@mortimer: There's not really a lot you need to read; the game is pretty good at telling you what you need to know (like popularity leading to intimacy, for instance), so you can just jump straight in without worrying about it too much. Ultimately, unless you're trying to do everything, you can probably find to do the things you want to do without planning it out in advance. I can offer these tips regardless, but none are make or break:
Each of the dungeons can be completely in a single in-game day. That should be your goal if you want to maximise the time available for other activities. Probably won't be doable when you first come to the game - you eventually get a feel for when it's best to use SP to kill quickly or to take the damage and heal later, or when to use physical attacks/weapons vs SP, or what sort of questionable situations you can get yourself in without it being a party wipe, but you can only get there through experience - though you should at least be thinking about SP and how (and when) to avoid using it. It'll pay off over time.
As a counter-point to that, don't leave dungeons till the last day - they're sometimes longer than you think, and you can trap yourself in some bad situations (not having enough time/SP to get it done). The game does have a way out of getting you this though, even if you don't have a backup save, so it's not going to ruin a playthrough.
Don't constantly upgrade your weapons - a few points more damage doesn't make that much of a difference, and you'll drain your cash unnecessarily compared to upgrading when it'll be more of a jump.
If you find yourself with some free time, look for your party members hanging out near the gas station (from about mid-game onwards). You can "think about the future" to learn bonus skills.
If any of your maxed social links ask you to hang out in January, it's worth doing.
One of the social links keeps a weird schedule - you sometimes need to look for him at night as well as during the day, so he's easily missed.
If you want to see The Golden epilogue, you need to max the Marie social link. None of the other social links matter as far as endings are concerned, and if you keep the core message of Persona 4 (Reach Out To The Truth) in mind when making decisions, you'll probably reach the True End without needing a guide.
This is more of a challenge playthrough, but I figured I may as well mention it here anyway: one counter-intuitive strategy for Very Hard I like is to always stick with your starter Persona, and try and avoid a good number of the fights. It puts you in some rough situations, and for about the first quarter of the game you're generally one wrong move from dead - you have to make the call that it's often better to leave characters knocked out rather than letting the enemy get another turn, and you face at least one boss that casts what you are weak to - but there's a turning point. By about halfway through, by funneling all of my stat increases, skill cards, and EXP into a single Persona, I was so monstrously overpowered (even having deliberately avoiding grinding for the entire game) that I was literally running to the top of the dungeons because I was dealing about twice as much damage as anyone else in my party and could tank just about anything enemies could throw at me.
but rotating saves might be a thing to do so you can get the ending that you want.
Having watched the ER first, that always feels so wrong. "One save, dude" (I'm still doing this in P5R).
Though technically, it is a good idea :p
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