[chii]

> there are plenty of branching games which are extremely good

i think you mean there's barely any good ones. The examples you come up with are the exceptions that prove the rule. Look at a game like Dishonered, where the story have _some_ branches, but it's half-assed imho. There's plenty more games where having gone for a branching story made the game more expensive, less deep, and harder to sell as a result.