That's not true in this game's case, your personality responses is responsible for growing Cove into the person he becomes in the next stage, you might not know what matters in the beginning, but you'll see the results in the following life stage; (Warning, this whole post is practically spoiler, so read at your own risk!!!)
I can't exactly say what response does what, though one of the most obvious ones is when you flirt with Cove in the second stage, he asks you what you're into, and me, being a sucker for long hair, picked the hair option (I also explicitly mentioned like his), each time I do this, he generally have the ponytail when in the third stage.
It was only once that he had the medium hair option, but that's when I was experimenting with my personality for a bolder Cove (picking more of the combative responses), and he must have slightly rebelled at my interests (my character was played pretty rebellious, doing the opposite of what everyone wanted), though he certainly never showed up with the short hair (maybe if we hated/were indifferent to each other! Because you get the option to reject obtaining an ankle bracelets once he tells you his interests, so I assumed if you didn't like each other, and confess your interests, he'd probably avoid it like you have the option to).
I'm not looking into the files to see what influence what, but clearly my responses changed him in this way.
A less obvious response is something to do with his clothes, when I first played through this game, and picked the more coddling "Support Cove and give him everything" choices (you know the one, those that always agree with him or reassure him that he's fine the way he is) I always end up with jean shirt Cove (which I actually hate, but I don't know what's making him choose it!!!
), but also in my experiment of being more rebellious to Cove (picking more options that I wouldn't have done if it was really me), he turned up in a black, buckle like shirt; I also tried making my character more depended on Cove as a child, and got him wearing the black, puffy sleeved shirt in the second stage, but this time I balanced being whiny myself, with coddling Cove, and he wore the same black shirt but with out the puffed sleeves as a tween, but back to that damn jean shirt (which actually looked okay because he wore the white shorts with it, that didn't look like a teen boy's train wreck of a closet) as a teen.Also, there are some responses that I don't have the heart to not choose, because I can't fathom who would choose anything else (I don't want to divert too far from my own personality), and these options seem to keep giving me glasses and jean shirt Cove in the third stage, so clearly my responses is influencing his clothes in some way! You just have to wait until the next stage to see your results.
I can't give you an example of what responses does what, because I honestly don't know, but expressing my character in certain ways does effect how Cove respond to you inside the stages, it also help if you choose rather to be Nervous, Relaxed, or Direct/Indifferent, Fond, or Crush in the begginning, this drastically changes your meaning to your responses.
For example, in the first stage, I had chose to be directly fond of Cove, and when he lists his favorite colors, I tease him about those not being the best colors (something I would have done as a child, and actually still believe, because my favorite color is Orange, and I hate blue and greens, and hated pink as a little kid, just random FYI
); Cove response with an equally cheeky "says you", but then smile and stick his tongue out, coupled with the dialogue that clearly displayed we were just having a bit of fun poking at each other (this exact scenario is one I actually experienced as a child with other childhood friends, so this scene is a memorable one for me).Well, when I was sampling being indifferent to him, me picking that same choice got the same response, but this time Cove didn't smile back, with no good-natured dialogue, so it was obvious that he took my words personal, and was not amused. I don't know how this affects Cove's personality, but me, as a reader, felt like my choices impacted our relationship, because I could clearly feel I offended him with that statement, as opposed to the other times when it felt like we were having fun.
If that's not the "flavor" you're looking for, then I honestly don't know what you want!
Besides not having the key of what response does what in influence to the next stage, the personality flavor, you and RNDM speak of, is there and is appreciated in a visual novel; each option is used to cater the current scene to your personality; when certain things happen, I don't respond to them the same way you or someone else does, but that doesn't mean the scene should completely change! (The only exception is if the response is drastic)
For example, if we play a character who has a group of friends that want to go to the club, regardless of our choice in response, the scene is ending with the character going to the club with their friends (a liner plot).
Let's say your response would be "Yes! I love the club!", while mine is "No! I hate the club!", your response would lead to the group of friends cheering your response, and mind leads to the group of friends booing my response, but both scenes still ends with our character going to the club with their friends.
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You, a hypothetical extrovert, would be pleased playing a character who enjoys clubbing, while me, a hypothetical introvert would be pleased playing a character who hates clubbing, but both our characters are going to the club either way.
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I am immensely satisfied with this type of play through, because even CYOA stories falls into the trap of linear story telling, but that's all well and good as long as I keep my ideas and opinions on the situation; you can force my character to participate in things, just don't force my character to feel a certain way about it.
I couldn't tell you how many games forced a personality response for me, and I'm looking at the screen going "No! I do not understand! I do not agree! Who says things like this???
", these type of games with flavored responses is a boon for the visual novel community, especially those that immerse You as the actual player, it gives me that agency I need to feel like it's actually me.Now, the only issue is that I don't know exactly what you're complaining about? I played this game enough times to see my various response to something, earned me a new response from a character in the game, only rarely does something I pick get the same response, and that's usually because there are three base responses the developer had stated for the game. Don't quote me, but I remember them saying something along the lines of the Blue colored responses being blunt/direct, the yellow being emotional/confident, and the green being nervous/uncertain. So, given certain situations, I can see all the responses mixed with those colors can share the same out come of (an example) Silent Shock, Indignant Anger, and Elated Happiness when the character respond to you.
If your complaint is that you hate it when you choose something, and then the story continues on despite your possible input of rejecting it (like my club example above), then I'm going to have to ask you to recommend a completed CYOA where you can continuously reject a main story line, and the out come is the story going into a completely different direction each. time, because your character put their foot down and said they're not going to do it (CYOA might be broader than normal books, but they still need to follow a plot).
I'm going to assume you're saying this game wrecked your suspension of disbelief beyond the normal CYOA, but I can't imagine how that happened for you outside of what I mentioned in the above paragraph.
