by OL » Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:03 pm
To an extent.
The Devil Summoner games certainly have the personality, I think, though they don't have any voice acting at all (which may ruin it for you; I'm fine with it, but I know a lot of people take umbrage with that fact). They're both essentially detective stories based in 1920s Japan, and the writing was made to reflect the quirkiness of the time (meaning yeah, it's occasionally pretty funny).
The characters in the Digital Devil Saga games start off entirely stoic and personality-less, but begin to gain their personalities back through the course of the games (this is intentional; it's a part of the story, rather than a product of bad writing, and it works really well). DDS is a pretty dark series, though, so with the exception of one character, it's not very funny or bouncy like P4. It's generally more apocalyptic and serious.
The characters in Nocturne probably have the least character, though the story is still pretty enthralling, when it actually shows up. Of all the SMT games I've played, this one is the single most hardcore as far as level-grinding RPGs go. And it's fucking difficult. Actually, despite its amazing apocalyptic atmosphere and great character designs, I'd recommend this one to you least of all. I'd say it should solely be reserved for someone who really want to level grind and work on stats and killing demons. It's fucking hardcore as hell. I love it, but it's not for everyone.
I'd say your best bets would be to play either Persona 3 on PS2, or Devil Survivor on the DS. P3 is pretty much just like P4 with its social elements and all, while Devil Survivor is a strategy RPG which uses a similar "anime highschoolers fighting demons" backdrop, which of course means the story and characters are great.
Also of note, they're going to release the remake of the first Persona game on the PSP later this year. The original western release of Persona had an unfortunate localization (changing characters up so they feel more American and whatnot), but this PSP version will be faithful to the original, which means it'll probably be kind of similar to P3 and 4.
It's certainly one of the big ones I'm looking forward to.