There's a difference between proper plot development and shop keepers telling me about their cat catching bloody flu.
You know what's the basis of a good story? *Stuff* has to *happen* in it. Alot of early JRPG games had so much padding that you could sleep on the cartridge, using it as a pillow and you'd be relatively comfortable - all of that added just to artificially extend the story that really wasn't so complex - bunch of heroes goes on an adventure, gets a few crystals of light, goes to dungeons and defeats bosses. That's it - that's the extent of story development in most early Final Fantasy titles.
Square *fixed* that by giving their protagonists something that's called *character* in their later games, and god bless them for that. Don't accuse me of button-mashing if you don't know my video game tastes - I just dislike having to read stuff that shouldn't be in the game in the first place. There's one-line fillers and there's elaborate exposition featuring a woman by the stove telling us how she burned her meal and her husband goes back home soon, because you know, he works at a dairy farm *half an hour later* You recieve 1x Lump of Cheese!*
*not an actual event from a JRPG, but might as well be one, seems close enough.
