Is This Persona's Worst Social Link? 

Calling hanako an antagonistic force makes her sound so threatening lmao

The nikocado Avocado s-link. When I played P3 some years ago I never thought how a person could get a cult from simply reviewing food until the rise of food youtubers.

I always liked doing this link in December cause it fits around the time the nyx cult starts becoming relevant.

My most memorable moment with Nozomi was when he MOONWALKED into a restaurant

Meanwhile FemC's Moon link is Shinjiro... You vs the person she tells you not to worry about

I think it goes unnoticed that a lot of Persona 3's social links are people you wouldn't want to hang out with, or at least people an edgy teenager like the male protagonist wouldn't want to hang out with. There's a teacher who bitches about her job all the time, a dumbass that thinks his teacher is in love with him, a drunk monk, a naggy student council vice-president, and a greedy CEO. And I think this is intentional, one of the main themes of Persona 3 is about overcoming apathy by forming relationships with others, and it therefore makes sense that it would be challenging for the protagonist to want to form those bonds. With Nozomi the fact that he's so abrasive to you at the start and that you might not initially want to hang out with him falls in line with this and I probably wouldn't change that. But pretty much everything else this video mentions I agree with- He needs a better goal to work towards and there needs to be some reason to start caring about him midway through.

To quote my incredibly wise friend; “If villain bad, why hot?”

No wonder Nozomi is available every day of the week, no one would hang out with him if his schedule conflicted with other, better links.

Nozomi redeems himself at the end of the game. When you find out he's going off to far flung places to be a professional chef/ food critic; I was like: "That asshat actually got his shit together"

I really like this. I'd be happy to see more. Not necessarily "best" or "worst" but just a social link review.

Kotone’s Moon S-link: the best character, completing allows you to get a secret ending. Makoto’s Moon S-link: Nikocado Avocado.

This video has made me realize that Nozomi is just MovieBob

bit of a hot take, but i actually liked nozomi's social link. growing up, i knew a lot of kids like him from broken homes - their parents didn't care about them, their houses were a mess, they were always talking themselves up and lying about dumb shit. it made me have a bit of a soft spot for him b/c i could immediately see through the facade. the act he puts up is a self-defense mechanism to keep people from bullying him but it leaves him completely alone. no friends, a family that uses him to indoctrinate people into a cult, and you are the one person that has the patience to stick around through all his bullshit so he can finally open up to you and tackle his problems. i think that's sort of beautiful in a way. not going to say the link is perfect - it obviously has its lows and frankly should have the option to not intervene when he gets cornered by the guys he scammed (for the people that hate his guts lol). however i think his character is well-written and accurately depicts the sort of person the devs are trying to portray. plus if you rank him high early you can wreck shit with auto-taru/raku/sukukaja yamato-no-orochi and that's just plain fun

This correlating people's attractiveness with their morals is actually in psychology. Funnily enough, it's even talked about in one of Marukis lessons in Royal. Its name is the halo effect. Basically if someone's good looking they're more likely to get a lighter sentence if convicted of anything and you're more likely to think of them better. It's why you're expected to 'dress up nice' in front of a judge or when making an impression.

I think the moon S links are one of the ones that are made to be unlikeable at first. This runs true with Mishima and Ai as well, however they're much more redeemable (with Mishima being an honest character who's just kinda annoying being a fanboy and all to the p5 cast) Edited for the comments to this comment: I still like Ai by the end of her S link and I'm pretty alright with Mishima throughout the game, Nozomi's a little irredeemable tho lol

I feel like the only person who doesn't mind Nozomi. From the beginning I felt he was odd and rude, but at the same time I was just curious and taken away with his weird fantasy. I felt like listening to him and I guess I could also feel how lonely he was. I maxed him out on my first playthrough, not my favorite social link, but not one I disliked. I really felt bad for the guy, especially the ending. I also personally sympathized with his loneliness and fantasy of wishing to live in a paradise at the time. The money stealing was all bad though there's nothing I can say to defend that. With all that said I get why nobody likes him. I don't know why I kinda do.

So I played P3P as FeMc, so had a Shinjiro instead. However, Nozomi sounds like a really solid representation of a Moon social link in a Tarot sense, actually. The Moon is a really vague card, and is basically about having no idea what to do. The way forward isn't clear, you don't have enough information to make an informed decision, and you feel really stuck and lost. From your summary of it, that sounds like Nozumi lol. Having him gain clarity by the end, even in a vague sort of way would actually be a good way to keep with the themes of the card itself. That said, making it an interesting story to play through is a whole different beast.

