Well, I finally picked these up because they were in fact reprinted ($30 apiece).
I finished the first one just a couple days ago. It only took about 20 hours, which isn't too bad.
It's like Persona, with about 10x less talking, 3x more weird stuff goin' down, 5x tougher random battles and 3x tougher bosses (but about 20x more savepoints, so it's all good).
Supposedly the sequel one is depressing and tougher overall; I haven't started it yet 'cause I'm going on a trip for a week (headed to PAX after visiting family).