The only game I would put up against the Persona series in terms of writing and gameplay is Chrono Trigger -- and I wouldn't do it because that would be unfair to all of the games.

I highly recommend Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2. The writing is good, the gameplay solid. They have relationship systems that are even more important than they are in P3 and P4: failure means losing party members. They also have timed event systems, although broken up by hours rather than the longer day periods because the games are set over the course of 1 week each, with similarly dire consequences for ignoring important events.