User:Cabbage/Sandbox9
This is a compilation of possible stuff / section that would need to go on character Social Link / Confidant / "Stuff That Happens In Reality Rather than The Game's Isekai" focused page. Note that the intent and purpose behind every major section being in its own H2 level header (e.g. == Overview ==) is to help with mobile view, which does not have a table of contents but does display H2 level headers as collapsible sections.
Demos
- Yukari: User:Cabbage/Sandbox13
- Yukiko: User:Cabbage/Sandbox14
Overview
A short description that includes info like which Arcana and a brief mention of any quirks related to the Social Link or perhaps serve to explain the difference between versions.
Examples (of characters with things that an editor might want to note up front and that a reader might want to know up front):
- Yukari Takeba is a party member in S.E.E.S. and represents the Lovers Social Link in every version of Persona 3. The male protagonist must first rank up his Charm stat while the female protagonist in Portable is able to establish a friendship with her from the start. As a student of Gekkoukan, Yukari can normally be found in the classroom, but during summer break she will be unavailable for Social Link activities. In the original release of Persona 3, as well as FES and Portable, Yukari and the male protagonist had a mandatory romance at max rank. As of Reload, Yukari has a new platonic route with the male protagonist.
- Koromaru is a party member in Persona 3. While he originally had no Social Link, the male protagonist was able to walk him in FES during which the pair could run into other Social Link characters, and Koromaru also became the Strength Social Link for the female protagonist in Portable. As of Reload, he has a series of Linked Episodes similar to a Social Link.
- Tohru Adachi is the Jester Social Link added for Persona 4 Golden, the re-release of Persona 4. His Social Link swaps between day and night time depending on rank. His Social Link has a deadline of rank 6 before November 1st.
- Kasumi Yoshizawa is the Faith Confidant added for Persona 5 Royal, the re-release of Persona 5. Her Confidant automatically starts on May 30th while her and Joker are on a class trip. After, she can only be leveled to Rank 5 by December 22. In order to increase her rank past 5, Joker must access the new winter semester content for Royal.
Availability
A table of some sort that explains the character's availability and where they can be found. Generally speaking, characters are either day time only or night time only. If a character has irregular availability, then it might just be best to represent them as a list of dates. For weather, this only matters in P4/P5. Ymmv on whether it should be on the Availability table or not. Generally anyone who has a daytime social link will not be available while it's raining, with the exception of one rank of Naoto's because it takes place under a covered canopy, lol.
P4G has a couple major exceptions regarding day/night: Adachi (who should not be expressed through a 7 day table due to how sporadic his schedule is) and school friends who can appear at night time in the shopping district. I think I might have even been the one to ask for the availability table to be updated at some point in the past lol, but on reflection, I do not believe that P4G school friends day time and night time availability should share the same table because they can only rank up during the day time. The night time activities are more like bonus points if you are behind and they cannot rank up at night and that their night availability refers to specific events. But the way the Availability Template table is set up now, you would have to note by each night time availability that they cannot rank up at night time. Honestly, since P4G/P4R(?) is/are the only game(s) where this matters, I think it might be better to just not have both day and night time by default.
Example:
For the full list of day-by-day Social Link availability, see the Calendar for Persona 4, Persona 4 Golden, or Persona 4 Revival.
| Day Availability | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Rain |
| ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
Yukiko is a daytime Social Link. Generally speaking, Yukiko will be available for her Social Link on Monday through Thursday in the afternoon. She can be found on 1F of Yasogami High School on school days, and the south area of the Central Shopping District on holidays. Her Social Link cannot occur on rainy days, and she will not always be available in the daytime if someone is still inside the TV.
| Night Availability | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Rain |
| ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
In Golden, Yukiko can also sometimes be found during the evening on the south map of the Central Shopping District. She is unable to rank up during these events but gives the protagonist an item. For more info, please see #Evening Hangouts.
Rank Ups
A table with ranks, rank up requirements, and any other notes about them such as if the character learns skills or if there's another event you need to do. For example, the party members in P4G get 3rd Personas and new skills starting in winter that require their Social Links to be rank 10, but it does not advance their Social Link to 11 or something, rather they have date requirements. (We already have this, so I'm just noting this for completions sake.)
Rank Up Events
A tabber with tables showing the responses and how much points they give. Note that the music notes that show when you give favorable responses are unreliable; they seem to be an expression or range of how many points you are getting rather than the exact amount. The guidebooks for Persona 3/4/5 have the point values as well as notes about point modifiers. Also, personally, I think it's good for clarity purposes that the prompts and responses are all written out in these. (We already have this, so I'm just noting this for completions sake.)
In the case of many female Persona 3 characters, they will need 3 different sections of rank up events for: Persona 3 / FES / Portable - Male Protag, Persona 3 Portable - Female Protag, and Persona 3 Reload (where the upper ranks diverge into friendship vs romance).
