: 5 > 3 > 4
Overall: 3 > 5 > 4

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Definitely 5 here

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3's S. Links feel kind of rough to go back to after playing 4 and 5 (plus not having S. Links for the guys unless you're playing FeMC in P3P is pretty bad, not to mention having no non-romance options for the girls).

I'd take 4 for the party members and 5 for the non-party members, I think.

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haven't played 3 but I like P5's a lot more than P4's, especially for non-party members

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5 hands down

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5 > 3 > 4

4's pretty clearly last place so long as you've played P3P.
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Probably 4 > 3 > 5, but I didnt do all of 5s and didnt care to replay it

easily 5

4 has the best party members, but 5 is pretty close and the non-party members has 5 leagues ahead of 3 and 4

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Your party members ranking is backwards. 4 > 5 > 3, no question.
Non-party members: 5 > 4 > 3
Romances: 5 > 4 > 3

I haven't played P3P FeMC so that may taint my views, but there's still how Junpei and Akihiko were never social links in the original game (and Fuuka's is boring too - she deserved better). Yukari, Mitsuru, and AIGIS are the best links in 3, but most of 3's NPCs are complete rubbish, so 3 is the worst easily.

I'd put 4 and 5 as even because of how good 4's party member links are .It's a shame they couldn't extend the same courtesy to the NPC S-Links... or replicate that with 5's party members. It's weird how in 4, the best social links are the party members, whereas in 5, the best social links are non-party members.
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Leonhart4 posted...

I'd take 4 for the party members and 5 for the non-party members, I think.

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I think 3 has high highs and low lows (yikes at the Moon SL). But 4 (at least for the non-party members) had the most 'whatever' line up.

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4 at least had the Dojimas, which are both top tier S. Links

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3 and 4 both have a couple of top tier ones each (Akinari, Aigis, both Dojimas), but also have several stinkers each. 4 probably wins out between the two on having a bit better party member links overall.

Meanwhile, the average quality in 5 is much higher and more consistent, and the top tier ones (e.g Yoshida, Iwai as my two favorites in particular) are very, very good.

I was talking non-party members only, where P3 really flounders.

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Leonhart4 posted...

I'd take 4 for the party members and 5 for the non-party members, I think.

This is about right. 5's Party Member S Links are kinda bad, honestly.

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Does Persona 3 Hermit count as a romance option?

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P3P makes things better for non-party members. Getting rid of classic Moon helps a lot. Plus Sun's always been one of the best S-Links in the series (still my #1, probably).

Futaba's is great as far as P5 party members go. Ann's is especially weak though.
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Leonhart4 posted...

3's S. Links feel kind of rough to go back to after playing 4 and 5 (plus not having S. Links for the guys unless you're playing FeMC in P3P is pretty bad, not to mention having no non-romance options for the girls).

I'd take 4 for the party members and 5 for the non-party members, I think.

Pretty much all of this.

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I'll add that despite P4 having generally good party member S-Links, Teddie has the worst party member S-Link in the series. P5's worst S-Link is better than the worst few (Devil, Temperance, Star, Empress) in P4 IMO.
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I don't even think much of Teddie's because it's an auto-complete one, but I also don't recall it being that terrible.

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How good Teddie's S-Link is depends on if you consider Teddie's whole Pinocchio-esque existence compelling.

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a while back I had an idea to rank and review all of the social links. I abandoned it about halfway through. Anyway, the answer is overall 5, though Persona 4 has perhaps the top 3 on lock.

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Which three do you think?

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Kanji, Adachi, and Nanako I'd guess? I like Marie's a lot too, since it's mostly the cast hanging out shooting the shit, but I know a lot of people dislike her content.
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Naoto, Dojima, Kanji, and Nanako are all really good

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The mysteries in Naoto's S-Link are so boring...
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Voted 3. It honestly has some of the worst social links overall but I also can't overlook how 4 and 5 torpedo party member character development by putting a half-assed version of half of their character arc behind the optional social links.

I also do really like a few of the ones in 3, though that's probably true for all the games.
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I have not replayed 4 in ages but I have a pretty low opinion of most of the party member links in that one since besides a few they felt redundant. 5 at least solved that problem by having them be mostly unrelated to the character introduction, although they aren't all winners. Meanwhile 5 easily takes non-party links, so I gotta hand it to 5.

3 is weird but including P3P nudges it above 4.

5 > P3+P > 4 > 3FES

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pyresword posted...

but I also can't overlook how 4 and 5 torpedo party member character development by putting a half-assed version of half of their character arc behind the optional social links.

This, right here, is why I would like to see a Persona 6 either make all party member links auto-advance or do away with them entirely. Definite flaw of the series.

Reg posted...

This, right here, is why I would like to see a Persona 6 either make all party member links auto-advance or do away with them entirely. Definite flaw of the series.

The auto-advance links are also pretty weak. 3 again has the right idea here by simply having hard stops in certain links until you have progressed far enough in the story. I can't remember if P5 does this with party members, but I know that Sojiro's did and was all the better for it.

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I don't mind character development being in Social Links - the problem is that their dialogue in the main plot never reflects that development, which keeps all the characters in some weird half-limbo.

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KamikazePotato posted...

I don't mind character development being in Social Links - the problem is that their dialogue in the main plot never reflects that development, which keeps all the characters in some weird half-limbo.

I feel like Golden tried to fix that a bit with its extra content toward the end, but yeah, it's not totally ideal.

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