honestly I was kind of miffed about all the persona stuff but after sleeping on it - I actually like the idea of Persona gameplay loop, and really hated mostly the kiddy shit "boy peep on girl in bath" filler garbage I had to endure in P4. This game seems to be more pompous, more "serious", on a grander scale. Not sure how to word it properly, but the "seriousness" scale seems to be closer to SMT than Persona.
This could be the closest we get to an "adult Persona" (p2ep does not count because it doesnt have muh slinks), without any generic teen comedy anime trash filler, and I think I like what I see.