RPGFan reviews an import copy of Persona 4 - 94%! RPG of the Year for sure!

[Riachu]

zexen_lowe said:

Riachu said:
RPGFan aren't always reliable. They gave Lost Odyssey a 75% when I think that game deserves an 85%. Even so, they aren't the first ones to say that Persona 4 is awesome(that title belongs to 1UP). Western critics seem to like Persona 3 and 4 more than Japanese critics.

 

Of course they aren't flawless (they overrated Dragon Quest VIII and Kingdom Hearts I) but in general they do reviews that are pretty similar to my tastes (for example, they are one of the few sites that gave Suikoden V the score it deserves, in the high 90's), so I tend to trust them, and I know that they review according to what a JRPG player wants, they won't rate down a game "because it has too many cutscenes" or because it has random battles" like a more general gaming site would

The random battle complaint is more valid than you think.  A lot of the JRPGs with random battles tend to have high encounter rate.  I find it more tolerable in LO because the encounter rate in that game is low.