What do you mean by plenty of games that focus on story. And it's not so much that either, it's that the GAMERS of today complain if the games are too story based where they have to sit and watch something. Obviously you missed the back lash of DMC4 when it came out.
Plenty of games this gen focus on story. And no, the GAMERS of today don't complain if they're story based, such a broad generalization is not applicable. In fact, more and more gamers have been complaining about shitty stories in games. A large portion of the community has been pushing for more developed, and engrossing stories in games other than RPGS. Most only complain when the story steals away more time from the gameplay rather than being there to complement it.
This is most of the time applicable to action games more than others. Backlash from DMC4? Don't know what board you were own, but the general consensus on the gaming sites I browse is that the cutscenes were cheezy and cool, but the game failed because it rehashed so many stages and bosses in it's latter half.
The cutscenes were never really the main complaint versus gameplay flaws. DMC is a really bad example anyway.
The thing is, FF is know for it's stories. If you start taking it out more and more, then it's going to be disappointing.
SE isn't stupid enough to minimalize the story. It's not like you can't have a good deal of gameplay AND story.
That's not really a good judge for either of our cases. They could just be willingly not showing the battle footage.
It just goes to show that SE knows fans care more about the story before the gameplay. They could have waiting to release gameplay details versus story, but they didn't.
