I'm new to Persona in general, i've played this one before a while ago but never finished it, in fact didn't get all that far in it. June i think. I never played any of the other games either. The rest of my experience with the series is watching the first 60 or so episodes of the endurance run years ago.

In any case i was wondering if you need to give all the correct answers in order to max out a social link or if you can say whatever you feel like and the game will continue to let you meet with whoever until you max out the social link, whether that takes 12 meeting with that someone or 20.

I know it's probably impossible to max all the social links in one playthrough without following a guide and giving all the best answers every time but that sound very unappealing and it's not my goal. I just don't want to lock myself out of maxing out the social links I decide to focus on because i don't always give the best answers.

Basically what i'm saying here is that there's no way i'm agreeing with Hidetoshi every single time because fuck that guy! But i still want to eventually max that social link regardless.

I don't recall the exact specifics, but I do know certain choices can be a detriment to the social links you're trying to build. I'm sure in one instance you could revert Yukari's SL by giving the wrong answer. It should also be noted that unlike Persona 4, there isn't a cut and dry "you are entering a relationship" prompt when you're doing social links with the female characters. Eventually when you progress far enough in their social links, you will have entered a relationship with them and therefor be at risk of cheating on that character by spending time with the other females. This can be managed by ensuring you spend time with all the characters you're in relationship with on regular intervals, but it can be a little troublesome to be stuck to that. I recommend either not thinking too much about it and going with what you think is right, or looking up a guide for the characters you specifically want to max out.

Unless you run out of time I don't believe you can ever lock yourself out of finishing a social link. It goes faster if you answer correctly though.

@pr1mus: It goes faster if you give the answer the want and also have the right Persona. You don't have to equip the persona, just have it available for selection. For example, if you don't have the right persona and you give the answer they don't like, you'll get 1 point. If you had the persona and give the wrong answer, you get 2 points and if you give the right answer you'd get 3 points.

Only running out of time stops you getting it to max. I don't think any of them have a hard timer unlike some of the links in 4.

You can totally break and reverse social links. The easiest way to do that is dating two girls at once, but there are certain answers that will do it too.