How's the story/pacing?

I love Persona 4, was lukewarm on Persona 3 and couldn't get into the Etrian Odyssey games at all. I like RPGs with a decent amount of story and characterization to break up combat. Not to say I didn't enjoy the combat in EO, but when that's all there is, it gets pretty tedious. I know the game doesn't have social links, which is a bummer, but as someone who didn't like the paper-thin premise in EO games, would there be enough there to keep me interested?

I've only watched the quicklook, but the writing seems very fan service-y. It doesn't feel as genuine as the Persona 4 Jeff and Vinny went through.

It's definitely fanservicey. If you are looking for actual character development you aren't going to find it here.

I instead recommend getting Shin Megami Tensei 4 and using a spoiler free guide for the Neutral path.

Is the combat at least fun to engage with?

I'm about 30 hours into Persona Q. Either you will find the combat interesting or you will find it intolerable. The combat has a ton of nuance to it, but if you're not the kind to like to spend a lot of time unraveling it, you will not really enjoy it. Story so far is kind of interesting overall, but mainly the individual moments are, as repeatedly mentioned previously, aimed at fan service using each character in its most stereotypical way possible.

The game is paced like an Etrian Odyssey game (not a Persona game) and the writing is chock-full of genuinely decent fanservice. The combat is good, though Naoto breaks random battles with her mass target Dark/Light skills.

I'd say it's 80-85% combat, which is fine since it's the best the combat has been in the Persona series. You aren't gonna get a lot of character development considering it all takes place in one day. The story may be lacking but the dialogue is great as long as Zen and Rei aren't in the conversation.

Thanks everyone, doesn't sound like something I'd be into.

@corevi I got SMT4 and didn't really get it, gave up after a few hours. Maybe I'll give that another shot instead.

@duke_of_the_bump: Once you get out of Mikado and into the world proper it becomes fantastic. A little rough around the edges and quite obtuse (I recommend using an actual map of Tokyo for getting around) but everything it does right in atmosphere, music, writing and gameplay more than makes up for it.