Visual novels are all about choices, and every inclusion (and exclusion) of a choice is a conscious decision by the dev. In A YEAR OF SPRINGS, I wanted to try different ways to show to the player the choices that aren’t actually available.
I loved the struck-out choices when I played spring leaves no flowers, it reminded me of Depression Quest, which pulls a similar trick where there are struck-out choices that can't be selected at all. I think choices in games are often thought of mainly as a means for player expression or in more functional terms (e.g. this choice gives you Ending A, that choice gives you Ending B) but I really like it when they're used for the developer/writer to express something as well. Some other examples that come to mind: Kentucky Route Zero is full of really evocative dialogue choices that tell you a lot about the characters before you even pick one, 1000xResist sometimes uses them as a stylistic flourish (e.g. a single sentence split across a series of functionally identical options), and Fallen London supplements its choices with an entire additional sentence or two of descriptive text (and sometimes the choice selection button or the quality descriptors used to indicate why a choice was locked/unlocked are also replaced with custom text).
I loved the struck-out choices when I played spring leaves no flowers, it reminded me of Depression Quest, which pulls a similar trick where there are struck-out choices that can't be selected at all. I think choices in games are often thought of mainly as a means for player expression or in more functional terms (e.g. this choice gives you Ending A, that choice gives you Ending B) but I really like it when they're used for the developer/writer to express something as well. Some other examples that come to mind: Kentucky Route Zero is full of really evocative dialogue choices that tell you a lot about the characters before you even pick one, 1000xResist sometimes uses them as a stylistic flourish (e.g. a single sentence split across a series of functionally identical options), and Fallen London supplements its choices with an entire additional sentence or two of descriptive text (and sometimes the choice selection button or the quality descriptors used to indicate why a choice was locked/unlocked are also replaced with custom text).