Perhaps you are right.

But the Story of FFIII is thousand times better (in my opinion) than that of FFIIj. That game was just plain boring after a while, and the Emperor is nearly impossible to beat without the blood sword.

the Floating Continent. Why? I dunno. But I liked it when I discovered it. I played the NES version up until after the Water Crystal. Now I'm waiting for FF III DS.

Story may be thrown together. That's your opinion.
But for others, it isn't.

And about Cloud of Darkness, well, don't know it's background story that good, but I heard it is an extremely difficult boss, which sounds good.