P3 doesn't have the greatest overall story, but a mysterious dark tower and a war with the shadows (with a few plot twists) made a great backdrop for the urban teen experiences along the way, which was the heart of the game. It's just painful watching the characters rehash what they know over and over and over again. As a matter of personal preference (don't get your backs up, P4 fans), I found the 'mystery' in P4 dragged out and dumbed down. In P4 I'm still looking at a couple of hours (to earn levels I've already earned - because THAT makes sense). In a new game plus of P3:FES, I can walk through 15 floors of Tartarus in that many minutes. The fact that the new game+ in P4 doesn't carry over player level just adds insult to injury. I'd much rather go on fast, focused training missions in Tartarus, with it's cool evolving theme music and dark, maze-like quality.

The level of slog and repetitiveness strangles the atmosphere and then beats the lifeless corpse over and over again. It also takes much, much longer to walk from floor to floor in P4, with only one access point every 10 floors instead of one very five. You spend way, way more time in the dungeons in P4, and without the 'great/good/tired/sick' system, you're encouraged to grind them out in concentrated bursts. After a while it seems like a rushed job. The dungeons are themed (kind of like Psychonauts) which, at least in theory, should add a lot of atmosphere to the game. The interface is brought up to date (inventory management, full battle control, faster movement around town, easier viewing of Persona skills, save point in town and in class, etc.). By rights, P4 should be the better game, and it certainly looks that way on paper. I've played the hell out of both games, and for me P4 just ran off a cliff after a while.

Persona 4 vs persona 4 golden