Characters are the most important thing to me. I will trudge through a horribly written cliché ridden story if the characters are interesting. Tales of Legendia is my example, the story is dumb and the combat is okay, I played it after Abyss and being back on a 2D field was off putting. Anyway, with the exeption of two characters I loved the main cast. And I think the writers realized that because the "story" ends halfway through the game and second half is just character arcs.

Senran Kagura is another example. I've said it before, but for one reason or another the characters is why you're there. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun and fast paced beat 'em up and all the characters play different, but it can get a bit repetitive. But in Shinovi Versus, I had more fun going through the character arcs more than the school arcs. And Bon Appetit had nothing but character arcs.

The Neptunia games have a good balance, I think. The main threat is there and you have your end goal, but you spend the first half or so travelling around the world getting to know the main cast and establishing their traits and the second half builds upon those traits as they work together...or bicker about videogames and boobsize. But then again, my favorite Neptunia game is Action Unleased and the plot there is minimal and it's mostly character oriented. It also probably worth mentioning that Action Unleased was made with the Senran Kagura team.