The Persona games use Japanese ooga-booga-art-design, which does not make use of porygons, and thus it cannot possibly ever hope to achieve an emotionally engaging story.. with emotions. Final Fantasy has realized, that by taking the control away from the player, and do all the work for you and implementing a 10 minute cutscene every 5 steps, filled to the brim with action and fun where you as the player are not invited to the fun but instead been told to sit and watch the game have fun without you. It has achieved the principles of crafting an excellent engaging narrative, with equally excellent characters -- It does not have time to weave exposition or world building into the narrative, because it already knows what is going on and thus it doesn't see the need for why it should tell YOU about it. And unlike those avant-garde-games like Silent Hill 2, it does not need to fabricate backstory or symbolic value in the environment, to grant meaning to its plot, but instead all it really needs are arguably attractive androgynous early 20-year olds with hair that look like they've accidentally gotten their head stuck in a barrel full of a paint whom all emote through obnoxious grunts and moping gestures.
This is the key to Square and Cage's success and where everyone has failed.