If you play the game and see everything that there is to see (which requires a few playthroughs) then the story is just as in-depth as any other Final Fantasy game, it's just light-hearted so it doesn't seem that intense when really it is. And I didn't really mind the lack of FMVs, it seems that ever since FFVII the game makers have been relying far to much on the FMV to push the graphics. Not to mention that the few FMVs in this game are rather long, so that kind of explains the lack thereof.