I actually like that one, because it gives Ryuji an opportunity to face the same hurdle. The fact he actually took initiative to nip that problem before it could harm anyone AND that he did it without using violence shows how Ruyji learnt from his past mistakes.
Oh don't get me wrong, I liked that aspect of the Confidant too. But I'm specifically referencing the writing quality of it, or rather, this scene in particular:
Suffice it to say, it really took me out of the Confidant when it went down this route. Persona 5 has a problem with characters expositing dialogue and pretending like it's a normal thing. The main game suffers from it, but when the Confidants occasionally indulge in it it's not great. I think, more importantly, the writing just doesn't draw me in like it did in Persona 4. Even the ones that are written well-enough, like Makoto's confidant are just kinda... dull. I'm sure the lackluster localization certainly didn't help in any regard, which is really unfortunate.
And that's why I like P5's confidants a lot more than P4's, because the higher stakes involved help to reinforce how high the stakes are while also using them to highlight issues in Japan that the main game can't get around to.
I'm talking about the party member Confidant's in this instance, and specifically about those downtime moments you just described. They're not as common, but still present (Ann and Yusuke actually have a lot of great ones), but for they just don't land as hard in P5. Moments like Yosuke in your room or eating ramen with Kanji or "training" with Chie... the P5 equivalents are not as good. And I say this despite preferring the P5 characters over the P4 ones, so it's not a bias thing. I just don't enjoy spending time with them nearly as much.
Easy, Yusuke's rank 9 is one of the most powerful scenes in the game, and it wouldn't work half as well if Ann and Ryuji weren't there to guide him in the right direction.
Yusuke's is certainly pretty great and I love how his friends are present in his Confidant. Character integration in Confidant storylines is an aspect of P5 blows P4 out of the water, though still not explored to the degree that I would have liked. Still, Yusuke's Confidant is undeniably one of the shining stars of that game. It has all of the aspects of a great Confidant storyline. You get the fun moments, the connection, emotional moments and satisfying conclusion. No cheap mementos solution or egregiously bad writing; its relatively grounded nature really makes it hit hard.
Every P4 party member is an archetype, their shadows are about how society forces them into that archetype and how it internally paralyzes them, and the S-Link scenes are about how they can live as those archetypes in a way that is healthier for their well being.
You'll forgive me if I find criticisms like that are hollow, and you'll forgive me if I find the fact you have to be surprised by an S-Link to find any value in it a sign of shallow insight.
Your reductive breakdown of how P4 party member social links play out doesn't change the fact that they still have more variance than how Confidant's progress in P5.Most of the P5 confidants converge towards dealing with the solution via Mementos, on top of
also following a similar structure (ie: person loses their place in society, struggles to deal with it, needs help). I can approach the vast majority of Confidant with the thought that the core problem will ultimately be solved by Phantom Thievery, and it's not as interesting for me (also you didn't talk about the non-party member social links, which are more varied than the party member ones).
And she is, in turn, beaten out by Toranosuke, Hifumi, and Haru.
She's one of my favourites too, and definitely the best link in P4, but the Confidants are more consistent and, more importantly, more consistent with their games themes.
I don't agree, but I can see your point. Those 3 are definitely some of the stronger Confidants; Tora avoids the Mementos trap, and is just really fantastic and emotional all around. Haru, in particular, has that personal connection factor that makes social links so enticing that just isn't present in most of the other Confidant's, and Hifumi's is also great and genuinely subservice (barring the obnoxious trip to Mementos).
I don't agree with consistency comment, though. There are some Confidant's that are blatantly not... great. Like Chihaya's Confidant straight up sucks and others like Tae just disappoint in how they eventually play out (kind of hard to take a storyline seriously when they go with the "actually they were alive the entire time" trope). Others like Tae, Shinya, Ichiko, etc are good, but not on the level of the ones you mentioned and certainly not on par with Persona 4's.
It's just hard to get connected with most of these characters. Though going over some of them, the ratio of "good-to-bad" Confidant's is a lot better than I remembered. But yeah, I think it's a problem when I feel more emotionally connected to the single mother in P4 than I do with like say... Kawakami (though her confidant is just plain funny).
