Pretty simple process. If the characters don't matter, if they aren't important/likable/interesting/relate able and so forth, then it is very easy to lose interest in the game or the characters or what happens to them.
A plot can rarely carry its self, dynamic characters are important as well.
Based on the kind of stuff you like, Legends will be a bit too "light" for your taste. You're a tad too "hardcore" for that kind of thing, honestly. But it's definitely the diamond in the rough when it comes to stories with Capcom. Command Missions is also decent, but doesn't compare.
Also, gotta say. KOTOR 2's story was superior to KOTOR 1. Let the flames begin.
Interesting. Funnily enough, I see stories praised and worshipped, even though when there are silent protagonists. Hell, even when stories have... no characters, should we say? Like in Flower. Interestingly enough, characters really are completely irrelevant sometimes. because characters change with the flow of a story. Character development, they call it. Look at Batman's Damian. KOTOR's Bastilla. They start off as snotty little [sonic slicer] characters, and end up as some of the best and most developed characters in their own stories. The plot is what matters, because it's what BUILDS the character. A character is never really stuck to a single characterization of a story is any good. They grow throughout the story, they interact with what's happening, and that's what makes them good. Put any unlikeable bastard in a challenging plot, and I assure you the character will come out different from the other side. Changed and grown-up. I love to hate a certain character in a well-developed tale. Because you never know what you're gonna get.
I'm not too hardcore for simple stories. Zelda: Link's Awakening had a simple story, yet a tragic development. I liked the way it flowed and ended. Oddworld games also have simple stories, but awesome execution. Yakuza, for example. It thrives on its simplicity, but the way it does it so well is what makes it enjoyable. I'll like it as long as it'll do that story RIGHT. The only Megaman games I've been in touch with that had a big story of any sort were the Battle Network titles. And Jesus Christ, those had a shambling mockery of clichés and profund stupidity as a "plot".
KOTOR's story is debateable. 1 was simply and purely, an adventurous story, with a cast of riveting characters, each one enjoyable and with its own personality, a plot which was quite good, simplistic but could drive its own weight better than any other Star Wars fiction I've ever seen, and everything was very convincing. It was done. Finished and it triumphed.
KOTOR 2's story, is what I call an example of greatness falling short. It had alot of plot development, more complicated characters and a more convulted story. But it was unfinished to a degree that it was unforgiveable. The cast was more complex, but their stories didn't make sense sometimes. Every single one of them except for T2 was basically waiting to stab you in the back. You had a TON of elements, betrayals you could see coming from a mile away, and the usual cryptic speaking between people. I dunno about you, but I hate it when a game's characters speak in such a smart way, yet follow such boring, linear plans. KOTOR 2 was an unfinished game in every way, from its constant bugs, badly-made levels, unnatractive environments compared to the original, and drab overall colors, along with repetitive scenarios. Obsidian aimed for the very top, but they couldn't reach it in time. Thus, a game even buggier and crashier than its predecessor, in which we're constantly reminded of how deep and traitorously the new characters behave, as well as how dark the story goes. I did like Nihlus, though. Was dissapointed when the final encounter was so damn predictable, with an enemy with whom made little sense to fight, after every single action done in the course of the game. It had so much potencial... but it fell short.