I agree with Skyblade - the most important for me is neither of these, but the game world and the world-building. I can get by with boring characters in a fascinating world just fine. I can even get by with a boring story in a fascinating world. I want the world to be interesting and compelling and explorable and discoverable. This really gets to the heart of why I hated FF13, really, even though the subject is overdiscussed to death. I didn't mind Lightning, kinda liked Sazh, the story had some interesting moments, but the world was just not THERE.