These really aren't major spoilers, since they're pretty much the most bare parts of the game.
A spoiler would be the guy at the.... No i won't say it xD

-Maximize the Yosuke Social Link, it's awesome. Also, be sure to focus on the SLinks of the party members you'll be using, the bonus they provide are really big
-Play in Normal difficulty
-The Strength Arcana is amazingly powerful. Remember that a triangle fusion of three personas of the same arcana give you the immediately superior Persona of that arcana. Stuff that Persona with an area damaging skill and lots of dodge skills, and you have a killer Persona
-Don't keep Personas for a lot of time, they're not worth it, fuse, fuse, fuse
-Growth X abilities are difficult to obtain and very powerful when you have them, always try to keep them when you fuse
-Exploit weaknesses ALL THE TIME

yes, you should start playing games without using guides. it takes the enjoyment out of the game in my opinion.

anyways, props on getting persona 4, one of the best jrpgs ever.

Don't worry the game takes a while to get off tutorial mode but believe me you'll have a blast

Haha, the intro is definitely long. Since I enjoyed the Metal Gear Solid series, it was not a problem for me though!

And yup, the music is pretty awesome. How do you find the protagonist so far? What name did you give him?

My tip is after you beat the game go get Persona 3 or P3 FES if you haven't played those yet :)

Well, you're supposed to use Skills, y'know

Anyway, you'll use more skills than attack, most of the times you'll be attacking is because you need to conserve SP. And besides, you when you get the HP consuming skills, it's better, they're pretty powerful too, so use them

It's true, but somehow I liked Persona 3 more even though it's the lesser game if that makes sense? Probably cause I liked the characters and setting more or because it was my first taste of the style and series so I have more fondness for it.

I wanted to say....Eat your dinner/lunch while watching the intro but I am a bit to late;....I would use a guide for opening a dungeon though. Simply cause that was annoying to find who to talk to and especially WITCH day...

Anyway for the rest don't use a guide for your first run...Just play the game and I am sure after you beat the game you want more.... Then you can use the game.....And don't worry you can't maximeze all your social links.

I don't suggest you relying with skills at the early stages of the game. True, you'll be using them most than attacks, but not until you finish Shadow Yukiko, you won't have a method of recovering SP other than the Soul Drops, and those will be very rare.
Try to go for a more balanced approach at first, leave the SP attacks for more tough enemies, or for a large group of enemies.
Oh, and at first when you can fuse, try to fuse a Valkirie with Media, it will help you immensily at the early stages of the game. Also try to fuse a Slime with Resist Physical (you'll learn it at Level 7 Slime) because it will be an invaluable tool to help you survive the first mid-boss attacks and bonus boss attacks.