I died when you wanted make social links' goal's explicit: SURVIVE.

Nozomi: Learns nothing, teaches nothing, and is just there to be there. Shinji was a better Moon S-Link.... minus the end reward.

The moment where he moonwalked was lit though

Honestly, the only thing I really liked about this social link is in the ending seeing that despite the kind of person he is, he still had a positive effect on people in some way. Anyways, when are we getting a video on the Sun link and how great it is?

I think the only thing about your iea of reworking Nozomi's S-Link is the fact that making his personal redemption linked to weight-loss further plays into the common trope of "unattractive" (read: fat) characters being villainous. But I think a lot of really good ideas are being presented here, thanks for the video!

the first time i beat persona 3 the moon arcana was the only optional social link i maxed. so when the finale came that flashed to all your maxed links, the game was like "All your friendships are giving you power!" it flashed to nozomi and he was like "man that guy sure gave me some good food" and it just immediately flashed back to the battle. I died laughing.

Holy fuck. I remember doing this social link. Nozomi's angry portrait looks like he's going to murder someone lol

The point I think is the realism. Not everyone is gonna be likable. And unlikable people often become unlikable because of pain and failure, loss of confidence, regret, bitterness, etc. And just like in real life, most people would write those people off and not give them a chance to learn why they are the way they are. The argument "because I didnt have fun doing it and he annoys me, it isnt a good social link" I dont think holds water. Social links highlight all kinds of people and the journeys they go through in life. Theres no such thing as "too little too late" anyone can make a change at any point in their life and the fact that the MC helps him make that change is the real focus of his social link. The fact that it happens at rank 10 just highlights the fact that his issues were harder to work through for him and he's more difficult of a person than most. Tl;dr might not be the most fun social link for the player but that doesnt mean it is bad. Narratively it makes perfect sense and the talk of how it could have been "done right" reeks of the same pompousness as the people who "fix" other people's art on twitter.

2BFP taught me that if you do bad things, but happen to be hot, you're not evil, just morally grey. If you happen to be both ugly and bad, then you don't get to be morally grey.

As a trash and unattractive person, i always make sure to hang out with Nozomi whenever i see him available when i am at the mall

Now I lowkey hope for Nozomi to cameo in a future Persona game as a totally jacked and charismatic dude who gives Zyzz style advice to the player with no explanation for how he came out like this decades later.

Idunno seeing some weird dude nearly shit himself sounds kinda funny ngl

On the subject of attractiveness being associated with morality while it's not entirely true like all generalizations, it is human nature to do that, and people who are in good shape tend to have better mental health as well so it's not something we've evolved to think without cause. It works in reverse too actually if someone is rather disheveled looking but clearly demonstrates that they have a good heart it will affect people's cognition about how they look in a way, good example being Mother Theresa, not much to look at but her good nature kinda casts a glamour that makes her seem beautiful regardless. The same is true with evil that seems fair, if someone's damned good looking but demonstrably evil they will look ugly in the eyes of the beholder despite nothing actually changing about their outward appearance.

I thought of you while I farted man is a legend!

I really like "Make your choice, western man"

Now sad that p3 robbed us of gekkoukan body improvement club

Damn I always forgot this one. I always pictured persona 3 with the best social links cause of the tower and sun social links but this one is definitely not one of the best out there

P3 Reload didn't help this boy one bit. Now his insufferable ass is fully voiced.

The worst part is that he barely gets any better. I was fine with the other links involving people who have crippling character flaws because they improved drastically towards the end. It's a hopeful message. Nozomi starts as a wretched person and ends as only a slightly less wretched person.

If you need a pretty decent character that's overweight who is actually treated like a friend and ally in the persona series, Miyabi Hanakouji is your best bet

Think of the other Moon Arcana in the series. P2 - Maya Amano P3P - Shinjiro Aragaki (FeMC Route) P4 - Ai Ebihara P5 - Yuuki Mishima This guy is kind of slap in the face of an otherwise solid series of Arcana lol.

As a fat guy it saddens me that writers often forget that, contrary to popular believe, we DO have feelings.

"He's not winning the most attractive Persona character award anytime soon" speak for yourself!

Nozomi's arcana is The Moon, which usually symbolizes deception. I thought it was fitting with the way he initially appeared to be a fat guy that you eat out with and gradually reveals that he's actually trying to get you to join a cult.

"Make your choice, Western man" Hooo my god I had to take a breather I was laughing so hard

If he learnt his lesson at the end and went out of his way to right his wrongs and apologize to Makoto for being a jerk, then his SL would've been way better.

