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    Persona 5

    Game » consists of 17 releases. Released Sep 15, 2016

    The sixth main iteration in the long-running Persona series, Persona 5 follows a group of high school students (and a cat) who moonlight as the Phantom Thieves, out to reform society one rotten adult at a time.

    Interview Translated

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    Yuuki

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    #1  Edited By Yuuki
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    Superkenon

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    #2  Edited By Superkenon

    Man, way to post something that looks exactly like the spambots. If I didn't recognize Pepsiman's name I probably would have just shrugged this off.

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    Yuuki

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    #3  Edited By Yuuki

    yeah i tried 3 times to make an full edit, but he alway said "you posted this already"

    now he did it.

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    Superkenon

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    #4  Edited By Superkenon

    Ah well, it's all good. Looks a lot nicer now that it's images instead of rows of links.

    The man didn't really reveal anything, but it's still fun to hear about it. Thanks for posting it, and thanks to our resident Pepsi for translating!

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    Flappy

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    #5  Edited By Flappy

    Pepsiman delivers the goods. Thanks to the both of y'all.

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    Steadying

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    Sooooooo....I guess social links are back?

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    deactivated-5c9d14856890c

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    Such vagueness. They know how to tease their fans.

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    AMyggen

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    Thanks!

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    Darji

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    Sooooooo....I guess social links are back?

    I would not play a Persona game without social links.

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    Steadying

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    @darji: I would, and have, but I would be really disappointed if they just dropped them after 3 and 4.

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    deactivated-5c26fd6917af0

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    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

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    deactivated-5f0e8dcf3078d

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    I'm very happy to hear that it will be similar to 3 and 4. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I just hope that I can get as attached to the cast as I did 3 and 4. That's most of the reason I love the games so much.

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    FLStyle

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    I can't believe it's actually happening, I like what I'm hearing so far.

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    ArtisanBreads

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    #14  Edited By ArtisanBreads

    That's what I was hoping it was going to be about.

    Really hoping you play the punk type kids in school for a change.

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    Hunter5024

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    @artisanbreads said:

    Really hoping you play the punk type kids in school for a change.

    Yeah I really want that too. It would reflect my high school experience much better.

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    Pepsiman

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    Howdy! I don't like to post my own translation work on forums since it feels like very self-indulging advertising to a degree, so I'm flattered to hear you duders think it's worth discussing. I mentioned it on the Tumblr post, but just for clarification here, too, I bungled the source as being from Famitsu when it was actually the Japanese Persona magazine. Obviously doesn't really change the content of the interview at all, but I figure it doesn't hurt to mention either. I'm also pleased to hear it's apparently readable the way I've inserted the English text back into the magazine. I really like Japanese graphic design in magazines and wanted to preserve that aesthetic as best as possible, but I'm by no means an artist or a decent typesetter, so I wasn't sure how well things have panned out. If any of you have suggestions on font choices and whatnot, I'd love to hear it since I basically have no idea what I'm doing other than "try not to go with Times New Roman/Arial/Comic Sans MS."

    Anyway, I think the translation mostly speaks for itself, but if there's any clarification I can provide on what I'd wrote, I'd be happy to elaborate on Hashino's original Japanese answers.

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    amlabella

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    #17  Edited By amlabella
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    Justin258

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    At least we know that they have a firm grasp on story themes and ideas and they're not just going to do the same story again. It's actually pretty amazing how different P3 and P4's stories are, despite their similarities.

    @pepsiman said:

    Howdy! I don't like to post my own translation work on forums since it feels like very self-indulging advertising to a degree, so I'm flattered to hear you duders think it's worth discussing. I mentioned it on the Tumblr post, but just for clarification here, too, I bungled the source as being from Famitsu when it was actually the Japanese Persona magazine. Obviously doesn't really change the content of the interview at all, but I figure it doesn't hurt to mention either. I'm also pleased to hear it's apparently readable the way I've inserted the English text back into the magazine. I really like Japanese graphic design in magazines and wanted to preserve that aesthetic as best as possible, but I'm by no means an artist or a decent typesetter, so I wasn't sure how well things have panned out. If any of you have suggestions on font choices and whatnot, I'd love to hear it since I basically have no idea what I'm doing other than "try not to go with Times New Roman/Arial/Comic Sans MS."

    Anyway, I think the translation mostly speaks for itself, but if there's any clarification I can provide on what I'd wrote, I'd be happy to elaborate on Hashino's original Japanese answers.

