I believe Fran left because she was like most of the Viera, and was curious about the world beyond. It's implied in the dialogue. Vaan is being an observer and doesn't need to ask annoying questions. I personally don't consider having a character explain every little damn nuance in the game to be called "story telling" or "a well written, cohesive plot" This is exactly why I hated FFX. It was a 50 hour infomercial about buying a time share in Spira. FFXII is a game where if you want those kind of details, you read up on it cause wasting a cutscene to explain it reminds the player they are playing a game.

Also, several bosses were explained and mentioned in FFXII, giving them backstory (Garuda, Belias, Elder Wyrm.) Most of the bosses have their backstory explained in the beastiry. Besides, in reality, if you were being attacked by a monster that came out of no where like a boss, then chances are you would not have the chance to say, "It's the great guardian beast of the land. Created eons ago to protect this land by the ancient ones." It makes more sense to do it that way.

As for the characters, they are well written and far more human than previous games. Ashe's conflict with the nethicite, Vaan's journey to mature and see the world around, Basch's redemption, Balthier's conflict with his father and past. I'm sorry the game doesn't stop every five minutes to let the characters share their feelings, they're too busy trying to restore Dalmasca and stop the Empire to worry about how this is all making them feel. I'm sorry that FFXII doesn't have any scenes where characters complain about their abusive parents as though that is an excuse for them being a total whiny %@#$!

Most of them are adults, or have had adult hood thrusted upon them. They are over their problems. Vaan resolves the issues of his brother's death early in the game. Now he's seeing the world. From some of the cutscenes, he seems well informed about the world already. Realistically, in these situations, these type of people don't need to talk about their lives. Most of them are proffesionals and both Balthier and Lady Ashe made it pretty clear to Vaan and Penelo that they were not allowed to cause problems early in the game. It's realistic.

If you want a character that has no personality, look no further than Yuna. She's a doorknob and prudish as hell. She has no personality, no real motive outside of thinking it's the right thing to do, and ultimately if she were real, she would be the type of person who can stand next to you and you would never notice her. She's a generic "I'm doing this cause it's the right thing to do" character. It's why most of FFX's plot was irrelevant. In fact FFX would have been a better game if no one talked.

Most of that games cast was irrelevant and had no real purpose. Lulu is the generic dark brooding character that supposedly is like a big sister to Yuna, which translated to her threatening Tidus once in the very beginning of the game. She also gets a few interesting tidbits revealed but she never talks about them and the story completely drops them. They seemed to have only been written in cause the staff remembered that she was there and needed to write some plot to her.

Most people don't even remember Kimarihi, Rikku had no real role in the game except to fill in the role of annoying spunky female that has been a mainstay since FFVII. She's supposed to be there to stop Yuna but she never really does anything.

This leaves only Tidus, Wakka, and Auron. But two of them are disqualified for being annoying and whiny and never making a damn decision for themselves. Which leaves only Auron, as the only descent character. This is of course my personal feeling of that game, if you can even call it that.

FFXII, at least has a good story of political intrigue. Sure it's not as good as the standard set by FFT and Suikoden V but it's still better written than most RPG's. Everything has a reason to be there and I never felt like something happened cause the writer's just threw it in without any thought. I'm also grateful that there is no love story. Most of the love stories in RPG's are terrible. Even FF has only been capable of doing it well a few times (FFVIII). That's why it has always been relagated as just a side story in the game. Besides, it's unrealistic to assume that people are going to always "hook up" while they are on a mission to save the world, or get revenge.