It holds up with any other top of the line game you can imagine. Story, characters, premise, gameplay and pretty much everything else holds up better than most other games in the genre to date. Only the visuals are going to be lacking by today's standard since it's PS2, but even then the art style is very stylistic.

Also P3 and P4 are pretty much standalone games with very little connections between them. You can play them in any order you like. There are a few minor gameplay changes from P3 to P4 (most of those changes are improvements), but other than that the main difference is in the settings and characters. While some may argue P4 has a better story, P3 to me just seemed a lot more epic but that's just personal taste and both are great games. If you like one, you'll very likely enjoy the other.

Getting P3 FES is probably the best option since it has the complete story (an extra important segment called the answer is added), but P3 Portable is also a great experience which holds up to the one game and makes great gameplay improvements (taken from P4) but doesn't have the extra segment from FES.

If you look at recent trends then i would say wrpgs, hands down. Jrpgs have been pretty terrible this gen with four exceptions.

Honestly though, i really dont consider them different genres like a lot of people on here do. They are all rpgs.

Jrpgs. better characters and more unique everythng usually though fallout 3 is my most favorite game this gen i think.

I love JRPG's but I've had more fun playing WRPG's this gen with the Witcher 2, Mass Effect, Deus EX, Skyrim and Dragon Age.

LOL Fable doesn't even deserve to be said in the same breath as Zelda or Kingdoms of Amalur. What a disappointment of a franchise, I wish Amalur had Fables bullshit hype and sales, because it deserves it more. I swear its far from a perfect world. The ending of Fable 2 still haunts me to this day and three was just...ugh.

I prefer the better game.

Yes like you said, WRPG's typically have you start off as a blank slate and you develop your character how you like it. JRPG's are more extravagent with their story telling, and give you a more rigid character role. JRPG's usually have a more interesting story's and really focus on character development, but at the same time WRPG's really vary more between games (FallOut is nothing like Dragon Age).

So I like the better game, the game which is just more interesting.

This usually tends to be JRPG's because JRPG developers aren't as focused on profits as they are sucessful art. However this is not always the case, I prefer Mass Effect over any JRPG this generation because it's so damn interesting, and because it's so ambitious. Also unlike most WRPG's, even though you decide the decisions of your character, the outcome really isn't that varied and most of you actions are limited (You have to look where they tell you to look, and are limited in decisions). However the uniqueness of the characters and difference races in this game, and the in depth plot, full of character unique character development makes it seem more like a JRPG then a WRPG. However it's a WRG, and it's pretty interesting. Just exploring different planets, reading on the history of various colonies, or seeing how different races treat each other is so damn interesting.

At the same token, XenoBlade and Lost Odyssey had really unique stories with unique endings. All those "Dreams" in Lost Odyssey were excellent little mini stories about an immortal living different lives over his lifetime, and XenoBlade being a JRPG focused on Revenge, unraveling a much grander scheme. Yet Last Story, Tales of, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are pretty generic in their structure. I would even argue Persona games aren't that different from one another. However is this a bad thing? Pokemon has followed the same flawless formula since it debuted, and I'm not complaing (except the new Pokemon lack inspiration).

So it really depends on the game, which is just more interesting, which is more abitions, and which succeeds in portraying a specific artstyle, mood, setting, and overall gameplay. Just in general, the games which tend to be more artistic, the games which get other people in the room to stop what their doing just to watch you, these are the games which I like,

Favorite RPG's this gen:

JRPG's: Lost Odyssey, XenoBlade Chronicles, The Last Story, Valyria Chronicles 2, Fire Emblem: Heros of Light and Shadow, Pokemon Black/White

WRPG's: Mass Effect Trilogy, Fallout 3, Too Human, Fab....HA joking about the last one.

What an increadibly rude and uncalled for post. Did anyone ask for your opinion of the Fable games? Do you just go around looking for beloved games to insult? Or do you just troll to troll?

Story, storytelling, combat and grafix always have been better and richer in Jrpgs
Wrpgs are crap if you ask me

They're changing and getting bigger in the wrong ways much like Square did with the FF series . Abundance of cinematic cutscenes, streamlined gameplay, linear stage designs, casual dialogue to appeal to and resonate with today's generation of gamers, and fast paced combat that barely rewards strategic thinking. This mindset is prevalent in the industry as soon as you fire up sequels like DA2 where it's obvious the developers didn't get what made DA:O so great. Planescape Torment and BG2 are over a decade old now and no new WRPGs today compare to the scope, complexity and freedom that they had. I have my fingers crossed that Obsidian don't blow it with Project Eternity.

JRPG!