If you're going for someone out of high school, Tae Takemi is by far the best romance option. This is going by every arguable metric.
You're only there for a year,
so thinking extremely long term is foolish (and actually outright hurtful if you're being honest with yourself). You don't have time to start a relationship where your partner is just going to come up to your room to talk about the weather before leaning her head on your shoulder to call it a night. No, Tae is on another level - she implies heavily during your Rank 10 Romance conversation that you're starting on third base and she'll see where it goes from there. Oh, is that too boring for you, MC? Why not have some special "medicine". Tae is just on an entirely different level.
But what about
the Hawaii gifts? Oh you mean those garbage accessories that pale in comparison to SP Adhesive 3? No thanks. Ann. Your figurine might be cute, but nothing keeps me literally going all night like Tae's SP Adhesive 3 available at Rank 5 (discounted to half off at Rank 7, because that's just how much I get to her). And there's even enough SP Adhesive III for everyone.
Tae
is the only female confidant with a real, serious issue which also actually required the Phantom Thieves' assistance. She was developing medicine to save a human child's goddamned life, but that person's primary physician literally faked the human's death out of jealousy. This is a legit cause for heart thief intervention, and it raises the bar beyond the reach of every other female confidant.
The problems for other female confidants range from extremely to insultingly shallow in comparison,
and for everyone else you're basically playing the role of an emotional support dog. With Tae, you're saving a child's goddamned life.
Ichiko
literally has to pretend she's dating you to not get in trouble with her boss, who catches her coming out of a bar. Great role modeling there, adult. The rest of the confidant plays out like you're her unpaid intern. Oh, and how wonderful! I played along with Ichiko and now Palace Alert levels are reduced!. I just decided to play through Palaces by blindfolding myself while controlling the DS4 through two baseball gloves, so this will surely be a great benefit.
Kawakami
is the oldest romance option, and she's letting herself get manipulated harder than Makoto did - and at least Makoto, a student almost half Kawakami's age - was able to break that cycle on her own when the stakes were much more dangerous. Kawakami is a terrible human, an even more terrible teacher, and has nothing going for her besides the novelty of a teacher/maid romance.
Mifune
is an adult too but it falls on a high school student to snap her out of a cult and to stop giving horrendous, outright sexist advice to customers based on tarot readings. Out of all the confidants, she seems like the one who might actually be outright unable to manage life on her own. Helping her feels like charity work.
Togo's
biggest problem is dealing with an overbearing mother. I actually had to go into Mementos to fix that. If these are the cases the Phantom Thieves are going to take on, they need to start hiring.
Ann's
biggest issue is that modeling is hard.
Makoto's
confidant has a promising start, but then just becomes you being her bodyguard while she tries to smack sense into her dumb friend.
Futaba
is actually a decent romance option. Her arc makes sense and she's interesting. I'm not a Futaba guy but I understand those who would choose to be Futaba guys. Sure she's emotionally stunted but she has a valid reason, and she brings a unique and endearing personality to the table.
Haru
sticks with a terrible fiancé because of an obviously fabricated contract. I shouldn't have been needed to help her out of that situation. She and Mifune are both the sort who would send five thousand dollars in iTunes gift cards to a Nigerian Western Union account to try and bail out a friend suddenly calling from "a jail cell in Mexico".
Nah, the game kind of ignores that you're dating anyone out side of specific date scenes. There's one bit where a teammate (or teammates) you're dating reacts to the word
Nah, the game kind of ignores that you're dating anyone out side of specific date scenes. There's one bit where a teammate (or teammates) you're dating reacts to the word
I think the main difference you'll see is that likely there are slightly more romantic scenes with a romanced party member than with a romanced confidant.
But I don't think there are that many more. So ultimately go with what you want.
edit: you will most definitely lose at least 1 scene if you don't date someone from your school. And if you don't date a classmate, you will lose 2 scenes.
edit: you will most definitely lose at least 1 scene if you don't date someone from your school. And if you don't date a classmate, you will lose 2 scenes.
