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

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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20 comments | showing # 1 to 20

pedrovay2003's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 15:28
pedrovay2003
The Social Links were the only thing that bothered me in P3. Once you maxed them out, that was that. But this sounds much more promising.
MrSadistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 15:37
MrSadistic
spiffy
Pacopaco's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 15:42
Pacopaco
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 - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 15:43
Dan CiTi
YES! I can't wait! I'm wearing my yellow preorder shirt right now.
Stella Wong's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 15:55
Stella Wong
Yay! I love these new social link features! I can't wait to play this.
kawitchate's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:06
kawitchate
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 - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:27
Fing Dr Yang
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 - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:38
boxmyth
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 - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:17
MasterMS
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 - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:29
CrocBox
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy hell I wish I had that in Persona 3 right now. I want this NOW >.<
Chibi_Zero's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:41
Chibi_Zero
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 - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:58
Kyousuke Nanbu
Oh christ not these shitty dating sim mechanics again.
ninjikiran's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 18:17
ninjikiran
This is a second game that makes me sad I don't own a BC PS3.
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 18:28
Dexter345
But I'm afraid to talk to girls!
F Whipple's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 19:27
F Whipple
must...have...this...game
BulletMagnet's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 19:56
BulletMagnet
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 - Comment posted on 10/16/2008 03:15
Azereki
This is going to be a PS2 title, correct?
SyntaxError's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/16/2008 12:12
SyntaxError
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 - Comment posted on 10/16/2008 21:45
The-Excel
@Dexter345:
That's why I never made it very far in the Social Link system of the last game.
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/17/2008 12:05
king3vbo
Very spiffy
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