What should I know? I hear this game is quite complicated in terms of quests and general stuff to do. I want to get the most out of it as possible so please without spoiling anything, do you have any tips for me? :)

Don't cast bufu.

And do the Kanji social link.

I can't edit my posts for some reason... but I also wanted to add that I'm starting the game on Hard.

Make sure you do something that will increase your stats (Knowledge, courage, etc) or social links every day that you are able to.

It is not complicated there is just much to do. Just enjoy the game and do not try to to get a perfect game by midmaxing it. Just enjoy the game you can not screw up much and even if you do you get 1 week back and can try again.

Just don't waste days! It's pretty simple, always be doing productive things, and try to balance them well.

Almost like real life...

Good luck! The only thing I can say is be patient, the game takes a little while to get going. Some S. links can be difficult to come across but you don't need to do everything to really enjoy the experience.

Dude. I was so worried about being lost and doing poorly, don't worry, you'll do fine. I would peek briefly at a guide here and there just to make sure I wasn't way off, but in the end I was just fine! I didn't get 100% but I did pretty well.

Keep this handy Giant Bomb guide bookmarked. You'll need it. Other than that, enjoy the process of discovery.

I wouldn't worry too much about maximizing your time and trying to get every quest done. Just play it how you want to play it and have fun with it. You're pretty much guaranteed to not complete all of the quests without a FAQ, so just get done what you can get done and enjoy the experience.

@xyzygy: I highly recommend against starting on hard. You're just adding 10 hours of grinding, and the combat is not why you are playing this game.

Don't feel bad about looking up answers to all the questions. Because some of the things there are crazy to know off-hand.

Just play and enjoy it, like other people have said. Spend time social linking when you can, or trying to boost up stats. Or hit the TV and go to dungeons. Or spend some time fishing. Catching bugs, when you get the ability, doesn't take any time and can be done at night or in the day (night's better, I think), and gives you some good bait.

I would try to get the 5 core stats (Courage/Knowledge/etc) up to rank 5 if you plan on doing NG+. That way you never have to worry about them again and can spend days socializing instead of reading books (though the fishing ones are pretty good to finish) or making envelopes and such.

Secret best Social Link is Ai, you'll need Courage but it is worth it.

Just enjoy the ride, don't stress over anything too much. As long as you fuse often and fight every shadow as you move up the dungeons you shouldn't run into many issues.

I think that about damn near every Social Link. But yeah, Ai has some good moments.

If I were to give Social Link tips, going for your main combat crew first helps quite a bit.

And ignore the Nurse SL, it's....yeah....just ignore it

Well, at rank 3 or 4 (can't remember specifically) it unlocks the Death link.

Well, that one he can ignore too. And I believe it is Rank 3

True, Death is the only link I never actually started. I was going to ignore the Nurse link but I eventually had squat to do at night in the last bit of the game since I had done so many other links, that I managed to get that to 10. Got the Tower link to 8 in the same time frame.

Only really left 5 links not maximized. Moon (6), Hanged (2 or so), Temperance (4), Tower (8) and Death (0). It's crazy how many you can get done even when putzing around during your first run. That's including spending days fishing (mostly for Fox and the kitties), and getting all 5 skills to 5. No doubt I'll be able to get them all when I get to NG+. Being able to Trumpeter / Yoshitsune my way through the early dungeons is going to be hilarious. Victory Cry is best cry.

Dude, hers is one of the best. I love it.

It starts off sooooooo good and falls apart by Rank 5

But man, those first ranks are glorious.

Yes, yes they are, if only they were ranks 8, 9, and 10

POPULARITY LEADS TO INTAMACY

That would have been amazing.

Though, hard dosen't lower your XP-intake, it only makes the enemies hit harder and your hits weaker. Very hard does lower your gain in xp and money though.

The persona from her S Link is probably the best one from the level 70-90 range, so it's difficult to ignore in a first play through.

I have yet to look up how to make him, but I did just look up his stats and damn, that's some blocking. I have Null Wind on a lot of dudes so that'd make him only able to be hit by Physical and Light.

Though with my Trumpeter and Yoshitsune, I'm basically unstoppable. I can utterly destroy the Reaper with them.

If you have to grind in Persona 4 you are not understanding the battlesystem . There is no need to grind in any way even on hard. The only thing you could do is beating the dungeons always a second time for he special weapon but you really do not need to do that either.

@xyzygy: Enjoy this amazing game for the first time? you lucky bastard

It's not that I'm grinding when I play on Hard. It's just that getting to the end of a dungeon takes 2 hours instead of the 1 hour it takes me on easy. I'm not going out of my way to get into more fights in either and I never feel underpowered in either. It's just that it takes much less time, which is nice since I've played P4, P3P and P4G twice each and am tired of the combat.

@mosespippy: really? I never felt that way. I usually go through the dungeon no exploring everything and just fighting the monsters on the way and I was fine on hard. Never played Golden but I would guess this would not change much at all. But I also rush always through these dungeons since the battles are my least favorite thing in Persona games. I just want to do the social and story stuff XD

I'm starting with 4 of the series, I just decided to jump in. the original version, my ps2 still works.

@darji: On normal or hard I'd fight every enemy along the way and be at a good level for bosses. My last time through Golden on easy I ran past as many enemies as I could except golden hands and rare enemies and hit level 99 in November. The time spent in dungeons was reduced sooo much by playing on easy.

Unlike real life, it is TOTALLY acceptable to date the entire female population at the High School. You only get shamed once (REALLY LATE into the game). The game lasts anywhere from 50-90 hours, depending on how in depth you get (It took me 81 hours the first time). The game is a blast, and it is a great representation of arguably one of the greatest JRPG series of all time.