Persona 4 without the Golden content is like...a pizza without cheese.

I guess my comment offended you. I apologise, I can be a bit too blunt sometimes (It was late and i was posting from my Vita, so its not practical to go into a long dissertation).

My point on the original post is the way you try to blame pacing on the social links is one of taste because anyone going to play a JRPG that doesnt enjoy character development and story and just wants to fight in dungeons... well... is someone that doesnt enjoy JRPG's very much, or just loves grinding. Character development and the social links are what makes Persona special. The pace at wich you go into dungeons can be set by the player aswell.

As for the dungeon design, they are random, but the dungeons art changes with each one. The dungeons are also not long enough that they become a nuisance to go through (have you even played Persona 3? That is alot worse). The ramdomised aspect keep the dungeons unpredictable and every floor exciting as you want to uncover all of it and get the hidden treasure or one of those golden hands that gives alot of experience and gold. Not all floors are ramdomised though. If you were on the habit of properly clearing them, you wouldnt come across issues like a missing key, not that they were difficult to figure out.

Despite all this though, do those 2 small criticisms really stop anyone from enjoying the game? I also get the distinct feel you were trying your best to speed through the game and skip as much content as possible to rush to the end. Are they really worth 2.25 points in a scale of 10? I would hate to see what most games that came out this gen would get from you.

I will grant you my criticism to the game, that in no way would affect the score staying above 9.  A day passes when you go into the dungeons, this interrupts the micro management of the social links max leveling and incentivates you to go into a dungeon as little times as possible and get everything done at once. This is still one of preference though. You can still get the best ending by only maximising 3 social links, if memory serves me right. That isnt too difficult. Thinking about it, maybe the imediacy of the main plot is what made you feel like the social links were ruining your pace.

I will also grant you that the bonus dungeons, wich casts away your progress and uses its own mechanics to navigate, was perhaps a bit cumbersome. But, i wonder if you even experienced that.

I don't understand what problem you have with the dungeons.
Can you explain more?
What I see as negatives so far is:
1. Dungeons have some randomized floors.
2. Some non-random levels have puzzle elements to find keys or solve mazes.

Is that all?

Also, why is design a 5?
I noticed you have:
Gameplay
Design
Story
Balance

Where is presentation?

Thanks for that.  I accidentally put story instead of presentation.  Presentation is an accumulation of the story/graphics/audio.  I removed graphics/sound as their own category and they only effect the game if there are so bad that there's an issue.  Meaning maybe a one or two point loss to presentation at most, which this didn't get. 

Again, look at my review scale.  I consider 5.5. average and 6 just above that as the first good category.  The dungeon design, which yes is random, is the exact same in each and every dungeon.  The randomization isn't anything deep either.  It's a small dungeon with a few hallways, the exact same designed room in each dungeon with a treasure and/or monster, the exact same short hallway with two treasures on each side, or hallway end that goes a bit further with a treasure.  Different graphics in each dungeon, different music, but the exact same boring ass dungeon.  The items that are acquired are your generic items with the very rare weapon  that can be acquired through gold chests.  It's poor for even a dungeon crawler.  Rogue like style dungeon but worse with no items scattered around on the ground, so even with a good battle system, these dungeons are just incredibly boring to progress through.  The time I stopped playing Persona 4 The Golden for a long period of time was actually at one of the dungeons because I just didn't want to go through it at the time and awhile ago finally picked it back up.  Going through the dungeons are also about 40% of the game.  Much of that time is during combat, but it's still a main aspect of the game.  A longer period of time if you go back and do the quests which I stopped doing after I did them for the game dungeon.

Here is my critique on your review.

One of the main problems I see with this review is that it doesn't really capture what Persona is about. There is effort put into the review, obviously, but it falls short of being something of value to an interested reader, and at some points is actually misleading in regards to the game elements. As I understand it, this review is made for a mainstream gaming perspective, so it tries not to go too much into the details....but casual friendly should not mean casually written.
For one, several details of the game are just wrong, or not very accurate.

