Sorry to venture outside of Persona, guys.
But I've given up on DDS and decided to go straight to Nocturne. Any suggestions for a first-timer?
If you played DDS a bit, I guess you know how the press turn system works, and that you can stack buffs/debuffs (in this game you can stack up to 4 times though). Make sure to take advantage of both as much as possible.
One difference is that in this game there are Magatama, the only thing that you can equip (no armor, weapons, or accessories). In addition to boosting stats and providing weaknesses/resistances, they also teach you moves at certain levels if equipped. Some teach you really good/unique moves (I recall one taught you the move to hit random enemies with
heavy force damage below level 20). I personally looked up where to get the various Magatama and what moves they taught at what levels.
Like in DDS, you choose what stat to increase when you level up. I found that physical attacks get a lot better in the mid-endgame, but at the beginning I don't recall access to many good physical attacks. I found magic a bit more useful than physical attacks for the earlier parts of the game, but not becoming as powerful by endgame.
I happened to look up a bunch of things, but I don't think it's required (it can make things like puzzles a bit less annoying, and I was going for the most OP stuff for the True Demon Ending).
Also don't get discouraged if you get rekt by Matador or Mot. I think that happens to a lot of people.