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Talk to girls, make friends: Persona 4's social links explained

3:22 PM on 10.15.2008, Dale North 20 comments

Talk to girls, make friends: Persona 4's social links explained photo
     Role Playing Games

One of the coolest features of Atlus' RPG Persona 3 was the Social Link system. Through this, you were able to hang out with friends or flirt with girls to build your strength and abilities. In fact, the only way to max out your abilities and get special Personas was to use this system to its fullest. Social Links are back with Persona 4, but several new features have been added.

Let's just be friends: Gone are the days where you would be stuck with the girl you maxxed out your Social Links with. Now you have the option of being "friends" or "lovers" with each of the lovely ladies in Persona 4. Your choices will trigger different events or conversations later in the game.

They got your back: The stronger your relationship are with other characters, the more that will happen in Persona 4. When you're in good with a friend, they might jump in front of you to defend you when you're low on health. They also may perform a support attack to finish off an enemy you were just short of taking down. You'll find that even during dungeon crawls you'll be chatting with friends about the last time you hung out together.

Dreams and Lunch: In Persona 4, there are new ways in which you can level up your Social Links. If you opt to sleep early, you'll actually have dreams about your friends, making you closer to them. On certain days you'll be able to bring your lunch to school and dine with those you have relationships with. You can even share food with a friend to become closer. 

All of this sounds much better than going to the same old ramen shop all of the time. Or going to lame band practice. 

Persona 4 is still set to launch on December 9th. I can't wait to mack on girls that don't really exist again!

 


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Pacopaco's Avatar
Pacopaco at 10/15/2008 15:42
Anything that fleshes out the nuances of character relationships in any game is A-OK in my book. Actually, I wish there was a hell of a lot more regular conversation in games like the "dungeon crawl chatter" mentioned above as I feel it's an excellent and relatively easy* method to give characters more depth than simply having them talk during critical cutscenes.

*Assuming the writers have any skill beyond expositional dialogue.
Dan CiTi's Avatar
Dan CiTi at 10/15/2008 15:43
YES! I can't wait! I'm wearing my yellow preorder shirt right now.
Aiya's Avatar
Aiya at 10/15/2008 15:55
Yay! I love these new social link features! I can't wait to play this.
kawitchate's Avatar
kawitchate at 10/15/2008 16:06
as long as i can interact with more people AT NIGHT i'll be happy. oh and imaginary girlfriends ftw.
Fing Dr Yang's Avatar
Fing Dr Yang at 10/15/2008 16:27
Im almost done with P3 fes and I freaking love that game. This looks like more of the same with Little tweeks that could make it a great game. Now Atlus needs release some current gerneration games in the US.
boxmyth's Avatar
boxmyth at 10/15/2008 16:38
I feel you Fing. I'm 160+ hours into P3: FES (90+ hour game save nuked by my PS3, then 70+ hours to reach that point again) and I'm still loving every minute of it.
I have mixed feelings about pouring another 100+ hours into another rpg so soon, but I'll probably pick up P4 anyway.
MasterMS's Avatar
MasterMS at 10/15/2008 17:17
This sounds like a big improvement over P3s social links but it still just sounds a lot like P3...For that reason I'm not really looking forward to the game. I'm sure I'll like it but the reason I loved P3 is because of how different it was. I'd like to see them go back to how it was in Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment.
CrocBox's Avatar
CrocBox at 10/15/2008 17:29
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy hell I wish I had that in Persona 3 right now. I want this NOW >.<
Chibi_Zero's Avatar
Chibi_Zero at 10/15/2008 17:41
This makes me want the game even more. I can't wait to see who you can form S-links with.
Kyousuke Nanbu's Avatar
Kyousuke Nanbu at 10/15/2008 17:58
Oh christ not these shitty dating sim mechanics again.
ninjikiran's Avatar
ninjikiran at 10/15/2008 18:17
This is a second game that makes me sad I don't own a BC PS3.
Dexter345's Avatar
Dexter345 at 10/15/2008 18:28
But I'm afraid to talk to girls!
F Whipple's Avatar
F Whipple at 10/15/2008 19:27
must...have...this...game
BulletMagnet's Avatar
BulletMagnet at 10/15/2008 19:56
This sounds fine and all, but seriously, once they figured out that players might like direct control over ALL their party members instead of just one (revolutionary!), everything else they might add on top is more or less gravy, heh heh.
Azereki's Avatar
Azereki at 10/16/2008 03:15
This is going to be a PS2 title, correct?
SyntaxError's Avatar
SyntaxError at 10/16/2008 12:12
I remember the "Let's be friends" dynamic appeared on the Persona 3 message boards (suggested by a user) at GameFAQS quite a while back.
The-Excel's Avatar
The-Excel at 10/16/2008 21:45
@Dexter345:
That's why I never made it very far in the Social Link system of the last game.
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 10/17/2008 12:05
Very spiffy
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