I'm aware that my first post could be perceived as quite naiive and immature. Just thought i'd clear that up

Hazard, I agree that it is that Vayne is working from the inside and this creates slight tension but the player is not shown enough what is happening, and due to the phrasing of the story I feel it often breaks up the tension. Yes, technically, Vayne is one of the first characters you see, but when is it really clear he is the enemy? Is it his unforgiving PR English accent? It's clear that this is a very politically driven game, like FFX focused mainly on religion, but it seems as though their deliverence of it all was very shallow. I understand that this is a new FF and I shouldn't compare it to previous FF's but I feel that if they had encountered Vayne, in person, their would be more purpose to the characters. The enemy is what is meant to drive the characters to fight for what they believe in and I never really receieved this urge from them.

Walking through the towns is a good way to get to know the political swaying of Ivalice but I never got the feeling that things were urgent. I felt that there wasn't a war and that nothing really changed in Ivalice from the beginning to where I am at the moment (about 70-80% through). To me, personally, there never seemed to be much substance.

I'm just not really sure whether or not it was on purpose or purely by ignorance the developers thought "let's not really concentrate of the characters", i'm hoping it's the first.

The story doesn't really feel like a story, but it just seems like it has been based upon a theme, politics. The theme is so strong that it overrides the real purpose and story of the game. It feels as though there could have been more memorable moments and instead one was just going from A to B to retrieve item so that one could move on the next area and then repeat. This is a totally acceptable thing, but maaan, they could have put more dialouge in or more interaction or more story development along the way.

Finally, I agree that this is the most "realistic" of FF's. However, the gamer should not HAVE to work out what is going on, just becuase it is realistic does not mean that it should be void of information. It's like an interactive book. We should have been informed much more and told much more. It could've been a fuller thing. Perhaps this was because of the script writers illness, perhaps not. It just feels they could have put more in.

Again, i love this game.