Persona 3 was the first game in the Persona series to introduce social links into the mix, and what foundation it laid,Persona 3 Reloadperfects. With full animated cutscenes bringing the P3 cast to life more than any other version of the game, it’s almost hardernotto pick favorites.
And choosing which of the girls you’d like to date in Persona 3 Reload can be tricky when they’re all fantastic in their own ways. Who you pick is ultimately up to you, but between difficulty and story, here are our picks for the best romance options in P3R.
7Chihiro Fushimi
Treasured Treasurer
Gekkoukan’s student council treasurer Chihiro Fushimi is your Justice social link in Persona 3 Reload, but it’ll take you some time before you can begin hanging out with this incredibly shy girl. In fact, you’ll need to speak to her on three separate occasions before she’ll spend time with you, but cut her some slack – she slowly but surely reveals a tormented home life.
Throughout her social link, you’ll help Chihiro find the confidence she needs to not only begin making friends and breaking out of her shell, but to stand up for herself against false accusations. We’ve put her this low on her list, though, because not only does it take a while to start her social link, her shyness makes her easy to miss at the beginning of the game. By the time you realize you’re able to hang out with her, you may already be dating someone else.
6Misturu Kirijo
Junpei Thinks She’s Got A “Step On Me” Vibe
Don’t get us wrong here – we absolutely love Mitsuru Kirijo, who serves as your Empress social link in Persona 3 Reload, but she has an awful lot on her plate already without worrying about us. She’s Gekkoukan High’s student council president, one of the lead members of SEES, and she’s still pretty closely tied to her father’s company – we won’t spoil why that one’s a dealbreaker for us.
Not only did we put Mitsuru this low on our list of Persona 3 Reload romance options because of the lore, though, but she has a pretty tough skill lock before you can even begin her social link. You’ll need to have maxed your Academics stat before she deigns to spend time with you, a tough task, given everything else you have going on. Mitsuru is a smart lady herself, and that’s no dig at her - we just worry we may not be smart enough to compete.
5Yukari Takeba
Call Her Cupid
An incredibly popular girl at Gekkoukan and prominent member of its archery team, Yukari Takeba is much more than meets the eye. And while rumors start on the first day of school that there’s something between the two of you, it’s not until over the summer that you’re able to begin dating Yukari.
After receiving a letter from her deceased father that unravels a thread in a mystery Yukari has given everything to pursue, so when youdoget to date Yukari, you’ll be helping this sad girl to confront and move on from her past. The only thing keeping her in this half of our social link is that, given her notable popularity at school, you’ll need to have maxed your Charm stat to have the charisma to date her.
4Fuuka Yamagishi
Navigation And Nutrition
Although she’s perhaps the SEES teammate you hear from the most in Persona 3 Reload, Fuuka Yamagishi is sort of tough to start talking to outside of Tartarus. She doesn’t unlock as a social link until the middle of June, after the second Full Moon battle against Emperor and Empress when you save her life and even then, it’s only provided that you’ve raised your Courage to max level.
But once you come to know Fuuka, you get to know her are more than the bullied girl-turned teammate. Fuuka has a soft heart and genuinely cares for those around her, as evidenced by her befriending the girl who unintentionally locked her inside Tartarus and taking time out of her day to feed the bevy of animals you’ll meet around Port Island.
3Yuko Nishiwaki
Because Bashful Is Precious
Sure, Yuko’s social link is technically not so straightforward – you’ll need to join the track team at Gekkoukan, befriend the team captain, and talk to Yuko after practice not once but twice – but once you get her talking, it can be tough to get her to stop. Yuko is maybe more adorably awkward than any other social link before or since.
There are plenty of times as you rank up the Strength social link that Yuko makes it fairly obvious that she’s interested in you right from the start, after declaring she’s single now after telling you about an unkind ex-boyfriend or all but putting her foot in her mouth when the neighborhood kids you two train together refer to you as her boyfriend. She’s not very good at hiding her crush on us, and we don’t want her to be.
2Elizabeth
Dance Your Heart Out
Although you might be able to hang out with your Velvet Room attendants in some way in other games, Elizabeth was the first time you could actually date one of them. Her romance is anything but traditional for a Persona game, swapping a social link you need to rank up with Velvet Room requests you’ll need to complete, which, tied to your Compendium completion, unlocks new hangout scenes.
When you take Elizabeth out on dates, you get to see the pure wonder and whimsy of someone experiencing the world for the very first time, articulate enough to explain why she’s transfixed. The fully animated cutscenes in Persona 3 Reload shine more with some other characters, and watching Elizabeth groove outside Club Escapade and risk bodily harm for takoyaki makes her indispensable.
1Aigis
A Connection Like No Other
There’s a reason Aigis is so magnetically drawn to your protagonist when you first meet her during the Yakushima trip after your finals before summer break – we won’t spoil anything for you in our list if you haven’t completed the game yet, but your protagonist’s connection to Aigis is one of the deepest in the series. And a love that pure can’tnottake the top spot.
Outside the tethered fate, Aigis takes what we loved about watching Elizabeth experience the world and takes it to a whole new level. Some of the voice lines she has throughout daily life and inside Tartarus have cracked us up wholeheartedly - watching a robot experience life as a human for the first time is incredible. We’d spend the rest of our lives with her any day.
