Need a new game.

[Session]

But I heard good things about Persona and Shin Megami Tensei :D

Its a really refreshing spin on role playing games, I felt when playing through it. You can fuse, level your Personas, and all kindsa stuff. It can be a bit difficult at times, if you're not wary enough.

I've had a few times going through the different levels of the tower in Persona, to die against something and lose my progress

I'd recommend Dragon Quest 8 since it is excellent as well. You can tame a monster team as you adventure, the story is pretty good, fighting is fun even though its a bit odd getting used to it being turn based. It is about a 60+ hour game, easily. I think I put about 110 hours into it altogether, doing side quests and finding the best monsters for the arena.

The Xenosaga series is alright, but its pretty lengthy. Its got three games in the series, and is fairly challenging. I've also heard the Wild Arms games for the Playstation are fun too. Its supposed to be an rpg, with a lot more guns, and a special fighting system.