Plot is more thematically cohesive than 4 and 5 which I appreciate but otherwise is much more loosely tied together. Events from ten years ago should have been more clearly addressed, everything involving Ryoji is contrived and doesn't really make much sense, the potential for persona powers is never elaborated on, and then there's all the gamey stuff about tartarsauce like teleporters and blockades opening up after full moons. The characters eventually even acknowledge themselves that this shit makes no sense and the game makes no attempt to remedy it lol
Characters are a mixed bag. The highs are really high; junpei, akihiko, and ken are really really fantastic. But then there's Yukari and Fuuka. lol.
Social links kinda stunk imo. There are only a few that were particularly good; akinari, for one. But most of them are really forgettable and not much happens in them.
Gameplay is also a bit of a mixed bag for me. Combat is kind of just P5 lite which is fine I guess. tartarsauce is still pretty repetitive and grindy sometimes, but I do get something of a kick out of some old fashioned dungeon crawling once in a while i guess. I'd still never take it over hand crafted dungeons though; I'm glad we've left this style of dungeon behind.
Lastly the calendar which is really sloppy. It's an improvement over the original, but still really strange. Having every party slink locked behind a max stat is wild and makes it so that you'll end up having them all maxed by about 2/3 through the game and any other activity that happens to raise social stats (such as link episodes and unlocking personalities at the dorm) becoming redundant. And once all your social stats are maxed and there aren't any slinks to hang out with on a given day, there's simply nothing to do; at least until you unlock the dating site note which will be all you do with your time starting in november lol. It should have been an option from the beginning rather than appearing only then. The gameplay loop as a whole is still really solid though and I always find managing my time in persona games satisfying even if this is the one that gets it the least right.

While the presentation leaves a lot to be desired, the core gameplay of FE9 is pretty much just as awesome as it was in the last two games, with map design remaining fantastic and some really neat new mechanics. While super canto and shove are both certainly funny, I mostly had fun playing around with laguz units and some of the new map gimmicks. The story was a little underwhelming but definitely not bad. The biggest issue are definitely simply a couple of stinker maps that stand out for the wrong reasons (chapters 10, 11, and 25).