Persona 5: Royal just finally released in the US at the end of March, and we've been sinking all our time into it, good and bad. There are new Persona, new dungeons, new story elements, and new Confidants. The Confidants, in particular, feel even better, as this mechanic has been the backbone of every Persona game. In previous titles, they were called Social Links, and P5 is the only one that uses this new naming convention. Anyway, we looked at some of the best. Though, we kept it to non-playable characters, as we felt those S-Links had some unfair advantages.
10 Best: P3's Sun Arcana: Akinari Kamiki
The themes of "Death" and "Finality" both play a large part in the overall concept of Persona 3. The whole game has a lot of moody blues in the visual design and music, plus each character has some really awful stuff that happened to them. But, the best social link by far in this game (not within the main cast) has to be the Sun Arcana. Akinari Kamiki is a terminally ill boy, who's social link is so bittersweet and sad that we don't want to even ruin how you're meant to experience it. Long story short, it's just about a teenage kid having to deal with the fact that he's going to die, and the minor victories before the end.
9 Worst: P3's Moon Arcana: Nozomi Suemitsu
The "Gourmet King" of Persona 3 is a shallow attempt at an even more basic idea. And, it's annoying to even unlock! First of all, the MC has to have enough charm to distract young Nozomi from his food, a theme they'll beat us over the head with during this entire social link. Nozomi talks about food, quizzes us about food, talks about food he's planning to eat, or just offhandedly mentions the cult he's in that believes the world is going to end soon. It's a confusing mess of a Social Link that starts out bad and ends stupid. Not huge fans of it.
8 Best: P4's Hierophant Arcana: Ryotaro Dojima
Dojima is one of Persona 4's best characters, hands down. Frankly, Atlus usually does a fantastic job writing older characters, so we're not sure why every entry has to take place in High School. In any case, Dojima is a man who lost his wife, has too much work at all times, and doesn't know how to bond with his daughter anymore.
Throughout the Social Link, he figures out how to start moving on, how important balancing work and his personal life is, and how important the main protagonist is to him. It's an incredibly well-written and sweet Social Link.
7 Worst: P4's Sun Arcana: Yumi Ozawa & Ayane Matsunaga
Not much to say about these two, they both just aren't nearly as good as all the other Social Links in P4: Golden. You get the choice to bond with one or the other depending on which club you join, Drama or Band. First off is Yumi, who seems obsessive about Drama then even more obsessive about her father who reappeared back into her life. Her Social Link is interesting but odd, and the suddenly romantic feelings at the end feel forced. The same goes for Ayane, who's social link revolves entirely around her timid personality that doesn't at all change by the time the Link is maxed. Both of them are decently written, but weaker in comparison to most of the other characters.
6 Best: P5's Temperance Arcana: Sadayo Kawakami
Kawakami has to be the most popular Confidant in Persona 5, which is both hilarious and sort of twisted. It's a relationship players can build entirely built around hiring their High School Teacher at night to be a "maid" for them. Frankly, if the MC was a female character and the teacher was male, it would be much darker. But, we can't help but admit that a lot of the conversations between the deflated Kawakami and Joker are hilarious and genuine (especially in the animated series) and that it kept us on our toes all the way until the Link was maxed.
5 Worst: P5's Devil Arcana: Ichiko Ohya
Ohya is another older woman that Joker can go for in Persona 5, but this time not nearly as interesting. We can sum up Ichiko Ohya in just a few short words. She's an alcoholic. Plain and simple.
That's about the brunt of her Social Link. And, the benefits that unlock from ranking up her Confidant are almost entirely pointless! It's a mediocre Link with an awful Skill that doesn't feel gratifying at any point throughout.
4 Best: P5's Hanged Man Arcana: Munehisa Iwai
Munehisa Iwai is a straight-up criminal. The guy left the Yakuza life behind but was forced back into it. Our path throughout his Confidant link is to convince him to open up to his adopted son Kaoru and to fight back against the man named Tsuda. Over the course of the Link, Iwai really opens up to both Kaoru and Joker, all while maintaining this intimidating atmosphere. It has the same parental bonding that the Dojima social link has, but with a bit more danger thrown in. Plus, his perks along the way are awesome.
3 Worst: P4's Tower Arcana: Shu Nakajima
This social link is just lame! We're solving Murders here. You know, fighting against magical Shadows and summoning our inner selves? We don't have time to be worrying about some dorky kid and his problems over cheating on a test.
Alright, that's not totally fair, the Nakajima Social Link is fine, some people even hold it in high regard. We, personally, just didn't get much out of it in comparison to all the other fantastic S-Links in P4 and P4: G. It just feels like a social link made for a game thats a bit more centered in reality and not one based around shooting yourself in the head to summon ghosts, you know?
2 Best: P3's Star Arcana: Mamoru Hayase
Mamoru Hayase is another one of the characters in Persona 3 that pushes the theme of change forward. Not everything works out like you want, in fact, most things work out in the opposite way. Mamoru was the star athlete in whatever Sport the protag chooses to play. He's going to get any scholarship he wants and he gets mad at the other Club members for not practicing hard enough. One his mother collapses from exhaustion, Mamoru has to change his entire life to take care of his family. It's absolutely unfair, but thats how life works out sometimes, and Mamoru learns to adapt throughout his S-Link. He doesn't become a sports star, which would be the stereotypical ending, and for that, we felt the S-Link was really Unique.
1 Worst: P5's Moon Arcana: Yuuki Mishima
Yuuki Mishima was one of our favorite Social Links/Confidants for a long time. The kid really admired the Phantom Thieves, had gone through some rough stuff and was working to better himself. But, as more time passed after maxing his Social Link, we started to realize that Mishima is kind of an over-obsessive creep. He stalks the Phantom Thieves, pins all his hopes on others instead of working on himself, and uses forums terms like "kek" in real life. Mishima is an interesting character that would've been even better as part of the playable cast, though even then he'd be low in the ranks.