Actually real gamers don't need the story when a game is this enjoyable.It sounds like this playable 8 characters was done wrong from a storytelling perspective.
They should have instead just started the game mid-conversation or combat with all 8 of them, then they sit down and re-call/re-tell each other's backstories, maybe split over 2 chapters at decent times within the story rather than give this illusion of choice to us. gamers are too smart these days .
Story line stuff is usually pitched by people that need to identify with characters or that can not phantom enough imagination to fill in the blanks..