How interesting that the notion of the story being 'divorced from gameplay' shows up on a Final Fantasy fan board :P

But seriously, you guys who have finished and liked the game, I'm gonna reiterate my prior post. Go back, download those podcasts, and check out the behind-the-scenes walkthroughs. They tell you were to start listening to it in each stage (sometimes it's not at the beginning--I believe the first one begins after you enter the building where you meet Meryl) and then tell you to 'do this' or 'look at this' while they tell you something about it.