There is no actual "time limit", rather, the game works on a calendar system. Each day is split into day and night phases, with your character being allowed to roam freely and choose one "action". You basically have the option to grow one specific statistic each phase. You can level S-Link (your personal connection to other characters), level your character stats such as "courage" and "diligence" by working, reading, or even by eating super spicy noodles. S-Links also have some possibilities to raise character personality stats, and some S-Links aren't available without high-enough personality. You can't hang out with the scary old lady without enough courage.

Additionally, you can walk around and do quests freely, which do not use up the day or night phase, though some require going to the dungeon which will take up the phase. There are also some little bonuses you may discover while playing that help level up stats faster. Stats grow differently depending on day and time, and sometimes even through luck. S-Links can grow faster if you interact more appropriately with the friend, with rating based on how many chimes appear over their head.

Another problem is that dunegeons are not actually completely random, but rather are mixed with random and design. There are at the very least, 2 floors in each dungeon which are not randomized, but created as a puzzle or maze. Playing through a dungeon a second time reveals a different boss, different rewards, a unique boss item, and a series of additional quests perfect for explorers and completionists. However, it's true the dungeons can be a bit repetitive. But it also should be mentioned (which it wasn't in the review) that you can buy items that allow you to run through the dungeons quickly.

And at last, the review just doesn't seem to encapsulate what the persona game is about. While it extolls the mechanics, it really lacks any description of the game. Persona 4 is a story-driven game rooted in the over-arcing murder mystery happening in Inaba, and compounded with inter-personal relationship stories of the characters. Persona would most clearly be described as a psuedo dating-sim mixed with jrpg elements. While the crust of the game really focuses on finishing the story and besting its dungeons, your ability to progress quickly is interesting as it really depends on who YOU, as a player, are. Because each character has their own personality, and their own unique interactions, your own personality will sync up with some characters better than others. You'll share mutual understanding with some, and shake your head at others...This really makes persona such a brilliant concept.

I made a comment about the games pacing.  I did not say that the social links were a problem or were boring.  I actually pointed out that the that the social links gave you a better understand of each character.  I made one comment about the games pacing in a single sentence in the entire review, and that gets you stuck on social links?  All parts where you had to go through a dungeon and complete it, and other times throughout the year, there were weeks on end that you were going into school, listening to a short lecture, and increasing a social link or social skill.  The whole  question and answer filler story, rarely but sometimes where the story kept up for a few hours on end, sometimes where the story wasn't really that entertaining, and then several weeks where there was no story but lecture after lecture and repeatedly increasing your social stats.  I removed one point on the games presentation.  From a 10 to a 9.  I was going to give it a 10, but I felt, as in my opinion, that it didn't deserve it. 

Dungeons.  Look at my post prior to this one as I've explained it many times.  I explained it in the review as well though I didn't go into a massive amount of detail.  I'm not going to explain it again, you can read it from that post.

Two "small" criticisms.  One small criticism which brought the presentation from a 10 to a 9.  That's 0.25 points.  The other is as I've explained in a previous post, 40% of the game, more if you complete every quest. 

Also, your "assumption" of my trying to speed through the game would be wrong.  The only thing I didn't do at the end of the game is go back to Junes the final day to go through yet another dungeon.  Check out my trophy list if you're interested.  I didn't get all social links maxed because I didn't max Adachi's, but I did the trophy for maxing out 10 social links and all the social skills.  If I want a platinum, everything else I can do on a second run through the game since I'll start with max social skills and not need a guide to make sure I make everyone happy with my answer.

It's a great game, amazing story, and good battle system, but it's not a perfect game.  I don't ignore a major issue the game might have just because everything else is so good.  I didn't with Shin Megami Tensei 4.  I prefer SMT4 over Persona 4, but I didn't give it any special treatment.  I judged the game for what it was and judged it based on its problems.  It's not some review out to taint Persona's name and make Persona fans cry like bitches that the game doesn't get a 10/10. 

