imo, Persona 3 is better than Persona 4. Even though I guess you can complain about not being able to control your units and complain about the AI being stupid but that's what strategy is for...
There are a lot of good games for the PS2 that I would recommend if you like playing rpgs. Or get Sakura Wars and enjoy the duel language option!
There's also Odin Sphere, Eternal Poison, Final Fantasy X (lol I liked X), Tales of the Abyss (and Tales of Legendia, but it's a hit and miss for a lot of people)...
There's probably more that I can't remember at the moment...
Edit: Nevermind Persona, Digital Devil Saga is great. and SMT: Nocturne--although I heard it was hard as hell, I've only watched my friend play it.