How To Make Persona 3's Social Links Easier

 Persona 3 was when the Persona series first debuted its series of Social Links. By spending time with your friends and choosing the right answers, you could deepen your bonds and make your fused Personas of their respective Arcanas more powerful.

While it was a welcome addition to the series, there were some flaws. Not only were some of the Social Links not as well-written as those in later games, but you practically can't afford to make any mistakes if you want to do all Social Links in one playthrough. The reasons for the latter include:

• Mitsuru's Social Link becomes available in late November, and Aigis' Social Link becomes available in early January, while the game ends on January 30.
• In the original game, Social Links would eventually Reverse if you neglect them for too long(requiring you to spend a session fixing them), then Break if they are neglected for too long after that(permanently becoming unusable).
• The above is exacerbated by the "jealousy" mechanic. If you see other female Social Links, your currently active female Social Links will get jealous and their links will Reverse more quickly.
• While you can hang out with Social Links on Sundays, most of them won't result in a rank-up.
• School Social Links, which comprise the majority of Social Links, become unavailable just before exams and during summer vacation.

I have a few ideas for additions that could have made developing Social Links easier to complete.

Hanging out with Social Links outside of school.

If you think about it, Persona 3 gives you much more free time than 4 and 5 do. First, there are fewer times when your days are booked solid with story events, and you're almost always free in the evenings with a few exceptions(such as if there's a story event during the Dark Hour), although you may not always be able to go to Tartarus.  Second, dungeon-crawling only takes up the nighttime activity slot, unlike 4 and 5, in which it took up the daytime activity slot and left you too tired to do much in the evening.

As a result, allowing you to hang out with your social links during the summer and other school holidays, as well as on Sundays(when only Bunkichi and Mitsuko, Mutatsu and Akinari, the latter of whom is only available on Sundays, are the only choices) could give you dozens of free time opportunities.

Studying with S.E.E.S. members during exams

Subsequent games allowed you to spend time studying with party members. This killed two birds with one stone by giving you relationship points with them while also increasing your Knowledge statistic to help you do better on exams.

Having this system in place would enable you to spend your days before exams productively and allow you to make some progress with your S.E.E.S. Social Links, rather than spending your time studying or with non-school Social Links.

Opting out of romances

In addition to the aforementioned problems with female Social Links reversing quickly in the original and FES, there's another problem- if you want to complete all Social Links on one playthrough, you'll have to cheat on multiple girls at once.

Persona 4 and 5 are more straightforward about the romance aspect. At Rank 9, some female Social Links will drop a hint that they're interested in you, giving you a chance to reciprocate their feelings or friendzone them. As a result, you're free to remain faithful to your girlfriend of choice, pursue a "harem" route or stay celibate, making your choices feel more  meaningful.

Additionally, removing Social Links reversing over time makes managing your time easier, as you're freer to choose whichever Social Links you want to advance rather than worry about which ones might reverse if you neglect them.

It also helps those who have favorite choices among the romance options. By choosing to go out with your favorite romance option, rather than being forced to, the romantic aspect feels more meaningful, and allows for changes to the end of the Social Link or other events to reflect your being in a relationship.

More chances to do S.E.E.S. Social Links in December

December is an especially difficult time to make progress on Persona 3's Social Links for three reasons. The first is final exams. The second is winter break. The third is the fact that S.E.E.S. is distracted by what they just learned- that Nyx is coming, and they have until the end of the month to decide whether to kill Ryoji and let humanity die peacefully, or let him live and face a nearly impossible battle.

It's understandable that S.E.E.S. is feeling demoralized, but you, the player, will need your Social Links as high as possible for the coming battle, and you'll spend much of January working on Aigis' Social Link. As such, it would be best to have more opportunities to spend time with Mitsuru and any other Social Links you might not have completed by this point. Besides, some S.E.ES. members will likely seek a distraction from the difficult times, and you can see certain members talking with each other during December, so perhaps they could spare some time for your character.

Conclusion

Persona 3's Social Links were a good addition to the series, but it was clear that Atlus was still trying to figure out how to make them work. Luckily, they incorporated these changes in subsequent installments, making the road to getting 100% completion in a single playthrough an easier and more enjoyable process.