So i hear that its popular, especially persona 3.

What is great about it? Is it an rpg? action rpg? would i need persona 1 to get into persona 3 ?

Well, I've only ever played the original Persona on the PSX, and it was an enjoyable little title - the battle system was solid and the storyline definitely intriguing. Low points in the game though was the constant first-person perspective dungeon crawling, which was very poorly executed 3-D in only four directions, like something from the previous generation, made worse by the horrible random-encounter rate. The world map (of which was basically just the one big city) was also very crudely rendered too, especially when FFVII showed what could be done with a world map.

The very first game was also poorly translated by Atlus's US branch too, with the original Japanese character names changed to American names (like 'Mark') - which was even more ridiculous when the game was so clearly set in contemporary Japan yet the currency in the game was in US dollars.

I've read the later games in the series fixed or changed these problems, but I wouldn't know as I haven't played any of the latest ones (including the spin-off Shin-Megami-Tenshi titles).

Atlus games defy simple explanation. There's just no way to tell you if you'd like them, without you playing them. So much of their appeal is around the atmosphere, and their willingness to be very dark and crazy one minute, and charming and funny the next, in their storytelling. The Persona games are no exception - the first 2 are pretty hardcore JRPGs, so don't bother unless you have a real tolerance for grinding and random encounters (the encounter rates are infamously extreme in Atlus games, triggering every couple of steps in some areas).

3 and 4 are the ones that most people care about. Again though, its hard to say if you'd like it. More than any other games I've played, Atlus games have this 'It just feels right' factor that makes you go along with whatever it asks of you, be it hardcore JRPGing, life sim antics, or tiresome block jumping. I frequently *shouldn't* like the systems they are using, but I like their worlds, atmosphere, writing, characters and tone so much, that it all seems worth the effort in the end.

Their games speak to me, they talk my language if you will. But that's a personal thing and not something I can say would happen for everyone.

I have played jrpgs before, and gameplay means a lot to me.

The combat systems of Persona 3 and 4 are fine, but they get very samey IMO. Find an enemy's elemental weakness, keep hitting it with that attack. Find its elemental strengths and defend against them. Rinse and repeat. It does the job, its easy to learn, but the main bulk of the work is done outside of actual combat. To do well, you need to get on top of demon fusing, and have the patience to seek out the most useful personas and fuse the right skills. If you do that, the games practically play themselves.

doesn't sound very exciting.I just was curious about other jrpgs.

Like I say, Atlus games defy easy explanation. They aren't like other JRPGs, because they are darker, but also more in touch with modern pop culture etc. Their games feel a lot more relevant to the modern times than the usual 'Quest to kill the Dragon/find the sword etc etc' games. Its still extremely rare to find this kind of non fantasy, non sci-fi setting in an RPG.