Well, we're just gonna have to agree to disagree. In my opinion, SMT4 is a much worse game.

Also, one last point. I don't understand how the metric for design was given a 5.
You said dungeon was 40% of the game. That would mean you gave the entire combat portion of the game a 0, or, you gave the 60% of the game a 3/10, and the dungeon a 2/10 or some distribution of which.
ie: if the dungeon is half the design, and you gave the design a 5, then you must have given the dungeon an extremely poor score.

EDIT: This is not to say the dungeon is particularly great. It's fair, at best. The combat is entertaining, the bosses are cool, and they fit in with the story and character unlocks. I must say that the dungeon significantly improves the game. While not ideal, the dungeon is a benefit, not a detriment to the game, but the scoring seems to suggest that it is. While you may argue that 0 simply means it didn't earn any points, you can't say that the game would be better without the dungeons....which logically means it must be worth something 

EDIT2: Also, you just arbitrarily decided that dungeons were 40% of the game, and you didn't mention that you can simply run through the dungeons either through items or just running past enemies.

Like, I get that you didn't like the dungeons, but really? Your score suggests that the game would be the same, or possibly even better without them. Really? You would rather just run around and listen to the story and up your character stats? Because you're eliminating the battles, the card system, the persona system, and about 20% of the total quests.

If you give the dungeon portion a 0, you're giving everything that goes with it a 0.

That's like saying that Call of Duty has cool guns, and the mp mechanics are good, and the game types are interesting, but this one map is just so bad, that it makes multiplayer unplayable because you're just too frightened to random that map, and being 50% of the game, the max the design can get is a 5.

What you point out as incorrect or misleading information isn't.  I stated limited amount of time, and you do.  I started off with pointing out that you have a single year in Inaba and you have a limited amount of time between events.  My explaining of social links covered pretty much all of what your reply stated.

First off, "Each day you have at most two different times to increase these statistics. so there's a lot of time management involved."  That's in the third paragraph.  "and then increasing social skills during the afternoon and evening" and that's in the second paragraph.  So that really complete negates your whole comment about time limit actually being about time. 

About social links you're stating a lot that I've already said.  In the second paragraph, "Each character in the game had a unique personality, which while going through the game you're frequently given multiple choices as to how you'd like to respond and the characters may like you more depending on your answer." this was during the second paragraph, so there's really no need to repeat myself by saying the same thing or something similar when talking about social links. 

The third paragraph talks about everything else you're listing that I didn't include.  "Social skills are different statistics like courage, knowledge, etc, where a required level might be required to take jobs, talk to people at certain times, or even choose a certain response.  It's not required, but having a high social link with multiple characters and fusing monsters will make dungeons much easier.  You can increase social links and social skills by doing different jobs, different activities, and spending the day with the characters."  I just didn't make a long list of everything you could do to increase social links and social skills.  It's to the point and it also lets the player find out what increases what.  This is a review, not a strategy guide.

I made mention of the quests in combat, but you're right.  I did not make specifically state that you could catch bugs, buy items, and do quests without wasting your afternoon or evening.  I also didn't make the comment that you could buy weapons and armor either.  See, that's where I feel common sense should take place.  I don't think I should have to tell someone something obvious.  I mean.  Do I also need to say that you waste time talking to a random NPC?   No.  It's a given.  Although catching bugs is the only thing not obvious as you'd assume it'd take up your time since it asks if you want to catch bugs, the only time where doing an activity doesn't waste time.

Last.  My review isn't to theorize the reader as a person and how they are.  I did describe everything you pointed out though and made it clear in the review that these are major aspects of the game.  The storyline would have characters like you more depending on your answer, that you could have deeper relationships with characters by doing social links, gaining more insight on their feelings and problems, etc.  And on the final paragraph, I even pointed out that the game is quite a bit more story focused than gameplay.  I didn't mention it, but it's about 60/40 more focused on story.

7.75 sounds pretty mediocre for a game of this supposed caliber.