On the bombcast this week (10/27/09) Jeff said that he doesn't care about any of the characters in this game. I think he's said this on the bombcast before as well to some extent.  Comparing them to the P4 characters, I could maybe agree that they're less interesting. But I don't think thats a reason to just shrug them off completely.
 
Junpei is pretty awesome
Yukari is okay
Mitsuru is okay
Akihiko is okay
Ken is cool
Koromaru is awesome
Aegis is okay (.. for a robot)
Shinjiro is a fucking badass ( "Adios Asshole!" )
Fuuka is okay
 
 
Other characters all fit their roles
Jin is awesome
Takaya is awesome
Chidori is okay   

Jeff has a tendency to be a bit of a downer, or to say it simply he is not an optimist.

I haven't played the game, but after Watching all of The ER I agree that it would be tough to care about other characters than the ones in P4. 
 
I don't thinks it's that Jeff thinks the P3 characters are bad, just that he loves the P4 characters so much.

Maybe after 100 hours he'd change his tune?

The characters are more anime and less human than the characters in P4.  They definitely step over the melodrama line a few times too often.  If you can get over that you might care about them, though.  Also, Aigis is either horribly written or horribly localized.  And the voice acting is more hit-or-miss than in P4.  Otherwise, it's still a great game. 

" The characters are more anime and less human than the characters in P4.  They definitely step over the melodrama line a few times too often.  If you can get over that you might care about them, though.  Also, Aigis is either horribly written or horribly localized.  And the voice acting is more hit-or-miss than in P4.  Otherwise, it's still a great game.  "

After the only 100 hours of the Persona franchise I've seen being P4 I can also state that I do not give a rat's ass about any other characters from and other game in the series.
 
It takes time spent playing/watching a game to care about its characters, I spent 1/4 of the ER not caring about any of the characters in P4. You have to let them grow on you before you care about them. I think Jeff's saying that after spending so long playing P4 he no longer wants to commit to 25 hours or how long it is to bond with the characters in these other games in the series, which is understandable. I wouldn't either.

Well even you put 6 of the characters as only ok. That's not that great.

I played P3 for a bit and couldn't quite get over the rotten music (like in the HQ with the rapping that sounds like a pitch-shifted white guy going  "YEEEEH MOVE YO BOWADY BU DON HURT NOBOWADY! YEEEEEEEEEH!") or the fact that the battle system is nerfed so the only control I have over my party is vague tactical commands. I only picked up P3 after watching the P4 endurance run and I came to it understanding it would be more primitive, tried to get used to it and failed. The anime cutscenes are really cool though.

" @ChrisTaran:  Yeah I may be being a bit dramatic about this, but it just doesn't seem like he even gave them a chance.  If that is not "don't judge a book by it's cover" then I don't know what is. Of course, he can say whatever the hell he wants.. and we can try and understand where he's coming from. But it's not "fake drama". "

I went into Persona 3 thinking the same thing as Jeff, and sure enough, when Junpei first showed up, I was definitely thinking "well, he's no Yosuke."
 
Well,  after 120+ hours with the game over the last couple months, that opinion certainly changed. Funnily enough, it was Junpei's character that grew on me, the most. All the rest of the main cast are pretty awesome, too. I will say that there were a number of side social link characters that I just found abysmally boring, but to be fair, P4 had a few of those, too. I'd say Jeff would grow to like them about the same as the characters from P4, given enough time. I'd also say that I'd be up for a P3 endurance run, and think it would be different enough, but obviously still have the vibe that only a Persona game can bring. Of course, now I have to hit myself for joining the "Giant Bomb should do *insert game here* for their next endurance run!" crowd.
 
If anything, the game is worth the time just to hear the final, final boss music (Burn My Dread).

P3 is a much gloomier game with much more generic characters. The reason why people argue that P3 is better than P4 is because of the grinding and depth that Tartarus provides, as well as the more emotionally story, which Jeff don't give no damn about. 
Also: Jeff just doesn't want to play Persona 4 with different characters. After spending 100 hours with the Investigation Team, it is kinda hard to get used to the blander characters of P3.

I thought pretty much all the characters in P3 suffered from either being way too precocious or incredibly childish, which I guess might mean the same thing in P3's context. I ended up either not caring for or being irritated by P3's cast. Complete opposite with P4, though.

Do we even know he actually hates them? I always thought he hasn't had experience with these characters so he just prefers P4's cast. Having beat P4 and P3 FES, I prefer P4's characters but still enjoy P3's.

I enjoyed P3 a lot, although the game is much different tone-wise when compared to P4. I imagine that Jeff would find the Persona 3 characters and story to be too emo and serious, but nevertheless I still think the game has its charms. Looking back, I could see some saying that the characters in Persona 3 were stereotypes: The rich girl (Mitsuru), the shy girl (Fuuka), the jock (Akihiko), etc.
 
Still, shooting yourself in the head > breaking tarot cards, when it comes to summoning Personas. :P

Jeff hasn't even played P3 yet.  I'm not sure why we should get the impression that he hates the game's cast.

bottomline: p4 cast was more colorful, vibrant and alive which complimented the anime feel which i'm a fan of. as for the p3 cast, they  were all deep and emotional; you felt their character development throughout the whole game due to the tragedies they had.

I like the P3 group more than the P4 one, so different people have a right to have different tastes.  Even among the P4 group, I like some more than others.  I'm a stronger fan of Yukiko than Chie, but the ER guys had a stronger connection to the plucky girl in the green jacket.  Does that mean that they hate Yukiko?  I don't think so, and it doesn't mean I dislike Chie either.  All it means is that I have a different opinion.  Jeff has since said that he would go back and play P3 when P3P comes out.  I think he was pretty burned out on Persona in general after the whole ER came to a close.

" Well even you put 6 of the characters as only ok. That's not that great. "

" Let me blow your minds with the actual answer:
 
Be warned, this is going to be a doozy...
 
He doesn't actually hate the characters and people bored with nothing else to talk about will make up bullshit topics like this to create fake drama!  Holy crap, MIND BLOWING.

Just so we're clear, Jeff has not played Persona 3. He does not know the characters, and I don't think he's ever claimed to hate them. He just doesn't think he'll like the characters in Persona 3 as much as he did the characters in Persona 4. It's not that he has a problem with Persona 3's cast; rather it's a testament to how much he liked Persona 4's cast.

He doesn't expect to like Persona 3's characters as much as he liked Persona 4's characters. And you know what? A lot of people felt the same way about Persona 4 before they played it.

Jeff hates everything that he doesn't know first hand that he likes. Also, after watching some footage of P3, I know that I like the characters in P4 much better.

" I enjoyed P3 a lot, although the game is much different tone-wise when compared to P4. I imagine that Jeff would find the Persona 3 characters and story to be too emo and serious, but nevertheless I still think the game has its charms. Looking back, I could see some saying that the characters in Persona 3 were stereotypes: The rich girl (Mitsuru), the shy girl (Fuuka), the jock (Akihiko), etc.  Still, shooting yourself in the head > breaking tarot cards, when it comes to summoning Personas. :P "

He doesn't hate them. He just doesn't care. And considering he's never played the game , why would he care?

Cause none of them are Chie.

" @animateria said:

"Yukiko is totally not different Fuuka, and Chie isn't similar to Yukari, and Yosuke isn't another Junpei... "

Dude, no way.  No way.  Junpei is your bro.  Yosuke is most definitely not a "bro" archetype.  All he does the back half of Persona 4 is yell anyway.  What Persona 5 needs is a bro.  Yosuke is not bro enough, frankly. "