In the past, I used to have a high tolerance for BS and would consume anything with the words RPG plastered on them, now I'm really picky and I certainly have certain flavors I vastly prefer my games to have.

I can usually suffer through awful gameplay if the plot is really good but I also notice that I tend to never play those games again. A similar trend happens with the reverse situation. I kind of prefer having both like most have said but I guess I may have to say plot is the deciding factor for me. If I want great gameplay I can just switch to a different genre if need be. I can tolerate bad gameplay over an awful story, I need motivation to keep going forward.

Case in point, Thousand Arms, this is a quirky fun dating-sim/JRPG for the PS1. It is funny as hell and never takes itself terribly serious and was fun to go through... except it might have the most obnoxious battle system ever conceived for the genre and whenever people whine about awful battle systems I think of this game.