I get that but a VN is a VN after all. Having the choices so, hollow, for lack of a better word, makes them feel as pointless to me as they are being there. Sure I made the choice to do something but as far as the game, and me, is concerned I did it for no other reason than to see a change in the immediate dialogue. A non-choice. They really could be removed and what would change? Very very little unfortunately. They are just breaks in the story to make they play feel like they are doing something. It does track who the player is perusing, but that is just a necessity for these things. I know it's still in the setting things up stage and I'm not saying that to be a dick, but that's how it is now.
I'd kind of disagree, if only because I feel like there
is value in "roleplay" choices.
If you do a run in a dialogue-heavy RPG and pick nothing but "friendly diplomatic" dialogue choices, then do another run and pick nothing but "snarky asshole" choices, it can make the main character feel like a very different person, even if, mechanically, there was no real difference in the outcome of those choices. Even if you aren't altering the path the story is taking, you
are altering your own perspective of the character you're playing as. And depending on what sort of choice options are being given (aggressive versus submissive, casual versus professional, impulsive versus cautious, etc), you may have a very different perspective of who that main character is than another player picking radically different choices.
(And yes, this can definitely be a significant factor - you constantly see posts on the boards of different games where people are complaining that the MC is too much of a wuss, and how they wish they could force them to stand up for themselves. Having a scenario where some players can choose those more aggressive confident dialogue options will make them much happier, while other people can still choose more passive, submissive, options if they want to.)
I definitely wouldn't say it falls into kinetic novel territory, because in a kinetic novel you basically have zero control over anything. You're watching someone else's story with someone else's character play out, as if you were just reading a comic or watching a still-frame animation movie). But a story with dialogue choice driven personality shifts is much closer to an actual game, because you
are altering how one player perceives the narrative versus how another player does.
But the problem with that sort of "character narrative" is that you kind of
need lots of choices to make it work. If the main character has a "default" personality for 99% of the story and is only allowed to express the player's viewpoint extemely rarely, then it basically
is just a kinetic novel type character. It's the accumulation of dozens of "minor dialogue" choices that start to make a main character feel more like whatever the player is trying to shape them towards being.
This is why I generally push back against people who complain Telltale Games aren't really games. I watched my nephew play through Tales From the Borderlands, and his version of the story felt much different from mine, even if the story as a whole played out mostly the same. Because we were sort of seeing the main characters in our head very differently, and thus making very different dialogue choices.
If anything, the best visual novel design strategy might be to have a lot of those minor dialogue choices, and then sprinkle in a few more major choices that
do shift the narrative (leading to different scenes, different arcs, different characters, etc). It gives you the largest illusion of player agency, while also preventing the entire project from spiraling out of control on the dev side, with literally every decision needing an event flag that triggers some significant scene/story differences later. To continue with the Tales From the Borderlands example, most of the dialogue choices you make only affect the immediate reaction from whoever you're talking to, but occasionally you'll get a choice like "Trust Fiona" or "Trust Jack", which can significantly alter the overall story (leading to almost completely different scenes for half an episode before the two story threads recombine).
Even the most acclaimed narrative games ever made are mostly smoke and mirrors, with player choice being little more than window dressing that shapes the tone of what you say and how other people respond to you, and the player mostly getting railroaded through the exact same story beats no matter what choices they make. Unless you're playing in a D&D campaign where the DM can react to everything you do on the fly and alter the story to fit every choice you make, or reading/playing a Choose Your Own Adventure style story, it's rare that you're ever going to find a game where every single choice leads to radically different story paths.
