So you go through a story that seems pretty straight forward up to the last act where it suddenly becomes convoluted.
Well if you are surprised, turns out that 90% of the plot was actually in the lore, and because you weren't reading the codex, or watching additional material you don't have a clue what was going on.

It becomes hard to invest yourself when you:

Don't know what the characters stand for.
Why the characters are doing anything they do.
What the stakes even are.
Very little of the main plot is conveyed throughout the story.


When I say keep it simple, I don't mean treat the audience like idiots. I mean give all the characters understandable motivations, and make the main conflict easy to grasp.
That way we can make sense of what is going on, and feel involved in the main story.

Am I the only one who struggles with understanding the plot of Final Fantasy games?