Persona 4, unlike Persona 3, has a nifty battle command you can use; guard. Oh sure, you see a similar command in many other stat-based RPGs, but being able to guard in P4 is a lifesaver. I am forever grateful to the fine people at Atlus now.
Here's something else, there is a way I found time to build up social links; like in P3, you have to beat a boss at certain days of the week. In P3, this always happened on full moon nights. In P4, you can beat a boss anytime so long as you do it before a foggy day. If you beat a boss, say, 6 days before the next foggy morning, you get six days free time! Woot! Also, there are times when you can't enter the tv world, but can still do stuff around town, like build up social links. I guess I'm not so helpless after all.
So let's recap:
Ways that P4 is better than P3: game itself is more user-friendly, is not as daunting, has a better soundtrack.
Ways that P4 is worse than P3: Social links are harder to do. And there's no one who (so far) can replace Yukari-chan . . .
Ha ha! P4 is more enjoyable so far! I can summarize my feelings for this game with one word:
Excellent.
