well i think we can all say that the Shin megami tensei is slowly working its way up the ranks of the RPG world.  games like persona 3 and 4 are getting high praises from most reviewers; scoring in the 8.5-9.0 ratings. Mind u i have not yet played DDS or nocturne as of yet, but even those are getting praised as well hell they even ranked it at the same level as FFX(by RPGfan). So with this in mind, is this series as good as Final Fantasy or is it even better?

well in my opinion i say it is better. Dont get me wrong i love FF just as much as anybody, however ever since the enix merger, Square has not been the same. FFX-2 and FFXII were...not very good and didnt really feel like FF games at all(this is actually more along the ways of FFXII). Although im still excited for FFXIII, my trust in the company to produce a game with an epic story and memorable characters has been shaky as of late. Where as Atlus has been putting games out there back and forth and have been getting stellor reviews. So yea i no im rambling now so ill wrap it up and hear ur thoughts.

what do u think is better SMT or Final Fantasy???

I´m love FF too, it can be seen by my name and avatar. But I must agree. Late FF´s weren´t that good and if you don´t mind visuals, where SMT doesn´t excel (but it isn´t some catastrophe either), then SMT are probably better games.

I really liked P3, P4 and DDS (both were great, but IMO first was better).

Of course, that doesn´t mean, that I´m not excited for FFXIII. But I would like some new SMT (both Perosna and SMT alike) too.

Final Fantasy has been an up and down series for me while SMT has been constantly good throughout.

Also, in my opinion, Final Fantasy games have issues with making me care about the characters. III, VII, VIII, X, XII all had characters that I didn't really care for at all (with some exceptions), which is a really bad thing for games in this genre.

So far I'll say the SMT series but granted I've only played the Persona series on the PS2 and Devil survivor on the DS.

same here but im curious to see how the other games in the series measure up

I think SMT is as good as FF, since the PS1 days

Persona 2 innocent Sin was one of the best RPGs i played,

and DDS was the best i played on the PS2 (better that persona 3 and 4).

Its true that FF toke a step back but am sure with XIII + Versus FF will be better than ever

I'm not impressed with the Persona games so far.

Hopefully the main-series games are better.

overall i think FF it's still better.
persona have good points, but gameplay just evolve , and u can see FF higher production values.
like the japanese orchesta music from uematsu, HD graphics and polished characters.

persona 3 - 4 was a nice change, but i feel gameplay changes were not as big as what ff13 is experimenting, the story improved, enough to make care about the characters but no enough to feel epic, but the story was done well.

I love SMT: Persona 3 and 4. Make me feel the same feeling what I felt when playing Suikoden series and FFVII to X. If Persona 5 will announced right now, I will be more excited to get my hands on it than FFXIII.

They both have a great lore and background. SMT are very deep and also dark/occult, FFs have always one of the most creative settings.
DDS was how I was introduced to SMT, Persona are my favorite ones among them and my current number 1s.