Now I have to ask

I have no idea what you consider a good story. This didn't have an amazing story but it was decent--solid--at least. Did you expect Symphonia all over again or something? The characters from the original were no better than these. No worse either. Marta, Emil, Ratatosk, Richter, etc. are all consistent and still manage to grow which is more than could be said for most game characters.

Tenebrae alone is the best thing either of these two games managed to produce.