Prepared, but I don't think birth stories or OBEM by themselves are helpful. (Some people like them - I wouldn't discourage if you want to watch/listen/read).
The kind of preparation that is helpful IMO:
Knowing about the stages of labour, what physiologically is happening during each stage and therefore what to expect/what to do.
Knowing about the roles of hormones in labour and how your environment and the way you are feeling can influence you - this helps you make decisions about where to be/who to have with you especially during the early stages, assuming that for the later stages you will be in hospital, probably with your partner.
Having lots of different ideas/tools up your sleeve to cope particularly again in the early stages which can be long and drawn out and it's helpful to pace yourself.
Knowing about the most common complications and interventions that can happen/might be offered, what they are used with, in what situation they are helpful and what would happen if that was something that was offered to you.
Knowing about the different methods of pain relief, how they can help, at what stage of labour you would generally use them and what to expect.
Learning a format for asking questions about making decisions such as BRAIN (benefits, risks, alternatives, immediate (what happens if we wait), nothing (what happens if we do nothing))
When you know this stuff, I think that watching/reading/listening to birth stories can be helpful, especially if you're using that birth story to learn more about something (e.g. induction, or waterbirth or back to back position or EMCS) and if you're the kind of person who just likes to consume a lot of information, then a lot of birth stories can kind of fill that gap.
I really liked my NCT classes, though I learned later my teacher was unusual because she focused very much on all this practical stuff - I heard from others that some NCT classes focus more on the risks of intervention, without the context of what they are useful for, or make it sound like techniques such as breath control and movement can magically eliminate all pain, rather than the reality which is that they help you get through the experience of labour, which is very intense (and, yes, painful).
This teacher now runs some different antenatal classes with a business partner, her partner makes this podcast, which is very useful for your partner (and I think a lot of the early episodes are brilliant "basics of birth" explainers) www.birthability.co.uk/podcast/
I also found the book Birth Skills invaluable. Especially making myself a bullet point list of different things to try.
People caution against preparing too much, I think what they mean is expecting to control too much. If you have a very set idea how the birth is going to go, and it's going to go this way because I've done what was said in the hypnobirthing class (or whatever) then it can be difficult if it goes a different way, especially if you've taken on some idea that pain/intervention/difficulty is "caused" by not doing things in a certain way (which isn't true).
Good luck!