Like if we're ranking waifu based upon how viable of a life partner they are it'd be something like
Top tier: Makoto, Tae, Hifumi, Haru
All girls who are either in a well paying career or smart enough to end up in one. Also generally smart and competent where you'd feel comfortable living with them and having a family
Mid Tier: Ohya, Ann, Chifune
All decent choices but have a flaw thats hard to over look (alcoholic, moron, bumpkin) and are in careers with questionable long term financial viability. Seem like they'd be decent enough parents but might leave something to be desired.
Bottom Tier: Kawakami, Futaba
I love them but both of these girls are a hot mess in their personal life and aren't likely ever to be much help making money or raising a family.
sorry when I meant classmate, I meant as in a student at school.
If you really want to know outside of (character in game)
Haru
who is introduced way too late into the game to have some of these scenes, they are:
- If you don't date somebody from school you will miss:
Hawaii scene
except for the person above of course so read these spoilers at your own risk if you really want to avoid any dating spoilers. Fortunately for many if you date
the shogi girl
she still appears here, so I guess the assumption is that she is considered part of your school I guess.
- If you don't date a student (though not sure about the teacher, highly unlikely though but I can't confirm), you will miss the scene you can get
in the school festival
as far as I'm aware. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong though.
- If you don't date a teammate you will miss a very minor scene late game where Ryuji
asks if you want to get married in the future
and depending on your response
the teammate you are dating will react accordingly
I could be mistaken on the second one though. I mean they certaintly could have written the confidants coming in, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
sorry when I meant classmate, I meant as in a student at school.
If you really want to know outside of (character in game)
Haru
who is introduced way too late into the game to have some of these scenes, they are:
- If you don't date somebody from school you will miss:
Hawaii scene
except for the person above of course so read these spoilers at your own risk if you really want to avoid any dating spoilers. Fortunately for many if you date
the shogi girl
she still appears here, so I guess the assumption is that she is considered part of your school I guess.
- If you don't date a student (though not sure about the teacher, highly unlikely though but I can't confirm), you will miss the scene you can get
in the school festival
as far as I'm aware. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong though.
- If you don't date a teammate you will miss a very minor scene late game where Ryuji
asks if you want to get married in the future
and depending on your response
the teammate you are dating will react accordingly
I could be mistaken on the second one though. I mean they certaintly could have written the confidants coming in, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
but you can't possibly be dating her at that point in the game though right? You can't raise her confidant to at least level 9 at that point. Hell you can't really do it until after the fake capture
all the party member girl scenes play out exactly the same, haru just doesn't blush as much when you ask about a bf or say you love her. She also doesn't talk about marriage but hints at you'd be someone she can rely on. You could basically consider level 0 of her social link
- If you don't date somebody from school you will miss:
Hawaii scene
except for the person above of course so read these spoilers at your own risk if you really want to avoid any dating spoilers. Fortunately for many if you date
the shogi girl
she still appears here, so I guess the assumption is that she is considered part of your school I guess.
, it makes no difference who of the three I choose, correct? Outside of that
snippet of Ryuji dialogue
near the end, there's nothing I'll miss if I go with Tae, right?
I mean, Tae's personality & Confidant are my favorite, but Makoto is a great character in general and rides a popecycle, and Haru's Thief outfit + Confidant aren't bad either. (Not to mention it makes you feel like garbage to
sorry when I meant classmate, I meant as in a student at school.
If you really want to know outside of (character in game)
Haru
who is introduced way too late into the game to have some of these scenes, they are:
- If you don't date somebody from school you will miss:
Hawaii scene
except for the person above of course so read these spoilers at your own risk if you really want to avoid any dating spoilers. Fortunately for many if you date
the shogi girl
she still appears here, so I guess the assumption is that she is considered part of your school I guess.
- If you don't date a student (though not sure about the teacher, highly unlikely though but I can't confirm), you will miss the scene you can get
in the school festival
as far as I'm aware. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong though.
