Persona 3 is my favorite game of all time. I actually preferred the social links there. Maybe this is part of the all dark you mentioned, but I loved how in a lot of them things didn't end well, but it was alright anyway.

One of my highlights would be the athlete that gets injured. I thought eventually he'd be cured and back on his feet, but that never happened, that's when I realized: "Oh right, I guess most people don't magically get better just for the sake of a happy ending", it's also when I realized what the game was going for. That being said, it wasn't super downbeat, he's goal was to inspire his cousin who was going through physical therapy by winning at sports, now he'll just inspire him by being right by his side and going through that physical therapy right along with him, it won't be overnight, but one day both him and his cousin will be alright.

A lot of them shared this same feeling of life has dealt you a bad hand, but you take it on the chin, and you move forward. I found it to be a very, mature I guess? way to look at life, and I found it much more interesting, and perhaps inspirational, than the internal problems of the S. Links of Yukiko, Yosuke, etc.

Also worth noting is what it condemns. Persona 4 condemned denying your problems, as we saw in the treatment of all the shadows, Persona 3 condemns apathy. That's the reason for the Apathy Sindrome, reinforced on the S. Link of the boy with a terminal illness, that they don't think that dying is the worst thing that could happen. Much worse to them are people that accept their destiny and do nothing about it, that allow life to take them away on its current and don't fight, so they took that to a logical extreme with the Apathy Sindrome, turning people into husks, alive but doing nothing; even before, those were people with nothing to live for, now it's just visible to everyone.

Beyond that there were the people that welcomed the end of the world, and even the protagonists' behaviour at the end of the game, where they recognize that death is practically a certainty but decide to fight anyway.

I really think this was their theme with the game, and that's what informed their S. Links, the Apathy Sindrome, and even the Full Moon mechanics, where instead of the loose deadline you had on P4 that you could choose when to tackle, here it was something thrust upon you that you had to prepare for.

As for a similarity to P2, I cannot comment, I played very little of that game. I only play handhelds when I'm outside and I rarely have time to play a handheld when I'm outside.

Mm, very good points. Persona 3 is very much about inevitability and coming to terms with it. One thing that comes to mind now actually, is that I like how the Slinks in both games are more about coming to terms with your problems than magically solving them. In P4 I know this annoyed a lot of people in Yukiko and Naoto's S.Links, but bleh! :P And I have to give P3 credit, "Running Shoes" when asked what to get a person who can't walk, is the best dialog response ever. I'd say in general a big part of whether you prefer P3 and P4 comes down to which tone you prefer. I do strongly prefer P4's gameplay for the most part, and I think the S.Links are on average more consistently good, but P3 does have some great moments, and some things it definitely does better than 4. I hear the Female MC route in P3 Portable is better S.Link-wise, as it was written after P4 so they took what they knew and applied it to P3.

Also Kanji is my favorite character in the series not named Eikichi, Maya, or Ulala. Or Jun. Or Katsuya. Okay wait, let's just say my favorite post-P2 character. :P

Don't get me wrong, criticism aside, P3 is still a very good game. :)

EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention one of the reasons I really like Persona 4's cast. You know how in most RPGs every character has some big dark secret like they murdered their wife or their town was destroyed? I like how in P4 they... don't. The characters in P4 deal with stuff like self esteem, loneliness, gender roles, etc. This is true to a certain degree in P3 as well, but I feel like more of the characters in P3 are in more unusual situations. Neither approach is superior, really, I just find the "smaller" problems in P4 refreshing.

Legend of the Dragoon has not been mentioned.

I am very much biased in my assertion I admit. Growing up on consoles, used to games like Final Fantasy , etc. P3 was the first game to show me something truly different. Not different "let's throw everything at the wall and see what sticks", but something that showed that you don't need fantastical worlds to stretch your creativity, it can be done by going to school everyday. It was something like nothing I had ever seen before.

I was so immersed in it that I would get the real calendar confused with the in game one. I'd constantly have to think twice about what day of the week it was, and once I was actually off by two months.

P4 was a sequel to P3. Despite all it changed it just couldn't ever replicate the feeling of "unique" I had with that game. I will say that I prefer the gameplay on P4, but I'll always love P3 more.

Don't worry, I'm biased too. :D Actually, almost every account of the games I see, people tend to prefer the first one they played.

*I would highly recommend P2, honestly. It's much more "typical retro JRPG" and kind of meh to play, but the story and cast are great. Innocent Sin probably has my overall favorite cast in the series (although I'm not done with Eternal Punishment yet, so we'll see if that changes). If you find the gameplay to really bring you down, you could use a walkthrough. There's a very nice spoiler-free one for Innocent Sin, sadly no real equivalent for EP. Plus then you'll realize how much P3 references 2! :D

Like I said, I only play handheld games when I'm outside and I rarely have time to play when I'm outside. Plus, game design on the PSP isn't conducive to handheld gaming (short burst playing and what-not), so when I do play I tend to go with the DS.

I did start playing P2 and I was liking it though. Indeed I wasn't big on the gameplay, but the story was intriguing.

I only got the Hermit S. Link, Maya and Tatsuya, reference. If there is more I would like to see.

Well nyah! I actually played it on an emulator. When I can, I try to use emulators because it's much more convenient than having to set up consoles and blah blah blah. Plus I like save states.
That's the major one. There's some smaller stuff, mostly related to the TV. There's an interview show run by Trish (named after a minor NPC from P1 & 2) where all of the P2 cast (and some of P1) show up, and you can also watch Neo Featherman R on Sundays, a super sentai show which is a plot point in Innocent Sin. And yeah, I think Apathy Syndrome is a purposeful callback to the Shadowmen in Innocent Sin.

Hm. There was never an explanation about what happened to the other Velvet Room inhabitants was there? I liked those guys. And Demon Painter was Kazuma Kaneko.

I think Cobra Mission was better...

Heh, another oldie. JRPGS are the best :p

Anachronox is pretty awesome, Septerra Core is well worth a look, both available on gog :)

Definitely.

Fantastic lighthearted humour and amusingly rewarding progress that satisfies on many levels? Anytime please. =D

Lost Odyssey. I don't know if it has a hint of originality in it (except for, maybe, the immortals and the way they learn skills) but I love it. I haven't played many JRPGs (I think five is the right number), but I think it's my favorite.

Lost Odyssey is worth getting even if just for the little stories that you aquire through the game, one of my favourite games of all time, awesome characters too. I thought it was a 360 exclusive, but apparently not :)

What systems do you have?

If you have either a PSP or a Playstation 2, you should play Star Ocean: Second Story ("Second Evolution" on the PSP). If you have the PSP, you might also play Star Ocean: First Departure.

Also, if you have a PS2 but don't try the Shadow Hears games, I'm going to find where you live and throw rocks through your windows, so you'd better get on that. You should even play Koudelka, for the PSX. (Disclaimer: I am apparently the only person in the world who likes Koudelka). Koudelka and Shadow Hearts were fairly serious horror/dark fantasy games; but sometime between Shadow Hearts 1 and 2, the creative team had some kind of collective mental breakdown and started doing shit like this.