Each time you load up the game, you hear some dialogue or bits of a conversation. Is any of that stuff important to the story or is it mostly little background info tidbits?

I would say more or less as important as the appendicies in the menu.

If you're into the story, you may as well listen.

Sometimes they are cool, sometime not.

A kind of neat idea sadly undone for me by the recurring video game curse of selective subtitle absence.

My thoughts exactly. This is actually why I asked the question in the first place.

It's the one place I wish they didn't use the DS4 speaker in that game. Also, even if there's a way to change that (which I'm not sure if there is), it still needs subtitles.

On top of that, they're so faint. I presume they wanted to make them kinda ethereal and in the past, but for me, I just can't make out anything that's being said unless I crank the volume up to levels that are a bit uncomfortable for regular play. I end up just skipping them as a result.

That's what I ended up doing as well. I played on PC (hooked up to my TV), and load times were short enough that I never got further than 10 seconds or so into one of the audiologs that by the time I found the remote to turn up volume, the game was ready to go.

Can't be very important if they stuck it in the loading screen

@basm321: I dunno, I feel like this game is doing its best to give out its story in the least demanding way possible, i.e. in very short spurts and without going into great detail. If you're at all interested in the story or think you might be, you have to go out of your way to get any explanations.