    If I had just stumbled across these magazine pages in Google images or something, I would have assumed that they were from an English magazine and not just translated by a fellow on the internet and then Photoshopped over the Japanese writing (at least I think it was Photoshopped, I don't know exactly how you removed the Japanese text and put the English on there.

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    FluxWaveZ

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    @pepsiman: Thanks for translating the interview.

    Man, it sounds like they have a good plan laid out for what they want Persona 5 to become.

    "I feel that in today's world, there's no shortage of people that are bored and discontent with their lives. They're at a dead end, chained down to a world of which they resent being a part. Persona 5, in that sense, is a game about freedom, the kind that those sorts of people haven't had living in the real world."

    This sounds fantastic.

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    Hunter5024

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    @pepsiman: Great job! Also I don't think you should be hesitant to post your work on here, especially as it relates to Persona 5. We all appreciate it.

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    Undeadpool

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    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    I wish they were less binary. What I'd love to see is for them to completely excise the whole "You might become closer with them soon..." kinds of conversations (where the S. link doesn't advance) but to compensate for that, make it EASIER to invert the Link or even break it off entirely. If you treat someone like shit consistently, they should stop wanting to hang out with you. The stuff you can say to people in Persona 3 and 4 and STILL want them to hang out with you is STAGGERING.

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    Harpell

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    @pepsiman: Amazing work! I'm hoping once I've learned some more Japanese, I can do a translation half this smooth!

    Looking at what he says in the interview, It sounds like they are doing exactly what I would want out of a new Persona game. Consider me "hyped".


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    jacksukeru

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    I haven't been sure about where I stand on the Persona franchise lately, but, reading that, it actually sounds pretty interesting.

    Now I'm a little more interested.

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    ChrisTaran

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    @pepsiman: Just curious, but when was this originally published (or did I miss that somewhere)?

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    sissylion

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    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    I wish they were less binary. What I'd love to see is for them to completely excise the whole "You might become closer with them soon..." kinds of conversations (where the S. link doesn't advance) but to compensate for that, make it EASIER to invert the Link or even break it off entirely. If you treat someone like shit consistently, they should stop wanting to hang out with you. The stuff you can say to people in Persona 3 and 4 and STILL want them to hang out with you is STAGGERING.

    Persona 3 was a lot better than 4 in that regard. I really liked Yukari's social link because there were parts where if you tried to play it cool and do the things that would most convey your affection, she'd tell you to go to hell and the link would be reversed. If Persona 5 could incorporate an element where you have to be mindful of everyone's personality and make the mechanic more than just "pick the most agreeable choice," it would be really neat.

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    FluxWaveZ

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    #26  Edited By FluxWaveZ

    @christaran said:

    @pepsiman: Just curious, but when was this originally published (or did I miss that somewhere)?

    No Caption Provided

    Persona #Re:birth magazine—revived Persona magazine's January issue—article (p.17 to ~p.25) that was made available on December 5, 2013 that featured information on all of the games announced on November 24, 2013, along with the Persona 3 Movie.

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    Jrad

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    @undeadpool: There were some hilarious reversed and broken social link conversation snippets in Persona 4 that you can't actually see because it's impossible to break those relationships. Someone dumped the text files, and you can check them out here: http://web.archive.org/web/20090328044654/http://www.rejectedidealism.net/persona

    It suggests there were more reversals planned, which were either removed or never implemented for some reason. Hopefully they'll leave them in for Persona 5, but I'm kinda doubtful.

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    supamon

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    ch3burashka

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    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    This is a good place to stone you to death.

    But seriously folks, S. Links are a mechanic unique to the Persona series, and I wouldn't want them to remove it. Someone said it's too binary, by which they meant they wanted more conversations, which is more of a quantity issue. S. Links are so much more than the phrase "dating sim" implies.

    Honestly, I'm confused. Without S. Links, Persona is just a good dungeon-crawler, unimpressive in a sea of JRPGs. S Links make it stand out. If they were to remove them entirely, would you want something to replace them, or are you more interested in the combat?

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    Steadying

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    #30  Edited By Steadying

    God, I hope this doesn't take too long to come out here after the Japanese version comes out. Avoiding spoilers from those day 1 streams is gonna be fuuuuuuuuun.

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    ch3burashka

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    @jrad said:

    @undeadpool: There were some hilarious reversed and broken social link conversation snippets in Persona 4 that you can't actually see because it's impossible to break those relationships. Someone dumped the text files, and you can check them out here: http://web.archive.org/web/20090328044654/http://www.rejectedidealism.net/persona

    It suggests there were more reversals planned, which were either removed or never implemented for some reason. Hopefully they'll leave them in for Persona 5, but I'm kinda doubtful.

