I recall reading a rather in-depth review of the Choice of Robots story, during which the defenders and the author seemed to brush aside several of the points raised by the reviewer. Hardly a ringing endorsement of “the most successful game”.
Heroes Rise seemed to assume much regarding the character- so much for choices. Of course, the premise of both stories did not engage me enough to persuade me to spend the required amounts so perhaps all the reviews I have read are incorrect.
In other words your story will require every character to reach the same point at the same time on the railroad, but at least they can choose what outfit they are wearing for the journey?
Actually I don’t mind linear plots. I mind the denigration of stories that don’t include ‘pick your gender’ as somehow lacking even when the vast majority of the CoG stories are just as linear as the ones being denigrated.
So why bother with the attributes and the attempts at ‘gameplay’ at all? Why not create ‘interactive visual novels’ and be done with it?