18 – Chihiro Fushimi
Fushimi, like Fuuka, is a romanceable Social Link, and another one that I think had a lot of wasted potential. But, her Link is at least built upon more than Fuuka’s. Fushimi suffered from an abusive father and as a result is afraid of boys and men. She struggles to even speak to boys at school and actively is trying to exposure therapy herself out of trauma by speaking to boys on student council.
Her Social Link starts off with you trying to speak with her multiple times, the first several of which end in failure with her not being able to continue conversation. Once you figure out why she struggled, it really colored her earlier actions in a good narrative way. Even more, I think she represents a very real trauma that isn’t often covered in video games. However, she switches to romance toward the protagonist too fast.
She has a point in her Link where trying to be too intimate with her too fast actually reverses your progress, which I like. But I think diving more into her healing in a non-romantic capacity would have made her Link much better. She appears in Persona 4, which I played before Persona 3, as a much more confident character so I went in really expecting a stronger arc.
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