Nonsense, and this is coming from someone who detested IS/EP. P3 was "fun" (and I "enjoyed" playing it, more so than I did IS/EP), but ultimately a trivial experience. From my perspective it lacked artistic integrity, not "horrible" but trendy nonsense nonetheless.
It is important to remember, I think, that -streamlined- is not necessarily indicative of -improvement-.
I hate P1/P2's battle systems. The only thing those games have going for them are their stories, in my opinion. And a few dungeons. P3, however, has almost every thing I'd ever want from a Japanese rpg gameplay wise.
Game play? It's an RPG. It's the plot, characters, music, art, et cetera that made the game bad, not the "game play".
Huh? So you're saying SMT games, games that primarily are gameplay oriented and not story oriented, should not be judged on gameplay but...story?
Right. I thought the story was fine. I liked the story in Persona 2 more, but the characters in P3 were all excellent.