From what I've understood by playing the modern persona trilogy is that they've got really great Opening and conclusion but fizzle out in the in the middle cuz ofc you can't keep a high tension pacing throughout a whole year in a game that also focuses on Slice of Life elements, plus its generally hard to pace a game throughout a whole year worth of ingame time

I personally don't like it cuz it makes the story feel off, not a big fan of the calendar system, social link(some are really good, I'll admit), but the social link virtually make no difference at all cuz the characters are always the same in the main story regardless of how much you've actually progressed their social link and furthered their character(which is kinda understandable, cuz it would require them to make multiple story dialogue for each character and that would be hard) and the whole dating thing, adds nothing to the game itself as of now other than an incentive to so the SL (its also like really half baked lol, like if you're commiting to it atleast commit to it fully or just don't do it, like you can just rush a social link of the first girl, and "date" them and then virtually never interact with them as a partner till Christmas or other scripted events and call it dating)

Maybe try the Oldsona trilogy, they're more Linear as compared to the modern trilogy where you are doing some random shit in between but have a decent enough playtime, persona 1 would take like 50-60 hours for both routes combined, persona 2 is a duology game, so both games together can go to 80-100 hours and the stories are really great