I was once discussing Persona games with a few friends of mine, and we actually came upon an interesting disagreement. Despite the fact that we both agree that Persona 4 plays better as a game, I feel the story of Persona 3 is better and much more personal (no pun intended!) experience, especially in Persona 3 Portable where you can get Social Links with the party (sadly, only if you play the Female Protagonist, but still). He argued that Persona was a lighter and more enjoyable story because of fact the impact of the story isn't quite as heavy, especially given what the MC in 3 has to do compared to in 4.

We also had a serious disagreement over Persona 3: FES and the playable epilogue, 'The Answer'. I lamented the lack of 'The Answer' in P3P, and he said, and I quote: "Wow, such a shame, it loses the creepy robot girl's adventure." I almost took a personal offense to that, but had to stop myself from snapping at him. Why? Well, for me 'The Answer' was the most satisfying narrative conclusion to the Persona 3, and one of the view instances where a videogame made me shed tears over SEVERAL moments in the game. Yes, 'The Answer' is essentially a massive grind and a hair-puller (the game forces you to play in Hard Mode and removes the Persona Compendium, forcing you to make Personas from scratch everytime you want one), but from a story standpoint, it was immensely touching.

I'm curious, gameplay mechanics aside, which game did you guys prefer? I'm wondering what you think.

Also, as an added bonus, have some Female MC/Shinjiro goodness. And yes, you CAN save him in P3P and have him there for you at the end (but only on a second playthrough, the having him there for you at the end of the game.)