    I think I recall Persona 3 featuring snags in your S. Links if you missed a date or something, akin to the GTA4 system. I think I encountered it once, saw that my standing with the person went down and thought WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT. In a game where every day is important if you're planning on 100%-ing it, encountering such a setback was slightly infuriating. It was probably also due to the girl being a goddamn bitch. I'm trying to save the goddamn world, dammit - cut me some slack.

    I'm reading the archive, and I'm not really getting it - were there supposed to be S Links for everyone with everyone? If so, that would have been awesome.

    PS I like that broken is abbreviated as BRO, so that it is categorized as CHIE_BRO.

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    DevourerOfTime

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    NoCookiesForYou

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    #33  Edited By NoCookiesForYou

    Good read, thanks for sharing.

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    TheManWithNoPlan

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    #34  Edited By TheManWithNoPlan

    I'm real excited. It seemed like the game almost joined the likes of The Last Guardian and FF Versus 13. Happy to see what they're doing with the game.

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    deactivated-5c26fd6917af0

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    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    This is a good place to stone you to death.

    But seriously folks, S. Links are a mechanic unique to the Persona series, and I wouldn't want them to remove it. Someone said it's too binary, by which they meant they wanted more conversations, which is more of a quantity issue. S. Links are so much more than the phrase "dating sim" implies.

    Honestly, I'm confused. Without S. Links, Persona is just a good dungeon-crawler, unimpressive in a sea of JRPGs. S Links make it stand out. If they were to remove them entirely, would you want something to replace them, or are you more interested in the combat?

    I will say I felt like Persona 3 did social links better than Persona 4, but that is only in the sense that the majority main cast didn't have s.links and thus were allowed to grow and have interesting stories in the main plot. S.links feel more like a diversion to me than an actual vital part of the series.

    The two biggest issues I end up having with them is a. I don't find the stories in the social links to be interesting or valuable, and b. the rewards for completing them are nearly always impossible for me to use since I finished both P3 and P4 vastly underleveled.

    Its probably just me, but I'd prefer them taking the time to improve and tighten up the story than create more unnecessary plot. The main mechanics of the combat, dungeon crawling, and fusion are compelling enough to keep me playing, and if its like the last 2 games you can ignore the social links and still finish the game quite easily.

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    Darji

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    #36  Edited By Darji

    @sissylion said:

    @undeadpool said:

    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    I wish they were less binary. What I'd love to see is for them to completely excise the whole "You might become closer with them soon..." kinds of conversations (where the S. link doesn't advance) but to compensate for that, make it EASIER to invert the Link or even break it off entirely. If you treat someone like shit consistently, they should stop wanting to hang out with you. The stuff you can say to people in Persona 3 and 4 and STILL want them to hang out with you is STAGGERING.

    Persona 3 was a lot better than 4 in that regard. I really liked Yukari's social link because there were parts where if you tried to play it cool and do the things that would most convey your affection, she'd tell you to go to hell and the link would be reversed. If Persona 5 could incorporate an element where you have to be mindful of everyone's personality and make the mechanic more than just "pick the most agreeable choice," it would be really neat.

    Yeah I agree. That was the one thing that Persona 3 did better. It was way easier to fuck up but it also was way more satisfying if you succeeded.

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    Pepsiman

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    #37  Edited By Pepsiman

    As it turns out, there were a few more pages of that interview that were missing from my original source, so I went ahead and translated those. They by and large are about the other games that they announced with Persona 5, but Hashino's a pretty chill dude with some interesting answers about the whys and hows a lot of these games exist, so I personally think they're still an interesting read. But I might be a little biased. Anyway, they're attached below, along with a slightly corrected version of the Persona 5 interview, which mostly just consists of removing references to Famitsu because I pulled a dumb dumb on that one. Also kudos to one Naotolan on Tumblr, who very kindly did the image editing work on the last two pages, saving me a good amount of work and freeing me to focus on just translating and typesetting stuff. Duder's a lifesaver! Beyond that, obviously just make sure to open the images in another window to read them. You all probably know that, but you never know.

    Enjoy and thanks for all the kind words! It's been super flattering to hear people enjoy my work!

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    Phatmac

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    Liking what I'm hearing so far. Hope it isn't too dark though. I loved Persona 4 for the fun attitude it had. I still hope that it's different from the older persona games. I want to be surprised.

