Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5's Social Links' Rank 11

Under normal circumstances, Social Links in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona franchise are a series of 10 scenes long.  Among the many features and quirks of the post-game adventure added for the rerelease of Persona 5, however, is the opportunity to have a new, eleventh rank with the game’s party members, provided that the player has fully maxed out the Social Link prior to the end of the game’s main adventure.  Social Links tend to be my favorite parts of a Persona, and I’m quite fond of most of SMTP5’s main cast, so this was certainly 1 of the parts of the post-game adventure which I most anticipated.  But unfortunately, they’re by and large disappointing, and are the most tacked-on feeling part of the rerelease’s new content.

Here’s the first main problem: these eleventh rank scenes are almost* completely uniform across the cast.  Every party member during the game underwent his or her own individually-tailored side story of personal growth for each one’s Social Link, and these vignettes within the larger tale served well as a way of further characterizing the game’s cast beyond just their role in the events of the main plot.  The Social Link for Haru, in which she works to find her place and future in her company and learns how to believe in her goal of sharing the bounties of the world with others, is completely different from the Social Link for, say, Futaba, whose story is focused on her overcoming her social anxiety, and through doing so making peace with her mother’s passing.  From Yusuke sorting himself out through his art to Ryuji finding a way to positively conclude and move forward from his history with the track team to the jumbled, directionless mess that is Ann’s Social Link, each major character’s subplot is distinctly true to them, and would very obviously fit none of the others.

And yet with the necessary exceptions of Yoshizawa and that asshat Akechi, the eleventh Social Link scene for the rest of Ren’s friends is in all significant ways the same across the board!  Each time, the companion invites Ren to her/his room, saying that she/he needs to talk seriously with him.  Once there, the important, heartfelt discussion is basically a sincere, fervent apology that the party member allowed her/himself to be caught in Maruki’s illusion, and a solemn oath to never leave Ren hanging like that again.  At this point, the friend awakens to her/his third and final Persona form, you either giggle or roll your eyes at how immensely dumb/silly/underwhelming said Persona looks, and they part ways.  

It’s really disappointing, honestly.  While each companion may reference previous moments of her/his Social Link and the way Ren was there for her/him, this final, extra scene clearly has no real connection to the events that preceded it.  This scene doesn’t feel like a new iteration of this person’s story, it feels like a fucking form letter, and that’s precisely how the writers use it!

And in addition to how impersonal and lazy this sence-repeated apology is, it’s also honestly really freaking dumb.  All of Ren’s friends are like, “I am so, SO sorry I wasn't there for you my bra!  That was my B, totes won’t happen again.  Seriously, I am more personally ashamed of myself than I have ever been before at the way that I BETRAYED you like that, dawg!”  Like, somehow, feeling guilty over this supposed offense they’ve committed against Ren is a more powerful and life-changing event than the entirety of their shared 10-part Social Link story that preceded this moment.  The clouds having parted for Makoto and revealed what she wants to do with her life, how she will honor her father’s memory and integrity and do right by herself and those she cares about, was apparently a less important part of her life in Rank 10 than her pledging to have Ren’s back next time in Rank 11.  Yusuke coming to understand the complexity of the human heart and discovering his purpose as an artist was somehow less of a milestone within his psyche than his decision to say “I got you my G.”  If you’re gonna have a scene that unleashes a new, greater cognitive will within a character as their heart and mind reach a new level of clarity, it had goddamn better be based on more than a copy-pasted apology!

A copy-pasted apology over nothing, I might add.  Let us not forget the foundation for this massive self-recrimination: when a guy came and asked these kids whether they thought their lives could be better, they said yes.  With the guilt they’re carrying around and the gravity of their apologies, you’d think the Phantom Thieves had all taken part in an Ides-of-March stabbing spree against Ren or something.  Guys, for 3 of you, the transgression you’re agonizing over was Maruki passing you a note that read “Would you like your parents to be alive again?” with a spot underneath for you to check Yes or No.  Like, Jesus, Ann, you’re apologizing and asking forgiveness because when asked, you agreed that yes, it would be pretty cool if the person you love most in the world hadn’t been in such suffering that she’d tried to end her life!  I think the fact that Yusuke’s wish that his father figure hadn’t turned out to be a plagiarizing manipulating dirtbag leading to art-boy briefly detaching from Ren’s combat party for a week or 2 deserves, at most, a “Whoopsy, sorry I got tricked. No worries, I’m up to speed now.”

