Questions about white shroud

[Tomoebi]

Do you need to play as him to grasp the whole story?
If not, can you not play as him at all?

I tried the game demo for an hours or two(read:pirate) and quite enjoy it. But playing as white shroud everytime i finish a dungeon is kinda break the game flow for me.

[Jupiter3927]

He's a bonus character and is only playable in the extra sections of the game.
He shows up in the main story but not as a playable character.

[Rev]

He shows up in after story as playable too. You can't avoid playing as any character if he or she is story-locked in your party. Shroud is story-locked in some cases.

And... There is no way to skip Side Stories. But there is bright side - you play as Shroud in two or three SS. Other times you're forced to play another chars.

SS is additional content of ex+ version.They tell your stories about other story characters adding depth to them all, nothing story-breaking, but better building the characters.