Never played Persona 4 at all. I've watched a bit of the Endurance Run (basically up to the Shadow Yukiko battle and their victory), but stopped at that point to avoid more spoilers. I sort of get some stuff, but I'm not so clear on others. Mainly how I should be planning my weeks out. From what I gathered from watching, there will be a time where it will rain for like 3 days in a row and after that a fog will emerge in the town. I'm supposed to clear the dungeon within those few days or something to that extent. And then there is all this Social Link stuff I get by crafting deeper relationships with other characters, which in turn effects my Personas or something like that. I also will probably play without an FAQ, since I could always do a more complete run a second time around. So what have you got for me?

Here are some things that I did when I played through. When you go to rescue someone from the TV, spend the next few days completing that. At most, I had to spend three days going in the TV. The sooner you rescue someone, the better. After that happens, spend after school working out on Social Links and buy books from the book store. During evenings, you can work on you skills or a part time job (when available). After the deadline is passed for saving someone, head back every once in a while to level up your party. I say after because there will be a powerful shadow hanging out afterwards. When that is defeated, your courage will increase. Max out your skills as well, they will come in handy later and also remember to get personas and fuse them in order to complete your compendium.

I hope that this helps you out a little bit.

I actually came into the game in the exact same way as you. Watched endurance run up til Shadow Yukiko and then played it for myself. I haven't played golden yet, but I can give you some general advice that should still apply. Get through the dungeons as soon as they become available within the first couple days unless there are some specific things you feel like you need to do before trecking through a dungeon. When you reach the boss you can either take it on and not worry about anything til the next dungeon or save it til when you get closer to the deadline. Either way is fine, but you might as well take the boss on sooner rather than later unless you need time to power up. Just don't do what Jeff and Vinny did and save most of the dungeon and the boss for the last couple days. Prioritize your active party member's social links above other side characters since they get some nice boosts from being high ranks. Anytime it rains for just a day (not the deadlines) is usually a good time to go and train in the tv. Very little is available to do on those days so its kind of the games way of telling you to get your ass into the tv.

Don't worry too much about making exactly the right personas. From what I understand its easier to get moves you want inherited now, but I'm guessing it still can be a bit much when you're just starting out. Just focus on your character having the ability to use every element, the most recent versions of dia, and as many buffs/debuffs as possible. Also try to have at least one physical persona. I did that while fusing to keep my personas around my level and had no difficulty with any of the bosses on my first run on normal.

On the subject of fusing, whenever you aren't immediately going into a dungeon, don't fuse new stuff. If you have plenty of time to build social links before the next time you're going to be using your persona, you're better off waiting and reaping the benefits of the newly increased social links.

As far as your character stats go, don't neglect them. They're important. You likely won't be able to max all social links on your first run simply because you need to also spend time raising knowledge, diligence, courage, etc. If you do a playthrough 2 they will carry over, allowing you to get all of the social links more easily.

A lot of this is common sense, but that's all I can really offer without ruining the experience of figuring out the finer points for yourself. Plus, I'm not familiar with all of the specific changes in golden unfortunately.

I recommend you play Very Hard on your first gameplay so you get better grasp on the gameplay and fusion in such. Just my opinion,but if you play Very Hard you have to strategise a lot and it makes you much better at this game.

If you want some tips for any mode though here are some.

• Max your teammates social link in this order. Yosuke -> Yukiko -> Rise. Max Yosuke's right after the first dungeon,trust me,it's worth it.
• Only buy Wall Paprika,Barrier Corn,and Tiny Soul Tomatoes. Wall Paprika to cover your teammates weakness,Barrier Corn to reflect attacks,and Tiny Soul Tomatoes to restore SP. You can start farming later in the game,but a woman sells you vegetables in the first few weeks,so you better buy it.
• Always buy TaP soda next to Shiroku store,and Dr Salt Neo on the southern end of shopping district all the way down. You'll get 75+ SP a week!
• Use SOS after every battle,it's really useful especially if this is your first time playing.
• Max Adachi social link and Marie social link if you want some additional content after you max your teammates.
• After you beat the whole game,don't go home on 3/20 if you want to do the "true" boss. Marie for extra storyline,and epilogue
• Make use of status aliments. Recommended you get a persona early on with Muzzle Shot and Silence Boost,Mind Slice and Panic Boost,Arm Chopper and Fear boost. Other options other than attacks are Tentarafoo with Panic boost,Evil Smile with Fear boost. This plays a big role in Very Hard.
• When you don't have access to social links at night,do translation or paper crane making. They both you a stat bonus and 5,000 Yen if done right. It's recommended you try to also do Day Care,and Tutor as fast as possible to. They upgrade a lot of necessary stats needed for a lot of storyline,recommended you level Courage last which is from Hospital job,since it's needed for only one social link,along with max Knowledge.