It’s not even like it was a conscious decision they made!  Maruki just dropped everyone into this happier reality sans preamble or explanation, and at least some level of hypnotic influence was involved in the matter!  Futaba’s over here consumed with shame for supposedly betraying Ren just because when she woke up to a world where her mother hadn’t been killed before her eyes, with an actual layer of mind control telling her that this was normal reality, she didn’t immediately recoil in disgust and holler, “NO WAY JOSE, I PREFER MY MOM DEAD THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”  Like, you can, with some time and thought, reason your way to understanding that Maruki’s seemingly perfect reality of escapism isn’t the right answer to one’s problems no matter how well-meaning, but without some introspection on the matter to figure out what’s wrong with it, accepting the gift of having the worst moments of your life erased is a pretty natural knee-jerk reaction, certainly nothing to beat yourself up over!

What instigated this angst, anyway?  It’s not like Ren’s been particularly hurt or inconvenienced by it.  They still came riding to his rescue when he needed them most.  It’s not like he’s been taking his friends to task over this matter; all of Ren’s dialogue options when reminding his allies that this reality isn’t right were pretty neutral, as is typical of the guy, or even slightly apologetic for having to drag them away from a happier existence.  Ren hasn’t been acting upset about his friends being initially misled by Maruki.  And frankly, if the guy HAD been getting salty about Ryuji getting to return to his dreams of success and acceptance as a track star, or Haru being able to see what life would have been like if her father had actually loved her, then he would’ve been overreacting and being a shitty friend.  Even if it’s for their own good, it’s Ren’s friends who are giving up something major in their lives to come back and fight at his side again, so I don’t know why they’re all apologizing like HE’S the injured party here!

There was a better way to do this.  I mean, okay, several better ways, the best of which being not to have a 1-size-fits-all scene slapped onto 7 highly different people and instead just have each character’s Rank 11 actually BE a continuation of their Social Link, a new and significant conclusion that actually warrants an awakening to their final and ultimate Persona.  But if Atlus was going to insist on running the final Social Link installments through a mimeograph, there was still a way to make it a less downright silly, illogical matter.  Instead of having Ren’s friends prostrating themselves in anguished repentance before him over nothing, how about instead, the eleventh Social Rank scene is Ren apologizing to them for the fact that he’s made them choose between a painless reality, and his own ideals of facing the world as it is and overcoming adversity rather than fleeing from it.

Think about how much better and more sensible this is.  THEY are the ones who have given something up, even if, again, it IS for the best in the long run, in order to support Ren.  Ren is the one who spurred them to face this question of which reality is right.  And it was for Ren’s sake that they first bucked Maruki’s influence.  Rather than them feeling like they’ve wronged him, Ren is the one who more naturally should feel the need to apologize to them, even if he is, indeed, in the right of the matter.  And from there, you can have Ren’s friend reassure Ren that he doesn’t need to apologize, because the friend now understands why they have to stand against Maruki and that giving up that painless reality was for the better.  Finally, the friend reaffirms that they’re with Ren all the way, acknowledging that the friendship he and they share is so great that nothing can keep them from being there for each other for long.  With this new understanding of just how deep their bonds of friendship (and/or romance) go, the friend’s third and greatest Persona awakens, and they and Ren part ways, more sure than ever of their commitment to and support for one another.  It’s no literary masterwork, to be sure, but it’s still an easy scenario that I just concocted off the top of my head that would work far better logically and emotionally than the nonsense we got!

Honestly, I have very few significant complaints about Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 5, be it the game’s main story or the added postgame adventure.  It’s an excellent title in nearly every capacity.  But if I had to name Persona 5’s most glaring fault, it would be...well, okay, it would be the fact that it tries to pretend that Akechi is anything more than a shallow, irredeemable asswipe.  But the second fault would be...well, alright, that would probably be the fact that it didn’t know when to quit in its main story and the whole Holy Grail thing was a way, way less appropriate, compelling, and satisfying main villain than Shido would have been.  But look, the eleventh Social Link situation is at least still way up there when it comes to SMTP5’s few real shortcomings.  It’s a weak and disinterested approach to each main character’s last spotlight moment in the game as it reduces them all to a single format, it’s emotionally inconsistent as it cheapens previous emotional breakthroughs by attaching their greatest awakenings to such a mediocre and routine interaction, and the context makes the content of these scenes irrational, even silly.  The eleventh Social Link ranks in SMT Persona 5 were handled poorly, plain and simple.












* Yoshizawa and Akechi do, at least, get eleventh rank scenes that are somewhat more tailored to their actual Social Link stories.  Although Yoshizawa's’s is only so-so, and Akechi’s is on-brand for Akechi, as in it’s mostly just him being a douchebag as Ren pretends that there’s some hidden significance to it.