Caution: Minor spoilers for Persona 3
RPGs are full of many surprises. Sometimes players are faced with the most difficult choices, and it is these choices that we often may regret if our cards are not played correctly. This is especially true of RPGs with simulation elements, as these games can actually produce feelings of guilt within the player. Yet, the best part about dating in a console RPG is that you never have to fear rejection.
Wait. Scratch that: You never have to face real rejection.
Ah, dating! In the RPG world you are difficult, but in the real world you are even MORE difficult! Unlike RPGs, dating in "Real Life" does have some fantastic perks that I feel do not need to be discussed. Use your imagination people - you can figure it out without being told.
For those people who are not interested in Harvest Moon's desire for monogamy, Persona 3 is a game that allows the player multiple girlfriends providing that the requirements are met. No, this editorial will not be a comparison of sim aspects between the two games, as that would be rather unfair. Instead, I plan to discuss why I find dating fascinating and difficult in RPGs.
Recently over Facebook, I got into a conversation with former staff member, Oliver Motok, and we discussed my dating progress in Persona 3. Oliver stated 'I wasn't on the ball' about this, and he was quite right.
To my excitement, I completed Persona 3 having only successfully wooed two women. As a joke I stated to one of my friends that I would do the impossible – I was going to successfully date Mitsuru Kirijo, and I was going to make her fall head over heels in love with me. My friends and I dubbed Mitsuru to be the "impossible catch" because she is stereotyped as the difficult rich girl who is naive about dating and ignorant of fast food.
One intriguing thing about the game is the potential dating partners are very stereotypical, but it's something we begin to ignore as we get deeper into the Social Links. For example, Chihiro is the quiet and shy girl who loves books, whereas Yuko is the more energetic and proactive. Instead, Persona 3 is a game that allows the player to shape and essentially be the voice of their Main Character. This means that depending on personal preference, the player will gradually gravitate to certain bachelorettes more than others based on the player's interests or personality.
Persona 3 allows the player to have multiple encounters with different women to the point, where successfully wooing one woman is likely to shock another with the green eye of jealousy. While dating one girl, there is always the chance that another one is ready to call the Main Character's bluff. The girls that are encountered are able to generate different emotions depending on the situations that occur. I know from my experience that every time I reversed a Social Link, I always felt a pang of guilt because my personal interest with one girl was always higher than that of another. Then again, I always liked to make every situation as intimate as possible. Perhaps this was the error in my ways.
For example, I decide that I want to date Yukari, except that I haven't had a date with Fuuka in a month. In order to win Fuuka back once her Arcana reverses, I have to place myself into a very awkward situation where the responses I am presented with all carry negative implications in some way. Even the correct response still has a negative connotation, which is why this is thankfully a game and not "Real Life". Let's face it, if you were dating a girl and you happen to have gotten yourself into a pickle, chances are that changing the subject will not score you points at winning her back, because she would likely assume that you are avoiding the subject. In most cases, changing the subject never solves a problem.
Truth be told, I played the sim aspects with only one goal in mind: I had to have Mitsuru. There was no way around it. I wanted her simply because as my Main Character progressed, I continued to image what kind of sexual frustration he might have been suffering, living in a dormitory with three intensely beautiful women. As the conversation continued, Oliver suggested I had settled for less, and I could not disagree. This stubbornness has never manifested itself when I play a game like Harvest Moon or Rune Factory and the reason for this might be because the bachelorettes of these games come across as cardboard cut-outs instead of actual human beings.
I think what ultimately fascinates me about the use of simulation in Persona 3 is that it encourages you to forge multiple relationships that you watch develop. It's looking at a real life situations and it's forcing the player to build time management skills so that proper time can be allotted to each Social Link. The more you progress in the game, the more difficult it is to keep each relationship afloat. The game also encourages polygamy in order for the player to become the best virtual pimp possible. How many games can actually say they encourage the player to have polygamous relationships?
Much like dating in "Real Life", Persona 3 picks on the teenage tropes of adolescence, and demands that the player to bring his/her A-game to some of the most difficult situations. Truth be told, if I only wooed two women, I'm pretty sure that Kazuya (my MC) made a pretty pathetic pimp.
There's something about dating that is so challenging. We as people want to be seen in an "attractive" light, and yet it's something that people everywhere struggle with. Even in a game like Persona 3, the player essentially has to make his/her Main Character attractive to the bachelorette(s) of interest, and often many of the responses or actions can be misleading. Sometimes the response that the player thinks might be the correct answer is usually the response that can drastically transform the player's relationship with that character in a bad way. For example, if your relationship isn't that intimate with Yukari, there is a good chance the player can reverse the Social Link simply by hugging her. In fact, the game makes it really difficult to keep up with relationships without harming the feelings of someone else, and if you choose the wrong response to repair the link, you have to build the relationship all over again. However, I'm sure most of us were smart enough to save beforehand, so usually a quick reset is in order.
Regardless of the situations, the dating aspect of Persona 3 makes going to school far more pleasurable than an evening romp in Tartarus. What I am sure of is that, unlike Oliver, I am the worst virtual pimp ever.
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