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    TruthTellah

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    #39  Edited By TruthTellah
    @pepsiman said:

    As it turns out, there were a few more pages of that interview that were missing from my original source, so I went ahead and translated those. They by and large are about the other games that they announced with Persona 5, but Hashino's a pretty chill dude with some interesting answers about the whys and hows a lot of these games exist, so I personally think they're still an interesting read. But I might be a little biased. Anyway, they're attached below, along with a slightly corrected version of the Persona 5 interview, which mostly just consists of removing references to Famitsu because I pulled a dumb dumb on that one. Also kudos to one Naotolan on Tumblr, who very kindly did the image editing work on the last two pages, saving me a good amount of work and freeing me to focus on just translating and typesetting stuff. Duder's a lifesaver! Beyond that, obviously just make sure to open the images in another window to read them. You all probably know that, but you never know.

    Enjoy and thanks for all the kind words! It's been super flattering to hear people enjoy my work!

    Thanks, Pepsiman! You've done great! ( ≖‿≖)

    No Caption Provided

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    YI_Orange

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    @undeadpool said:

    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    I wish they were less binary. What I'd love to see is for them to completely excise the whole "You might become closer with them soon..." kinds of conversations (where the S. link doesn't advance) but to compensate for that, make it EASIER to invert the Link or even break it off entirely. If you treat someone like shit consistently, they should stop wanting to hang out with you. The stuff you can say to people in Persona 3 and 4 and STILL want them to hang out with you is STAGGERING.

    Persona 3 was a lot better than 4 in that regard. I really liked Yukari's social link because there were parts where if you tried to play it cool and do the things that would most convey your affection, she'd tell you to go to hell and the link would be reversed. If Persona 5 could incorporate an element where you have to be mindful of everyone's personality and make the mechanic more than just "pick the most agreeable choice," it would be really neat.

    The problem is though, it's either that you see more story or you don't and feel like you wasted time. It's always going to be "pick the most agreeable choice", even if what's considered agreeable is tailored to the person's personality(which would be a nice step up). The only ways I can really see to avoid is to make the social links HARDER to screw up. Make it so you can say anything(like Mass Effect), and that'll just get a different response from the person. Let the player create the relationship between the characters instead of just making everyone super best friends. Does any of what I'm trying to say make any sense?

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    ArtisanBreads

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    What the fuck are you playing Persona past 3 for if not the social links... weirdos.

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    fattony12000

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    Looking forward to playing P5G in four or five years!

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    Undeadpool

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    @yi_orange: This IS, indeed, the problem. Persona 3's S. Links were more varied and dynamic, but made the main character appear to either be insane or a liar as many of the choices that were "best" for one character were highly contradictory to others. But simply making them more arbitrary isn't the right answer either as it then begins to feel random. There's definitely no easy solution, but with the PS3, it SHOULD be easier to get more unique dialog (like having S. links acknowledged in story beats) which will hopefully, at the very bare-bones LEAST, make them feel more satisfying.

    @darji said:

    @sissylion said:

    @undeadpool said:

    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    I wish they were less binary. What I'd love to see is for them to completely excise the whole "You might become closer with them soon..." kinds of conversations (where the S. link doesn't advance) but to compensate for that, make it EASIER to invert the Link or even break it off entirely. If you treat someone like shit consistently, they should stop wanting to hang out with you. The stuff you can say to people in Persona 3 and 4 and STILL want them to hang out with you is STAGGERING.

    Persona 3 was a lot better than 4 in that regard. I really liked Yukari's social link because there were parts where if you tried to play it cool and do the things that would most convey your affection, she'd tell you to go to hell and the link would be reversed. If Persona 5 could incorporate an element where you have to be mindful of everyone's personality and make the mechanic more than just "pick the most agreeable choice," it would be really neat.

    Yeah I agree. That was the one thing that Persona 3 did better. It was way easier to fuck up but it also was way more satisfying if you succeeded.

    Agreed. Going back to 4, it's a LITTLE creepy how hero-worshippy everyone is of the main character. He is ALL things to ALL people and basically became God of Yasogami in less than a year.

    @ch3burashka:: It's less the missing of dates and more if you've sufficiently advanced certain links that they've become romantic, the character will get inverted if you go out with any other girls more than twice BEFORE going out with her again. Stuff like this, where your actions outside the immediate conversation, would be a nice return to form as well.

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    Superkenon

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    #44  Edited By Superkenon

    @yi_orange said:

    @sissylion said:

    @undeadpool said:

    @lyisa said:

    I think this is a good place to say I don't like social links.

    That doesn't stop me from being excited for Persona 5, but I wish they would just go away.

