I agree about the characters, you need a perspective point and as a writer it can be sometimes hard to get the player to understand the protagonists point of view if you're making them do all the hard work (ask a 100 people what was going through Cloud's head at key points of VII or Squall's in VIII and see how many answers you get) Therefore throw in a couple of mildly amusing, light hearted newb like characters who are learning much of the stuff about the world as the player does and seeing what the other main characters of a story are thinking becomes easier especially with computer games as they get to interact with them like for example when you keep talking to Fran in the entrance to the Viera village she'll eventually give away some tidbits of information which help understand why she won't go with you. If you were seeing the story from Fran's perspective you'd not get that it'd just be "oh lets give you a shopping list and send you on" or a massively long cut scene ect.