"But son, we already have Persona at home." This game = 'Persona at home'. This game is pretty much a dungeon crawling action RPG in the style of (but far more simplified than) games in the modern Persona series. It takes place in a school but doesn't really involve any of the standard Japanese school tropes (clubs, festivals, studying, etc), and the Persona-isms it has (broad stat categories increased by in game actions, personal relationships) are highly watered down. Combat takes place in generally bland dungeons, but opts for an action oriented design as opposed to a turn based one. The plot itself is the standard 'evil supernatural forces are trying to destroy the world' stuff you'd expect from this genre of game, but you never feel really connected to any of the characters or locations the way you are from better games of this genre. The gathering of the team and the story of how they first interact and grow with each other feels much more forced and awkward than with games from the Persona (or Trails of Cold Steel) series. It certainly has some of the more annoying Japanese high school JRPG tropes though (hot spring hijinks, OMG AN IDOL GOES TO MY SCHOOL!, etc). About the only thing that saves it is the pretty tight gameplay and (always killer) Falcom soundtrack. For someone coming from other games of this style, you'll probably feel disappointed, but if you're a fan of Falcom stuff, you already know what you're getting into, though you'll probably also feel disappointed if you've already played through the various games in the Trails series.
