I have not played the original game.
P3R's story is an engaging experience. It does feature a compelling storyline, and (mostly) great side characters. I understand the appeal of the persona system that adds a lot strategy to this game however I personally decided to just brute-force it in easy mode because Tartarus was starting to feel repetitive, my choice, my fault, but it still felt great and fun to do thanks to the amazing soundtrack, like damn, I couldn't stop singing it in my head.

Despite its many strengths, P3R felt to me like it was sometimes wasting my time. The game's pacing, particularly in the social links part, sometimes feels slow and drawn out, with I would consider to be a bloated amount of social link options that are not always the most engaging. While the emphasis on daily life activities can add depth to the experience, it felt to me that it detracted from the sense of urgency of MSQ. What I'm trying to say here is that waiting 30 days for a full moon is TOO much.

I will say that the game does pick up in pace around September (but at this point you have 30+ hours in the game) until the very end of December. It drops this engaging twist that really made me want to play 'til the end. Again, the story of this game is GREAT. I love it. Cried a few times. January still felt boring. January 31st is great. That is the pattern.