- If you don't date a teammate you will miss a very minor scene late game where Ryuji
asks if you want to get married in the future
and depending on your response
the teammate you are dating will react accordingly
I could be mistaken on the second one though. I mean they certaintly could have written the confidants coming in, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
, it makes no difference who of the three I choose, correct? Outside of that
snippet of Ryuji dialogue
near the end, there's nothing I'll miss if I go with Tae, right?
I mean, Tae's personality & Confidant are my favorite, but Makoto is a great character in general and rides a popecycle, and Haru's Thief outfit + Confidant aren't bad either. (Not to mention it makes you feel like garbage to
It's funny, because despite winning the poll, nobody has tried to convince me that Makoto's Confidant link was anything special. If it was as good as Tae's - or even Haru's - I wouldn't even have this problem, but it was so lackluster...
It's funny, because despite winning the poll, nobody has tried to convince me that Makoto's Confidant link was anything special. If it was as good as Tae's - or even Haru's - I wouldn't even have this problem, but it was so lackluster...
I'm still at the end of September and am choosing between Tae and Makoto. I'll probably go with Makoto because it seems most canon to me (only rank 6 with her so far), Tae has a great confidant story line (I'm at rank 8) but MC getting together with a fellow student who is also in your party seems more fitting. Don't tell me 7/24 scene with
I'm still at the end of September and am choosing between Tae and Makoto. I'll probably go with Makoto because it seems most canon to me (only rank 6 with her so far), Tae has a great confidant story line (I'm at rank 8) but MC getting together with a fellow student who is also in your party seems more fitting. Don't tell me 7/24 scene with
I'm still at the end of September and am choosing between Tae and Makoto. I'll probably go with Makoto because it seems most canon to me (only rank 6 with her so far), Tae has a great confidant story line (I'm at rank 8) but MC getting together with a fellow student who is also in your party seems more fitting. Don't tell me 7/24 scene with
Shit - I know, it was absolutely perfect, they have such good chemistry in general, but her Ultimate Persona design as well as her Social Link in general were a bit of a let down...
It's a game of pros / cons...
Takemi: Best Social Link of the 3 & That Rank 10 Moment... But she's not a Party Member
Makoto: Party Member with the Best Chemistry with MC in General... But she's the worst Social Link of the 3 and has a decidedly 'Eh' Ultimate Persona.
Haru: Party Member with the Best Thief Costume & a Solid Social Link... But she has that Super Soft & High-Pitched Voice and a forehead you could land a plane on.
I was set on Makoto when I started, but now I'm not so sure.
It's funny, because despite winning the poll, nobody has tried to convince me that Makoto's Confidant link was anything special. If it was as good as Tae's - or even Haru's - I wouldn't even have this problem, but it was so lackluster...
Well yea, Makoto's S-Link is kind of lackluster, but on the other hand, I already liked her personality to begin with. A S-Link more focused on her would be neat, but like, truthfully it wouldn't change much. I already know what she's like, due to the story leading up to her joining, and her numerous bits of dialogue afterwards. So for me anyways, while it would be obviously appreciated to have the best of both worlds, she doesn't need to have the best S-Link.
While characters like Tae and such need to pull out all the stops with their S-Links, since you don't hang out with them like that.
Go with Makoto. Without going into detail there is a sequence of events that takes place at the end of the game that is IMO more thematically impact (and different than the other girls) if Makoto is your girl. Its not a huge deal or anything but I think it flows better. Its clear that the game considers her the "canon" choice. Go with Makoto your first play through then do whatever for NG+.
It's interesting seeing who people say is the "canon" girlfriend. I've seen multiple answers on that and each time I wonder what it is that makes the writer so certain. I think there isn't any one obvious choice.
I never had an issue in P3 and P4 with this. In 3 I went with Mitsuru, and in 4 I went for Rise - I never regretted my choices and still like both characters to this day.
Not sure if its a mark of good quality or bad quality that I can't decide which to romance in P5.
It's interesting seeing who people say is the "canon" girlfriend. I've seen multiple answers on that and each time I wonder what it is that makes the writer so certain. I think there isn't any one obvious choice.