Man it's good to be back to reviewing Social Links, but especially nice to see some from other games! I hope we can see more bad Social Link reviews honestly, I don't hear too much about the bad ones in each game

I actually like this social link. He's sad cuz of his brother's death, a brother who was so great that he could never live up to those expectations. His cult was him trying to live up to some kind of greatness, as well as hurt "all the people who are better than him" (everyone). He's lonely and eats to make himself happy. He feels like a disappointment to his parents and that goes into his social life yet he always had this talent to accurately judge great tasting food, a talent that no one cares about because it's not a healthy hobby. This is also shown in your video where you suggest that he go on a weight loss adventure in order to better himself. He always had something no one else did, a refined taste that no other compares too. But again it's put down because it's not a healthy hobby. Putting him down in the process. Nozomi was always great. Just not at something the collective mass valued. He just needed to find and value his own greatness for himself. All in all, I liked him. He's flawed character that shows that when people aren't valued or valuing themselves that in their grief they could go to extremes like starting a cult.

Here's the thing as well - there are several Social Links that primarily revolve around going to get food together - it's a common pasttime in Japan where restaurants are plentiful and cheap. A lot of ranks with Yosuke have you stop for food at Junes or Souzai Daigaku. It's just that Nozomi is basically a running fat joke that isn't funny. I agree with moving the 'my brother died' conversation forward, and I don't even think he needs to lose the cult stuff, but maybe having him fall INTO the cult halfway through? Cults are good for drama and prey on the vulnerable (see Chihaya), and a DOomsday cult is a major plot point in late-game P3. For example: Early SL, you go out for food a lot, he's confrontational about it, about rank 4 he explains about his dead brother and how he feels like the only thing he's good at is eating, resolves to improve his image, rank 5 he mentions finding a support network (it's really the cult), by rank 7 he's worried he's being indoctrinated because of his low self esteem, rank 8 they're pushing him to extort money from others, protag helps him get out in rank 9, rank 10 is musing about the whole affair and Nozomi realising that he needs to work on his self image if he wants to be a better person. This way we have an initial conflict (he eats to escape his feelings of inadequacy), an initial resolution (he decides to stop the overeating thing), a new crisis emerges (he falls in with the doomsday cult - after all, it's easier to feel better about yourself if you're one of the Chosen Ones who will survive the Apocalypse and ascend to Paradise), he realises he's in too deep and needs help, he resolves the new crisis, and finally enlightenment where he realises what he is and what he needs to do to improve further. I guess this got a bit long, but if I was at Atlus, this is how I would have written Nozomi Suemitsu.

The fact this was overshadowed by Shinjiro in the Female route made him a worse character. Fixing his S. Link could be done in Portable, though.

I mean... It's a price we must pay for orpheus telos

I don't care how bad his story is, the dude moonwalks into a shop. He's great

if you ever do another one of these you should review the Devil Arcana with Ohya in P5 since a lot of people seem to bash on it

I didn't think he was that bad but like Mishima and Ai, they didn't exactly show any likable qualities until they got better upon finding worth in themselves not to mention said unlikable qualities were pretty realistic in a teenager with weak self esteem that they delude themselves with bad coping mechanisms, projection of their fears and faults onto others and/or try and present themselves as an ideal person that people can accept because they can't accept themselves.

I don't think that moon arcana in Persona 3 FES has reached the status of just being hated for no reason . I mean it was almost physically painful for me to go through that social link the first time I played the game , so that should speak volumes about it

Nozomi’s social link is learning to deal with and understand someone who is insecure. It’s not “bad” social link: you just learn a new perspective, like all other social links

I had no idea he was so hated. I thought he was a pretty ok social link, there were definitely others that annoyed me more. I feel like his social link was very realistic for someone with so much trauma. And I felt like there was a goal with him, and that was to help him realize why he was acting like this, and help him talk about what happened to his brother. I would dislike the idea of the goal to be him losing weight, not only because 3 other social links already (kinda) revolve around sports and exercise, but also because I think it sends a bad message (that the only way for you to become a nicer person, a cool person, is to lose weight). I also preferred that you only know which direction he is going to go in the last level. With Kaz for example, you knew the whole time that he would choose to do the surgery and not compete, so it was just a drag to get to the end of his social link, with Nozomi you didn't really know what was going to happen, so I found it much more enjoyable.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a social link in Persona 6 that's just a chef? And his/her/their entire social link starts with trying their food or helping them cook, and then around the 3rd or 4th level you learn more about them, like why they cook and what keeps them going, and what their ultimate goal is. Later on ranks you find out that they have some connection to the protag, and at the end you find out that they actually have a persona of their own or something like that. All the while the chef could be a food vendor like the guns dealer and/or the phone's ingredient shop in persona 5 and persona 5 strikers.

