English is not my 1st language, so please bare with me.
I get what you mean with your question about what the 3 branches add and could not be done with the "old" model.
Well I would say first thing for me is that it "feels" different. Having to commit to a path that (hopefully) will develop in a unique way creates another form of involvement as just being able to hit "back" a couple of times and then check the next sex scene. I personally would never call it "immersive" for me, because I am neither a 20 (or however old Ashe is) futa in a world full of hot girls nor would I identify with a sub or NTR character. I am nut sure if I can fully describe what I mean but it is a feeling of "I will make a sub on this route and that is how she will be". This would not be the case if one could freely jump between choices. And my guess would be it is what you don´t like about the branching
Thank you for the feedback!
I think I understand what you mean. You like stronger
indications that Ashe's character is changing, that she is progressing towards something specific. The route-split scene is very
overtly and makes more of a spectacle out of the idea that you made a big choice that changed the entire story.
I don't think that promise is properly reflected in the game yet. People are excited by the prospect of Ashe having a big character transformation, but some people are getting disappointed by that expectation. Main example I have seen is about Siren Ashe still having too much anxiety or being too obedient to the blackmailer. I think it is a bit silly to expect Ashe to go full "I don't give a fuck" or removing the blackmail plot since those have been integral parts of the main story for quite a while now, but I also don't blame people for being disappointed with that since the route-split promised a "badass Ashe" on the siren route, and it is disappointing to have her be a "badass"
ONLY when it isn't disruptive to the main story the dev wants to tell.
Maybe we need to see what will happen in the party since it is the next big event the game is building towards, but if it ends up being something like "Ashe's attitude does not change the outcome of the main events, only changes who she ends up having sex with (siren ashe gets a dom scene, kitten ashe gets a sub scene, cuckquean ashe gets a ntr scene) while everything else happens the same way" then I suspect people will have their expectations disappointed by the route-split.
Second would be I guess that I also enjoy Project Myriam a lot. Here you have litterally a ton of decisions that follow each other very closely. It is cool in itś own right as you at least get the feeling of freedom to choose what you want. But it also can take away a little from the story. The Dinner with Vanessa scene for example runs more or less on it's own and you can follow how the bonding and sparkle somehow starts with them. In Project Myriam my guess would be that you might have had 4 or 5 choices within this scene. So the flow of the scene is very different (at least for me). Again I also like this but it somehow does not really fit for the way the story is told in this VN.
I haven't played Project Myriam but I think I understand you here too. Getting the story constantly broken up by too many choice menus can make it feel disjointed.
But I am happy to say that, at least for your example of the Vanessa date, my mod to remove the route-split did not add a single extra menu break to that entire scene. I only made some extra choices
potentially be available to the menus that are already there (blowjob request for "non-siren" routes and grope/nipple-tease for kitten/siren). Those choices show up during unavoidable menus that are already there in the official game. The favor menu involves other choices like money or future favor and the make-out menu is already there because you also always had the option of backing out from kissing Vanessa, so adding extra options to those menus is not really disrupting the story.
And lastly I think my hope is that in the long run the branches will really develop in different ways that might get longer unique story arcs. But this might be wishful thinking.
Those are the things at the top of my head why I would say I prefer the branching system. There might be more but I forgot about them
I hope I could express my reasoning enough.
Cheers mate!
I appreciate you taking the time to list those things. If the dev is sticking with the route-split, I also do hope to see them being made more unique. But I also do have some other problems with the route-split mechanic, like the way the Cuckquean route is bundling together some more light-hearted voyeur scenes with harder NTR scenes (I don't like being forced to have the latter happen in my playthrough just to enjoy the first).
You did give me something to think about with Ashe's character progression though. This is just a game-design mod, so I won't really introduce any new graphical elements or elaborate original scenes, but I might try to tinker with the presentation so that the player can feel "recognized" when they are doing playthroughs that are STRONGLY invested into either being only dom, or only sub, or only cuck. I probably won't be able to make it as eye-catching as the route-split scene, but I don't really want to mislead and entice the player with promises of things that aren't in the game yet anyway.