If you play Very Hard I'll give you some more tips,but I think this is all you need for any other mode,the game is actually very easy.

Oh wow good stuff. Gonna be diving in later hopefully. Thanks a lot guys. ^_^

I heard they nerfed the first real boss, but it's still probably the hardest part of the game.

In addition to what everyone else has said, I will add the most important rule of the Persona series: 'Popularity leads to intimacy'. Also, never go fishing. Unless they fixed it in Golden.

Nope be sure to fish daily. Feed that cat!

I agree, don't use a FAQ. However, make full use of selfconfessedcynic's quiz guide: http://www.giantbomb.com/persona-4-golden/61-36273/classroom-test-answers-us-ver/35-568365/#17 
Besides that, everything seems to have already been touched on. Don't stress too much about it. The feature where you can see what other folks are doing on a given day will help you decide what to do and show you what's available.

If you're playing P4 Golden, then you shouldn't have any problems - they made the game much, much easier. The first 2 bosses are nowhere near as tough as they used to be, and they were pretty much the hardest things in the game. The game's central mechanism for making you need multiple days to complete dungeons is also seriously undermined now, because there are *many* more treasure chests about, giving you more chances to obtain SP healing items. And you only need them in the early dungeons anyway, because after that you'll have the 'pay for healing' S-link.

Generally, Atlus games like Nocturne, Digitial Devil Saga, Devil Summoner etc etc have been very harsh on gamers who don't fusion demons properly, or who shy away from tackling it. This isn't the case here (and quite frankly, it hasn't been the case in most of the Persona series - Persona 1 is the only one that really punishes you if you ignore fusion). P2 (after a fashion anyway), P3 and P4 all have demon fusion, and of course you should look into it. But even in the original P4, you didn't *need* to fusion. Level grinding is enough - its just that some clever fusions on your part can break the game's difficulty.

The thing to remember in games like this, is that even the most impossible seeming enemies and levels of the game can be beaten if you simply grind a few more levels. Its the last resort, least imaginative (and least fun really) way to do it, but its always there as your fallback option. The flash way to do it, is to dive into demon fusion, find some really outrageous combos of skills, stats and elemental immunities etc. And yes, you can (and I agree should) be looking to finish dungeons in 1-2 days at most, but you don't *have* to. If you really don't want to be rushed, or spend big chunks of time grinding, you are given a ridiculously long amount of time to finish each dungeon (around 2 weeks or so of game time, which is just absurd, as it never takes more than a few days).

Basically, the game was tough at first, then got much easier. Golden is easy right from the start, and gets even easier.

I'd recommend just diving in. It does a pretty good job of telling you what's what.

Okay so...a bunch of big story stuff happened and a ton of time passed automatically. Now it's suddenly the follow year and I'm leaving Inaba. And then a quick ending sequence and the credits rolled. Where did the rest of the game go? :-/

I know there's more to it. Did I do something wrong or do I have to play through all over again?

@kishinfoulux: In golden they added the time after finishing the killer dungeon through to february. Snow, winter ski trip and all that jazz. Did you do that? I will assume so.

Something you definitely missed was the true ending, and the the final dungeon. It involves a very specific course of action after saying goodbye to all your friends. Would you like it spoiled so that you can do it?

@AlisterCat said:

@kishinfoulux: In golden they added the time after finishing the killer dungeon through to february. Snow, winter ski trip and all that jazz. Did you do that? I will assume so.

Something you definitely missed was the true ending, and the the final dungeon. It involves a very specific course of action after saying goodbye to all your friends. Would you like it spoiled so that you can do it?

I actually just went back and replayed that specific scene. I was actually choosing the right answers the first time too but got one wrong. I looked it up and looks like things are back on track and it's time to get the real "truth".