I finished the Tomoyo route of the CCS Cards & Friends GBA game
what I understand from reviews afterward are your choices for routes are "the syaoran route" and "a bunch of other routes, I guess", which makes sense given the original story.
but they really do commit to the bit, writing your highest social link character entirely into the story chapter labeled "Sakura, Syaoran, and the Tsukimine Shrine" in place of Syaoran, who just doesn't appear if you're on someone else's route. You can tell you got some real Branching going on because at one point Sakura says "I feel better now thanks to (PAGE BREAK) Tomoyo!".
it did actually fool me a few times - I recalled the scene in the anime where Sakura confessed to Yukito and was gently turned down (feel free to consider what it'd be like being a 5th grader and hearing "yeah you like me but like... you like your dad too, right? how do those two feelings feel to you?" followed by "yeah you're right I'm actually all about your brother"), but I didn't realize at all that "Tomoyo comforting Sakura afterward and telling her it's OK to cry even when she knows Yukito is right" was a completely original, branch-signifying scene (of course, it was Syaoran in the original).
by the way in order to get Sakura to confess you have to push through three separate dialog branches of "I'm gonna do it I'm gonna confess / Noooo what if I just don't". this is unironically good game design and also emblematic of the "choices" in this VN which mostly come down to "be strong / no I don't want the good ending" (sensibly for a kids' game)
(more after the break)
there are literally like two dozen fics about this but anyway I'm currently trapped in a maze of mirrors inside my mind, reflecting the same character archetype painted a dozen ways
