Persona 4 - Atlus's attempt to challenge themselves to leave as little room for improvement as possible...
+Catchy artistic, creative design
+Memorable, likable characters
+Very good soundtrack
+Actual detective work required... not an RPG that holds your hand as you go from battle to battle
-Grind-tastic
-Some J-pop songs will grate on you after a while
-Takes some time to get things rolling
Persona 4 is the best in the series so far, a tough feat after the impressive Persona 3. As the silent protagonist, the player can insert his or her own personality into the game, and forge connections with characters, establishing personal relationships.
The battle system is largely the same, albeit with one major change - you can now control each member of you party - a particularly big gripe from earlier series entries.
Animation, voice work, and all manners of cut scene in general are fantastic.
The final, final boss music is arguably the best song in the history of videogames.
Its refreshing to see a game where you actually have to think about things and solve the large puzzle to see the best ending. Other RPGs typically have you just go from point A to point B, fighting along the way, and you could conceivably make it through those games from start to finish without really paying attention to the story and what's really going on (although you're probably playing an RPG game for the story in large part). Persona 4 has key moments though were you're called on to solve a mystery, and you're ability to unravel the clues yourself will determine whether or not your story will progress.
All in all, Persona 4, one of the PS2's swan song RPGs, is one of its best. It takes a little bit of time, and a healthy dose of the grind, but it's largely rewarding and truly memorable.