Only Social Link that is worse is Ken's one in P3P's FeMC route. *Cause the guy who decided to also make it a romance route was on some shit.*

Ah yes, the average redditor look wise.

I did this in Persona 3 Reload and honestly I really liked it. he's just a goofy lil guy, bro moon walks into the burger king, how can you hate him??

4:19 Made me laugh so hard

Mooooon walk social link redeemed

I think the ending is very powerful and recontextualizes everything. You call it a decent ending. I call it a great one. I know exactly how he feels and the admittance of such shameful feelings is a wakeup call. Regardless of the yelling and the things he said, you were his friend because you would just sit there and eat with him.

I like his design tbh i prefer characters not always looking perfect weight,height and shit. Persona does it way too much

I finished a third of the social links on my first playthrough and the moon social link was one of them. Don't know why I spent time on him but I did

Good way to break down the flaws of this point-by-point. I wanted to get all the social links in P3, but I just dreaded going back and finishing this one in my playthrough. I think that Shu Nakajima's social link could be another good one to examine, as you get to watch Shu go through conflict with his struggles with being the honors student, and the birthday party in rank 9 is a really wholesome moment. Hope you'll do more in the future!

The fact that you're hesitant about calling this is the worst social link makes me wonder, what do you consider to be the worst one? In any of the games?

Played persona 3 FES and never saw this guy. Odd.

People only do Nozomi's social link when theres literally nothing else to do

Nozomi gonna make me act up.

I don't know if my explanation is correct but this is how I've always though of it. I believe it actually makes sense that Nozomi is a borderline irredeemable conman glutton. Characters in persona 3 are symbolism first and "buddies" optionally (I recall an interview question to one of the devs on the topic of how you square the oppurtunistic attitude of the protagonist to befriend and "game" everyone to make his peronas stronger vs the portayal of forming a real connection with the characters. In short, they don't square but the hope is that maybe you the player can form a connection). The game explicitly tells you in one of the lectures that the moon arcana signifies deception (I can't remember the exact symbolism but it wasn't virtuous). Much like Tanaka it doesn't necessarily make sense for Nozomi to redeem himself because then he would in a sense cease to be "The moon". I'm given to understand that many other Arcanas whose wielders experience character growth actually symbolize a struggle (e.g. magician being immaturity and chariot being reckless industriousness) so it doesn't take away anything from the characters symbolism to adopt a healthier outlook to their struggle. I think it's also absurd to treat your character like he's a goddamn therapist that can fix any personal issue in just 10 short sessions, I like to think of it more like you're "casting out a net" and getting to know a bunch of people. Maybe you get something from them, maybe they from you, maybe you just go your separate ways.

I wonder if it would be possible to have an "unattractive" character as one of our party members in an upcoming Persona game. (Also, if only Mitsuo was one of our party members in P4, it would make him the second party member that's not in the same high school as us, because well, it seems it kinda become a thing for mainline Persona games after Baofu in P2 that there would at least be 1 party member that doesn't attend the same school as you, like Ken & Koromaru in P3, Teddie in P4 and Yusuke in P5)

Nozomi is a social link I only did reluctantly since he was one of the only social links available during the summer. I literally maxed him out without reading any of the dialogue.

I never even unlocked this Social Link, because it requires you to progress with Kenji. And I don't know why anyone would spend time with Kenji

I like the idea of Nozomi being this tragic character driven to gluttony to deal with the death of a family member, and becomes a bitter, distorted person because of it, but it literally just sounds to me like this is a scenario of "the virgin Nozomi vs the chad Naoki." I love Naoki so much, his social link is one of my favorites in P4. I feel like they could've delved deep into how a lot of people struggle to lose weight due to bad vices or even genetic inhibitions, and they could've actually had him try and fail, but the fact that they just meander and have the guy go on and on about this cult he's in while he rambles about food, only to have him spill his tragic backstory at the end, feels kinda cheap.

Huh, I don't have any memories with this social link, only remember the FeMC's version. Maybe because my mind forced me to forget its existence. I don't even remember why I seem to dislike it. Now I do.

