Tales of Symphonia.... well, Fire Emblem

[A Black Falcon]

There are like two RPGs franchises, ever, that have had original storylines.

This is true. But I think I still can complain because, while hard, it is technically possible for fantasy games or books to have original storylines. :) Now, I obviously do like the conventions given that I like the genre, but still... more originality is always good.

It came out a little bit later.

That's what I thought.

It's making the story artificially more complicated, kinda like adding a hundred different unnecessary detours for directions to your house, just to make the drive more complicated.

Complexity in storylines is perfectly fine if it's written and presented well. Like here.

And anyway, a lot of that "extra speech" isn't about the main storyline, it's just stuff that fleshes it out to make the characters seem more "real", I'd say. Which, in my opinion, is appreciated given how most games are.