I Am Responsible for Compassion: Persona 3 Portable Part 2
The basic question from the first post about Persona 3 Portable (P3P) was looking at the question of responsibility and what does it mean to be responsible given what we know about psychology and determinism from the world of Persona 3. However, since the contract was so open-ended making it so “you are responsible for your actions and you alone will suffer the consequences”, the rest of the game story is an examination of what responsibility and choice means. This next post will focus on the choice of compassion in P3P.
Please see part 1 here.
All screenshots are taken from my PS5.
Social Link Mechanics
Friendships are difficult to build and maintain. Friendships are of vital importance in P3P, because they allow you to build higher level personas, even personas which can grow to become a higher level than the main character. Social links are also important because some help you meet new people, get you special items, and access the strongest persona in an arcana. It is also important to carry a Persona of the same Arcana (Lovers, Magician, etc.) when spending time with friends to develop stronger relationships quickly. Time management is key because there are only a limited number of days in the game to develop as many relationships as possible. Social links are shown as cutscenes where you get dialog trees to answer questions posed by your friends. Your responses will show up as one, two, or three music notes. The more music notes, the more enthusiastic your friend’s response was to your answer or present. With these in mind, let’s see some examples of stories shared by friends in social link conversations.
Guilt by Association is sometimes a cost to pay to support a friend. Saori!
Sharing personal stories of endurance and character. Rio!
Friends coming to realizations about themselves and growing. Fuuka!
Friends sharing tough advice about life. Hidetoshi!
Choosing Compassion
Friendships come in all shapes and sizes and exhibit different levels of vulnerability based upon the people involved. The images above show different characters in P3P sharing different vulnerabilities, learnings, and tough love as expressions of friendship and its growth over time. Compassion is not easy. It often means being present for difficult moments of self-reflection and journeying as well as sometimes getting dragged into messes and challenging situations. The scene with Saori is an example of being dragged into an awful conversation for associating with a non-traditionally aged student who is suspected of promiscuity. P3P has a couple of different messages about friendship than standard societal lore which I find refreshing personally.
First, friendship is always connected and honest. Everyone takes their own time to open up, but through the course of the conversations with friends, there is a honesty and compassion which arises. The MC sees her friends in a variety of good and bad situations and responds to them accordingly. Fuuka’s frustrations in cooking show her angry and impatient side, which rarely come out in other settings. The best responses are empathetic responses as they elicit the most music notes (it’s really hard to capture that snapshot sadly.) Much societal lore encourages the growth of shallow friendships as a means of getting ahead in American culture. I have always appreciated the attention to depth and honesty given in various Persona games.
Second, friendship is consistent. The growth of friendship is best done in Persona 3 by consistently responding to invitations given by friends and making time for them consistently. Each relationship has ten levels associated with different scenes. Some relationships are directly ten encounters with minimal passing through, while others require a lot more care and attention. Reverse Arcanas can also happen if you upset a friend or try to date more than one person at once, which negate the effects of your social link bonuses. Consistency and care often go hand in hand because of the mutual shared effort of building a connection.
Third, friendship is intimate, even in platonic friendships. During the level 10 dialogue there is an exchange of a gift from the character to the MC, and some declaration like the one below. In P3P, friends honestly admit their appreciation and gratitude for their friends. There are minimal vulnerability games and people say what they are feeling. This close connection is vital for people to feel a part of a community. The biggest social challenge I see in my area is the lack of community and lack of common space. Loneliness, isolation, and a willingness to harm self or others comes from not having connection in addition to mental illness. Being a warm and compassionate person is a tough choice to make daily, but seeing the interactions in P3P are a source of hope for consistent kindness.
Fuuka admitting her deep appreciation for the MC. (Friendship route)
Our Choice
Everyday we have a choice to choose compassion. Compassion is not an easy choice as it often requires us to bite our tongue, take a deep breath, and wait in vigil with others, vigil meaning a meditative, calm, patient presence. Unfortunately, we do not get music notes pop up in our field of vision confirming a positive interaction. It is hard to know what to say or not say when seeking a compassionate response. So what is our reason for being compassionate? For me, the people I love are far more important than whether I am right about anything or whether I am better than someone else at something. My mental timer goes off to check on friends when I haven’t heard from them in a while and I hold meditative space for the concerns friends bring forth. While a lot of things in my life are challenging, I know I have great friends in many places, even if I don’t get to see many people often because of the great challenge of keeping all the pieces together. In Persona you get 22 social links, and I’m impressed with how wide P3P encourages the MC’s inner circle to be. Making friends is really hard, I could maybe think of 22 people who would be my Persona Arcana links, but it would be really hard, especially for friends at the depth of friendship of Persona 3. I hope for everyone reading this that they have at least a few good social links. And if not, my heart goes out to you, because I know how difficult loneliness is, especially for extended periods.
My next post will feature insights into education as a responsibility and ending with the combat journey as the final piece for this series. Thanks for reading, and please join my email list below, or become a Patron at the Patreon link below.