This makes me want to see you make a tier list on your fave social links

Cult stuff is fine too, he's completely given up on this life and genuinely believes that he's going to be reborn in a more attractive body. What we call "scamming", I'm pretty sure he doesn't realise is scamming, he really believes it. Like Tanaka actually is a scammer, this guy is a pyramid scheme victim. The Moon also represents "lack of financial knowledge" when used as a reading for finances, which joining a pyramid scheme is basically the number one sign of. He likely had to pay the fee at one point too. It can also represent uncertainty of the future and not having a clear career goal. Not saying he's a good link, but the cult stuff adds to his arcana for sure and should probably stay.

I just finished p3 this week and yeah. His social link was kind of unsettling but I guess it fits the moon arcana? Sort of? Since moon is supposed to represent mystery and looking at our own abyss/journeying into the darkest night. Unstable feelings and so on. (in nozomis case, it was the fact that he ran away from confronting his own demons. Comparing himself to his brother, feeling attacked for no reason etc). So yeah, he fits the motif. Weirdness aside, I just feel most social links in p3 are kinda rushed? On some link levels nothing happens, and then, all of a sudden, everything starts happening aisosk

His "I thought about you when I farted" line from hiimdaisy's P3 comics is the most memorable thing about Nozomi for me. (Also, Team 'Hanako should have been a SL' here)

I would love to see more of these! I feel like the social link characters should be talked about more!

Honestly, I love that a lot of the social links in P3 are with people who are very weird, or unlikable when first interacting with them. It touches on the theme of the reversed arcana, vs the upright arcana. They all start as people mired down by the negative aspects of their tarot card, but then over time embody the positive aspects of the tarot card.

Here’s hoping persona 3 reload rewrites this social link a bit better

As a person who has never finished Nozumi's Link passed maybe 3, the description of what happens in it was a rollercoaster.

Iwai was hot daddy material, who was also nice to the player. Why would you compare them

I didn't think a good look at Nozomi's character was something I needed but now I realise

At least Femc doesn't have to sit through this bullshit and she can hang out with Shinjiro

Immediately Nozomi is giving me Hifumi vibes. Edit: Hifumi Yamada, not Tojo.

Hey, stumbled upon this vidoe randomly and you definitely made a fan out of me. Love your work and cant wait to see more :>

I always see him as just a worse version of Mishima

The quality of p3s social links is so funny. You have sl's like Maiko or Aigis or Akinari (my personal fave in the series), then you have Kenji and Nozomi. P4 and P5 do a much better job of making all of the sl's mostly enjoyable, but the way p3 sl's fluctuate in quality so rapidly is amazing.

to answer your thing about rotund fictional good guys, many of the yellow warriors of sentai teams are played off as the ton of fun kinda character

I've never done this link so new info, but cult could've been interesting if they tied it into the Nyx cult.

I saw the thumbnail and 'Notorious M.O.O.N.' popped into my mind

I personally think that another factor that exponentially damaged this social link was the fact that with the arrival of the Portable version, it had to compete with its counterpart in the female version, which is nothing more and nothing less than Shinjiro's social link. If in the new counterpart of this social link they gave us a nice, sweet and cool guy, with a great character development and even important contributions to the main plot if we completed it, obviously there's a great measuring stick in which no matter what, Nozomi's social link always ends up in a bad way for the everyone.

*on the last day, remembering your friends* Nozomi: i thought about you when i farted

My Idea to fix his route Rank 1: Give Odd Morsel, He's disgusted, but curious Rank 2: Invited to Lunch, he's a Jackass Rank 3: Invited to Lunch, Still a Jackass, Tell him off, he storms off Rank 4: He contacts you, Invites you to lunch, apologizes, explains backstory Rank 5: Invited to Lunch, Talks about his mysterious new passion in life, thanks you for help Rank 6: Confronted by Old Man, tries to sell you into Paradise cult Rank 7: Invited to Lunch, tries again to sell you into cult, tell him off, he storms off again Rank 8: Invites you to Lunch but isn't hungry, tells you he left cult after scary shit Rank 9: Confronted by goons from cult/victims Rank 10: Invited to lunch, says he's gonna be a food critic, orders a healthier dish After completing his social link, eating with him will give double food XP. (Wish completed P3 links gave bonuses like in P5)

I really like that Social Link review. Do it more. Maybe with other people like the P5 confidants video.

If this isn't the worst social link what is? Mishima isn't very beloved as character but he's damned useful and he grows as a person.

You should do two other videos on the worst one from 4 and 5

id like to note that the appearance correlating to a persons morality is a case of the angelic effect, a psychological phenomena where people are more likely to judge someone based on their looks

This is such a cool idea keep it up