I should add though narrative can be important, but it is far from the most important thing in every game.
Sure, in Final Fantasy I expect a good narrative since that's why I play it. In a game like Gears 2 it's nice to have it, but I don't play games like that for the narrative. You're really just wasting effort if you're trying to make a game like that have a strong narrative since your target audience doesn't care.