Games with good stories and a bad cast

Inspired by the Character Vs. Story thread, what are some games you feel had an interesting story but a less than stellar cast of characters?

This is actually really hard for me to answer because characters are what usually make a story interesting to me. I guess the mainline SMT games could qualify since the characters there are mostly there to serve a specific purpose instead of being super developed, but I still wouldn’t call them bad by any stretch.

While I don't think the characters are bad and it's still one of my favorites every, I definitely felt Xenogears was a bit weak on the character writing aspect. There was a lot of interesting things going on around the characters and with their backstories, and part of this may be a fault of the translation but the characterization itself could often feel a bit flat and I was definitely more engrossed by the plot than the individual cast members.

Bringing up SMT is an interesting one since it calls Persona 5 to mind for me where, while the characters are usually pretty good, the inconsistent writing of those characters would often detract from their overall story arcs and of the plot and themes the story was trying to tell, it could get really jarring at ties.

FFXII also kind of falls into this for me, I like the characters well enough (and am generally a Vaan and Penelo apologist) but the world and setting are far more captivating than a good chunk of the various character dramas. Final Fantasy in general can be a bit inconsistent, FFIX comes to mind as having some really memorable characters and a handful of hangers-on who were less endearing. FFV as well has very sparse characterization (and honestly in my opinion a fairly weak plot even by early standards) but the Job system is fantastic so it gets away with it more gracefully.

DARK SOULS! The overarching plot and themes, and things the characters represent are a lot more interesting than the characters themselves. I mean Artorius is a fascinating character that you can presume a lot about, but you actually don't know a damn thing about him. Siegmeyer is just about the only developed likable character, and you get like 4 worthwhile conversations with him

I kinda want to say FF10 or 13, but I don't really care for their plots either, let alone their characters

It's purely subjective, but for me, FF8 fits. There's maybe 2 likable characters for me. But the plot is fascinating, the lore and the world are really interesting to me. They took FF7 and made it less punky and dystopian, and made it more modern and suburban

Mainline SMT games tend to fall into this category for me. I love the stories and while the cast is hardly bad, they're definitely not the main attraction for these games. Romancing SaGa 2 is another example of a great story, but don't hold your breath on character as so much of it has to come from the player.

It's pretty rare that I'll play a game with characters that I don't like so much, but if I do, you can bet that I really love the narrative. The only real examples I can think of are these Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XIV

The closest thing that comes to mind is Chrono Cross, which has a somewhat interesting story and a dull, flat cast.

Gotta agree. Chrono Cross is pretty much the gold standard for this category. That said, even CC has some pretty decent characters, like Kid and Harle. Maybe just Kid and Harle....

Final Fantasy I. Those characters had no personality at all! :p