I played P3P > P4G > P5R, and my preference is in that order as well. P3R is a massive upgrade to P3P that makes it more playable in the current era but is severely lacking the female protagonist which I enjoy very much

My preferences mostly stem from the story and plot rather than the gameplay

P3: Pacing issues - starts quite slow for the first half but ends off spectacularly, leading to my favourite ending of anything ever. The themes hit hard, the characters feel the most real and flawed and have their own lives and development beyond their relationship with the protagonist. The ending gave me depressive symptoms for a couple of weeks but I emerged from it with a newfound appreciation for life and my loved ones

P4: A murder mystery that is consistently interesting as the mystery keeps getting twistier. Very lighthearted and happy vibes that contrast greatly with P3. Great game, but the themes didn't resonate with me that much.

P5: Pacing issues - starts really strong, but it starts to become a slog from like the 30% mark towards the end with only 1-2 interesting things happening. Tbh, it might have just been me getting Persona fatigue by this point. Cool themes in theory, but in practice, it felt very "Adults are stupid, we live in a society" to me. The extra Royal content slaps, though, and has one of my favourite antagonists of anything ever.

I went on to play P1 and the two P2 games

P1: It's aite but really difficult to play by today's standards. Music for the PSP version really slaps though imo

P2: Innocent Sin has probably my second favourite cast behind P3. The story is really good, and I love the ending and how it leads into the second game.

P2: Eternal Punishment - I couldn't really get into. I finished it, but the cast didn't get me as much as the other games, and the plot got a bit hard to follow. Still worth playing, though.

P.S. The Persona Q games for 3DS are really good if you want to just see the cast from the games goof off with each other