Persona 3 is the first iconic game in the Persona series that made the franchise what it is today. While it set the stage for the future of its franchise, Persona 3 was first released in 2006, and many who play through the game can see outdated elements of the time. As the series progressed, Persona 4 and Persona 5 took some of the aspects of Persona 3 and spun them in their own way. While the third installment in the series started the franchise in the direction fans know it today, there is one mechanic that Persona 3 showcased that should not be continued in the present.
Persona 3 introduced Social Links to the Persona franchise, and the mechanic has been a large part of the two proceeding games. The protagonists of the games form these bonds with other characters as the players invest in spending time with these characters and exploring the world the game has to offer. By leveling up Social Links, players are able to fuse higher level, more powerful Personas that they can collect to combat the Shadows the characters come across. However, one aspect of the system was not carried from Persona 3 to the future games, and if a remake is made of this game, a specific element should be left in the past.
Persona 3 is the only game in the series in which social links can regress. If the protagonist does not spend time with a Social Link within 90 in-game days of their last quality interaction or responds incorrectly while interacting with them, then the link will regress or possibly even break, adding another layer of difficultly for those attempting to max rank all of the game’s Social Links. This element of Social Links was removed when Atlus was creating future games in the franchise.
Social Link regression isn’t incredibly hard for players to deal with and gives the game a more realistic feel. If a person didn’t hang out or make a point to interact with a friend for an extended period of time, it makes sense that the relationship would deteriorate. However, there is another element that comes with this mechanic that a future rendition of Persona 3 should do without, and that is how the regression timeline deals with female Social Links.
While this regression system applies to most Social Links, there is another layer on top of this for women that the protagonist must navigate. When players get to a certain level in a female schoolmate’s Social Link, the other character initiates a more intimate relationship with the protagonist, and due to the game’s set up, he has no choice but to go along with their advances in order to reach their max Social Link rank. When this happens, this character will become more possessive of the Persona 3 protagonist.
If the player spends time with another girl other than the one who is at a high level, the girl will feel jealous, and the player has 15 less in-game days until her Social Link regresses for each time the protagonist hangs out with another girl. Not only does this seriously move down the the time limit, but the time limit for these closer female Social Link become much shorter than normal. Usually, Social Link regression happens after 90 days, but for higher level female Social Links, it will occur after 60 days, barring the protagonist hang out with any other women which would shorten the duration even further.
Along with these added difficulties, the player can even have Social Links regress or even break if a girl who the protagonist is close with catches him out with another girl. While the regression system in itself ins’t bad, this added layer for female Social Links makes the player jump through a whole new set of ridiculous hoops that is exclusive for one gender. The other characters in the game also treat this mechanic like it is natural for women to be jealous in this way.
Kenji, a male Social Link that is the first available in the game, explains the basics of this system like it’s a normal thing for women to be possessive and controlling in these ways. While games are fiction and aren’t always meant to be true to life, this is a very unhealthy outlook on friendships between men and women, and portraying it in such a way could potentially have real world consequences if a player internalizes these messages.
If Atlus decides to make a Persona 3 remake, the gaming company could easily follow the path that it has for the two games that came after this one and just remove the regression mechanic completely. Persona 4 and Persona 5 worked well without having to worry about their Social Links regressing and instead just had players focus on collecting as many points with the characters as possible.
However, Persona 3 has a different feel than those two games and is a different strategy version of the recent games. Players have to think of things such as managing the health of the protagonist and his party members when they are in Tartarus, so to lift the regression mechanic completely may take away from the overall feel of the game. There are still ways to continue the mechanic without perpetuating sexist stereotypes though, and the jealousy aspect should be removed completely. One way that Atlus could change the romance in the game would be to have the player choose romantic Social Links to pursue at Rank 9 as the other games have. However, if the woman were to catch the protagonist on a romantic date with another woman, it would make sense that this would cause a regression or break the Social Link if it wasn’t already maxed out.
Game mechanics like these may be a product of their time, but they shouldn’t remain unchecked if they are remade or newly ported to another console or Steam. If players of different genders dive into a game, they should be able to see positive, not petty, characters like themselves that they can identify with.
A remake of Persona 3 has not been confirmed.
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