In Persona 4 vs Golden, the new Social Link ranks are only for party members and only in winter to give them new Personas and skills; a "this only happens in Golden" note should be okay. If Revival is similar to Reload, and others agree that the prompt and responses should be written out as it helps with clarity, then Revival might need a new sub-section listing out the Rank Up events purely because the text has changed. (From the screenshots we've seen thus far, Revival looks to be a more literal translation.)
In Persona 5 vs Royal, I believe the new things are that Confidants now call or text Joker once he gets back to Leblanc...? A "this only happens in Royal" note for the very last prompt will probably suffice?
Linked Episodes
P3R-only. Would have information about Linked Episodes for Junpei, Aki, Shinji, Koromaru, Ken, and Ryoji. I think that is significant enough to warrant its own H2 level header.
Hangouts
Note that the functionality of a "hangout" varies per game. I am just using it here as a catch-all term bc tbh idk wtf else to call it.
- (Warning: cabbage is talking about a non-P4 game.) All versions of Persona 3: In Persona 3, your school friends can call you to hangout. These have set dates. During these, you have dialogue prompts that increase points. Which prompt you get depends on rank. In Reload, the girls have new prompts because there's friendship vs romance prompts here. Afaik, you can also give them gifts during these...?
Persona 4/Golden: On fixed dates where you are off from school, a Social Link character will call you and invite you out, and you run into other Social Link characters and can get points for multiple characters. In the Strength Social Link, you can also get books (and this is the only place to get some of the books). Some events also change depending on if you're dating multiple girls or not. This section would list which of these a character is involved in (and anything else like points / responses / books obtained).- Upon review, there aren't very many of these and there isn't much to note about them.
- (Warning: cabbage is talking about a non-P4 game.) Persona 5/Royal: When you meet up with a Confidant, you can invite them out somewhere in Tokyo based on what books Joker has read or what other places he has unlocked. Afaik, there are dates you can do this and other characters will appear and your Confidant might buy you a gift...?
Gifts
P3/P5-only. In Persona 3 and Persona 5, you can give your friends gifts. I don't quite remember all of the scenarios where you can do this. In P3, I *think* it was if you did a "generic" social link event (e.g. you didn't have enough points to rank up, so you went to do a filler event with someone to get more points), and starting in FES, you could give them gifts during the things where they call you to go hangout too...? (Or could you always do it during hangouts and I'm not remembering correctly lol...) Anyway, regardless of when you can gift things to ppl, this section will need to be a table with point values, as different gifts give different point values. For old P3 vs Reload and P5 vs Royal, I believe new gifts were added, but the existing gifts were not renamed...? In P5, you can also be given gifts (decoration for Joker's bachelor pad). Maybe what things you can get from people would be listed in this section too?
Evening Hangouts
P4G/R-only. I don't know what else to call these, but they are effectively "a thing where you talk to your Social Link but cannot rank up and they only take place during the evening hours". In P4G, you can go out at night and see your school Social Links in the shopping district. These have a bit of info to document about them: They have multiple events where you can get Social Link points (it varies by month), and then at the end you also might get an item, and there's 3 categories of items to pick from. I assume they will return for Revival, as one of the Rise scenes they demoed is her at night time?
Other Activities
I believe the above sections (linked episodes/hangouts/gifts/evening stuff) have covered the major Social Link subsystems from the games. The remaining things are the smaller events based on Social Link rank or incidental points you can get from the main story, which could just all be lumped together in some kind of "other stuff" section idk.
Examples:
- In P4, you can get multiple Social Link points from classroom stuff like giving your friends the answers to questions and bringing them certain lunches.
- In P4, you can run into 2 party members or 1 + the fox in a dungeon room and they have special dialogue based on their rank and will give you an item.
- In P3, you can run into non-SEES Social Links while walking Koromaru and get 15 points
Other Considerations for This Section
There is some stuff that is "not strictly Social Link things" but feels somewhat related and may or may not belong on a hypothetical "gameplay that is not their Persona's stats/skills" page:
Examples:
- P4G/R: Scooters. You can bring your party members on Scooter Rides to the beach or hot springs and they can learn new skills or forgotten skills. While not strictly "social link", the scooter days do have their own available days, and in the weird case of Chie and Rise and only for the date of October 23rd in Golden, their Social Link ranks are used as a tiebreaker for which one of them can ride scooters that day
- P3F onwards: Walking Koromaru with a dormmate can be affected by their Social Link status (e.g. if Yukari is Reversed) but you do not get Social Link points when you go with dormmates
- P3R: Dorm Activities. These are again technically not Social Link things, but they are other Social / non-Tartarus activities you can do with SEES to unlock new skills (e.g. brushing Koromaru).
- P3R: Linked Episodes. (Should really have its own H2 level header.)