Just picked up Persona 3: FES. Couple of questions.

[Euphoria14]

As a big fan of RPG's I finally picked up a Persona game, yes it is sad that it took this long... I know. Anyways I have a couple of questions.

#1 - Do these tie into the previous two games? If so, do I need to play the first two to understand what is going on?

Second question isn't exactly about this game but I felt the need to ask anyways.

My local Gamestop had Digital Devil Saga in stock, is it similar to Persona? Which of these games would have been a better purchase?