Persona 5 Royal is the better game to start with — it is the most polished, best-looking entry and its combat and calendar systems are the series at full strength. Persona 4 Golden has the warmer cast and the better murder mystery, and it is much shorter.
Same structure: a school year, a calendar, social links by day and dungeon crawling by night.
The UI alone is worth seeing, the Tokyo setting gives it far more to do, and Royal's third semester is a real addition rather than a bonus. It is a hundred hours.
A small town, a small group, and a mystery that ties the social links to the plot better than any other entry. Around seventy hours and it runs on anything.
Persona 5 Royal is the better game to start with — it is the most polished, best-looking entry and its combat and calendar systems are the series at full strength. Persona 4 Golden has the warmer cast and the better murder mystery, and it is much shorter.
Better is the wrong question for these two — they are close enough that the answer depends on what you want from the next twenty hours. Pick Persona 5 Royal for the presentation and the systems. Pick Persona 4 Golden for the cast and the length.
No. There are no scores anywhere on this page. This is a written opinion about what each game is for, so you can judge whether it matches what you are after.