For me, with anything, it's a balance of everything.

Demon/Dark Souls has very little story, and only if you look for it. But the gameplay, the sense of accomplishment makes it very rewarding.

Uncharted has typical Third Person Shooter gameplay, but the story is awesome and it's very beautiful that I play through it to know what happens and see everything.

So, I think gameplay is most important, but if the story is strong enough, and the gameplay isn't horrible, I will play it through. Honestly, I'd almost rather no story on some games that exist because it's just horrible, but the gameplay was still good. I find my biggest problem with games today is that there is little challenge to any of the gameplay, especially RPG's. Like Resonance of Fate was creative and cool, but as soon as I knew the perfect strategy, every single fight was identical, and no longer any fun. I never finished it. That's fine for games like God of War where you only play 8 hours anyways, but for a 40+ hour RPG, you have to make enough variety for me to enjoy playing it that long.

So I think everything is important for a GREAT RPG, but gameplay is the most important because that's the part you're actually controlling.

THE JACKEL