I think the (lack of) story is stupid
Dear everyone playing VP for the first time: stick with it or cheese your way to the best ending, then kvetch about the story. At least kvetch on solid ground!
[spoiler]THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS ARE SUPPOSE TO BE LIGHT ON STORY, intro aside! Chapter 4 and beyond raise it exponentionally![/spoiler]
VP is really making apparent to me one of the things I dislike about these guys' games, which is that the function of most of the stuff in the game can really only be learned through experimentation and probably a lot of reloading. I mean experimentation is fun but not when you have to do it to figure out basic game mechanics. I eventually broke down and looked at a FAQ to see exactly what I was doing to myself, and ended up reloading a save way back before the first dungeon boss to replay things. Not because I had necessarily screwed myself too badly, just because I felt I might enjoy things more if I played it the way the guide suggested instead.
I won't deny that playing through with a guide is a good idea.. but what mechanics? Artifacts aren't that important, min-maxing isn't that important even on hard mode, every random battle is a chance to learn the battle system(you should be a machine by chapter 3, only having to minorly adjust for newbies) and the most complicated puzzles are pretty free to repeat(fuck you, crystals!)
[spoiler]The fun in the battle system is that no matter how good you actually get, you can A) become better and B) keep experimenting well into the post end-game to end up with a perfect four-piece. At least that's what kept my interest.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Maybe I am biased here because I "cheated" by immediately realizing how to satisfy 100% of all Valhalla's requirements? I basically enter a new chapter, do all the divinities I'm allowed to and piss away my 20-30 EXTRA DAYS clearing the dungeons with the newbies or hold-overs that satisfy Freya, then send them off at the second-to-last-day. I never kept any artifacts because OCD.
The only thing I learned firsthand that bothered me was that most non-dungeon and non-tragedy town visits are pointless without a FAQ holding your hand for rare item drops or silver-haired peasant girl flashbacks. And even then I just stopped checking after about four explorations.[/spoiler]