so after following you i really want to play the persona games, but i don't know where to start
[poses] well you've come to the right place, anon
I recommend starting with Persona 3 Portable, which is what i started with. It's got the great story of p3 along with the gameplay improvements from persona 4 [mainly - being able to control ur party members directly]
if u want, after that, you can also play Persona 3 FES, the console version, which contains the extra playable epilogue chapter The Answer, where you play as Aigis and wrap up the story a bit more. It's more challenging [especially with the lack of direct party control] but if you're pretty good at p3p you should eventually get through it.
Then there's Persona 4. if you have a vita i'd say just get Persona 4 Golden, which has a shit ton of extra figures, 2 new social links, and an unlockable extra dungeon. If you dont, though, you can get the console version and have the same story.
After p4 you can jump right into Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. They take place almost immediately after the main P4 story, when the protagonist is visiting Inaba for Golden Week. It introduces new characters [Labrys, Sho Minazuki] and shows what the p3 cast has been up to since the end of The Answer. Both games have some pretty big spoilers for 3 and 4 so I rly recommend playing them after you've beaten the main games.
Finally, of the games that have been released and that I've played, there's Persona Q, a crossover between the p3 and p4 casts and gameplay from the etrian odyssey series mixed with persona gameplay. As far as I've played there's no spoilers for the main p3/p4 plots, so you could play this whenever.
There's also Persona 1,Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment. I haven't played any of them [tho im hoping to get persona 2 soon] but I do know that Innocent Sin comes before Eternal Punishment
P3P is available on the psp and for download from the psn on the ps vita. P4 Golden is available physically or for download on the ps vita. P4 and P3 FES are for the ps2 or download on the ps3/ps4. Arena/Ultimax are for the ps3 or xbox 360, and Q is for the 3ds. I believe 1, 2: IS and 2: EP are all available on the psn but im not sure for what consoles