After you reach a certain rank with the girl social links (and just the girl social links), if you hang out with other girls too often they get jealous and the social link gets reversed
which means you need to dedicate an entire afternoon just to apologize for hanging out with other people
it's, uh, pretty bad. oh, and you're forced to date girls because, according to the director, boys and girls cant really just be friends.
yknow, ignoring the fact that they can be and are.
and also that i'm only into women, so i highly doubt i'd be any more than friends with a boy regardless, so that's another issue with that sentiment.
yeah, a lot of sexism in Persona 3's Social Link systems.
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeIt's related to the fact that you had to romantically pursue the female social links. After a while they'll get jealous if you continue hanging out with one of the other girls, which causes their social link to reverse. If you know how to manage all the social links it doesn't matter, but as a concept it does expose the rather shallow romantic aspect of 3's version.
it's super inconvenient.
i don't necessarily think Jealousy in and of itself is an inherently bad mechanic- real life relationships that you don't tend to can and will fall apart, especially if you're blatantly ignoring them, which would tie into the themes of "building connections and bonds with others is important".
but as it was implemented... yeah, it's super good that it's gone and I hope it doesn't come back.
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeIt's a very shallow concept. You get a handful of visual novel cutscenes detailing some daily fluff or a minor bit of character development, but it's rarely if at all reflected in anything beyond that one event. You rush through all the Links a character has, then drop them like a sack of potatoes because there's nothing left beyond Rank 10s.
I like the limited timing mechanics of Devil Survivor or the constant NPC party chat from Persona 1 and 2 more as ways to develop the cast as the game updates.
Mandatory Harem for 100% Completion is my least favorite thing about P3. It's both sexist and irrelevant because Mitsuru is Best Girl.
Mitsuru is indeed Best P3 Girl, although Aigis is some pretty stiff competition.
As for Social Links, they're not bad, they just need a shot in the arm. I would suggest doing the Devil Survivor 2 thing where you have to progress to a certain point with the S Link to keep thema round for the ending you choose but I suggested something similar a while ago, extolling DS 2's and IVA's approach, and some people told me no way because it totally violates the spirit of Persona.
And I can kinda see that. Murdering all your friends is indeed not very Persona.
a lot Persona 3's Social links do convey the central themes of death and memento mori, some in more obvious ways, and some not, but its very similarly on theme to P4's theme and social links.
P3's S Ls are more hit and miss than p4 from what I remember. the duds are the worst, but its better S Ls are freaking excellent. obvious stand out is the Sun, and i remember liking the hermit a lot.
conceptually, p3 is also the most chill of the game experiences. its kind of why the S Ls are all over the place, rather than the slightly more concentrated p4, and the heavily plot connected p5. its kind of trying to convey a feeling, of life, and living your life.
its also notable that, compared to p4 and p5, the central plot of p3 is constructed to take place over a near year. its very passive in nature. the SEES role is defensive, centrally operating once a month, and the rest of the month is training.
I forgot my password, and I want my old Forum handle back!!!Yeah, P3's social links are pretty forgettable but one thing they absolutely do nail right is conveying the theme of memento mori, and they even do a great job at dealing with more abstracts notions of death - death of a dream, death of innocence, etc. I'd honestly say it does a much better job at it than p4 who had the semi-recurring problem that "accepting an unwanted truth" as a theme is inherentely at odds with the gameplay mechanic of giving a "good answer" to dialogue choices for more affinity points with the SL, and said good answer too often being happily induling your S Ls worst traits.
"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."Personally, I think Confidants from 5 were a little too thematic. It's part of my problem with 5's writing where absolutely everything revolves around the Thieves. Plot? All about them. Hanging out with your party? Not without mentioning how they are the Thieves. Co-ops? Have some connection to Thieves. Going abroad? THIEVES! Add the fact that last dungeon revealed that all the targets were connected, and the world of 5 felt downright claustrophobic to me because little was going on that didn't revolve around the protagonists.
Isn't that the opposite of what people complained about the social links tho?
Most people found the non-party links forgettable aside from 1 or 2 due to not really factoring in the main plot. Id argue that 5's Confidants are more memorable since they actually benefit you along the journey beyond persona upgrades
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Wait what mechanic about jealously does 3 have?
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."