    I wish they were less binary. What I'd love to see is for them to completely excise the whole "You might become closer with them soon..." kinds of conversations (where the S. link doesn't advance) but to compensate for that, make it EASIER to invert the Link or even break it off entirely. If you treat someone like shit consistently, they should stop wanting to hang out with you. The stuff you can say to people in Persona 3 and 4 and STILL want them to hang out with you is STAGGERING.

    Persona 3 was a lot better than 4 in that regard. I really liked Yukari's social link because there were parts where if you tried to play it cool and do the things that would most convey your affection, she'd tell you to go to hell and the link would be reversed. If Persona 5 could incorporate an element where you have to be mindful of everyone's personality and make the mechanic more than just "pick the most agreeable choice," it would be really neat.

    The problem is though, it's either that you see more story or you don't and feel like you wasted time. It's always going to be "pick the most agreeable choice", even if what's considered agreeable is tailored to the person's personality(which would be a nice step up). The only ways I can really see to avoid is to make the social links HARDER to screw up. Make it so you can say anything(like Mass Effect), and that'll just get a different response from the person. Let the player create the relationship between the characters instead of just making everyone super best friends. Does any of what I'm trying to say make any sense?

    Yeah, because I've thought the same thing. Especially since all the characters are written to love and respect you during the main story anyway, I feel like the choices should be built around altering the conversation rather than being a hard "each choice is worth X points!" Having the game obligate you towards always picking the most favorable choice, as you say, is kind of at odds with roleplaying your main character. Even from a roleplaying perspective, you don't gain anything from acting out the personality you envision, because the end result is always the same anyway. Except maybe you can't fuse Personas so good.

    Obviously the whole point is giving you little subplots with characters, and it does that part enjoyably. The mechanics of it could certainly be improved though.

    But if there's only one change I see, it'd for the S-links to spill over into the main game more, even if it's just in the form of occasional alternate bits of dialogue. ie, (Persona 4 spoilers) Dojima changing up what he says when he arrests you, being a bit softer. Or even referencing the damn mug when he's in the hospital or something. Yosuke being more agreeable after your RIVERSIDE BRAWL BONDING. Chie saying anything to the effect of "hey, I'm totes your girlfriend!" Small things like that would go a surprisingly long way in making the S-Link feel like it mattered, instead of feeling like it all happened in some weird pocket dimension with no tangible connection to the main world. The girlfriend thing in particular is kinda funny, because you'd think it would come up in conversation. Or... at all. Heh.

    Persona 3 handles that a bit better, but only because it avoids the issue entirely by keeping story characters, and most of your party out of the S-Links. And then the few you can go hang out with are only available late in the game, so you don't have enough time to feel like something's missing.

    But yeah, regardless of my rambling, S-Link's are rad. I just want to see them get radder.

    Also, thanks again to @pepsiman for translating the other pages! Keep on doing what you do, good fella!

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    Undeadpool

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    @superkenon: That spoiler-blocked stuff is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. I mean can you IMAGINE stuff like P4G's Adachi S. Link, but for EVERYone?

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    Superkenon

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    @undeadpool: That'd be great. The idea of having every maxed S.Link (at least, the important characters) culminate in some kind of story event or branching option is probably my favorite on the wish list.

    Let's get the Kanji Ending.

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    YI_Orange

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    #47  Edited By YI_Orange

    @undeadpool: @superkenon: The best way I can see to handle S-Links a little better but still have them mostly in tact, is to kinda give the player character more of an actual character. Instead of having social link choices just be what they wanna hear, neutral, and dick, give the player a character a rough personality, and just have the choices be different ways of carrying that personality, it would help to make the relationships feel more real too. Again, I'm basically thinking commander shepherd here. I don't think that it's pefect, but I think it would be fantastic if done right. I mean, they kinda did that with the anime. They chose one personality for him and just leaned all the way into it. I think that worked really well too. Say what you want about the thing as a whole, I thought the portrayal of him in the anime was great.

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    Dan_CiTi

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    #48  Edited By Dan_CiTi
    A very soft red
    A very soft red

    Interesting with the Red theme. I'm seeing a very Mirror's Edge like HUD for this. Hopeing they use more matte, subdued reds too and not these super bright "angry" "battery dying/connection lost" reds all the time.

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    elyhaym

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    "I feel that in today's world, there's no shortage of people that are bored and discontent with their lives. They're at a dead end, chained down to a world of which they resent being a part. Persona 5, in that sense, is a game about freedom, the kind that those sorts of people haven't had living in the real world."

    This sounds fantastic.

    I couldn't agree more! This coupled with the somewhat familiarity from Persona 3 & 4 promises to be excellent in my eyes!

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    Yuuki

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