I know the whole idea of these stories is to be immersive, thus why second-person perspective is popular. I've begun writing (though not publishing) my first chyoa story in second-person. However, as my stories tend to do, the first has already inspired sequels. Some would feature entirely new main characters in the same world while others would revolve around characters introduced in the first story. Now I'm second-guessing my perspective choice. The first MC is female, so is the second. But the third MC would be male. If a reader liked my work enough to read all three, would it be too startling, confusing, or off-putting to suddenly become a character that they had met previously? Should I write these stories in third-person instead? I intend to write these stories in novel form should they go over well, which would mean changing the perspective, anyhow, but I don't want to make the chyoa story less interesting or immersive. I know I'm getting ahead of myself in planning sequels, but my characters tend to take control of my creative process. So what should I do? Second-person or third? I'm starting to lean toward third, but do third-person stories do well on here?
Whatever feels most comfortable for you to write and works best for the story you're trying to tell, which sounds like you're thinking would be third-person here. There are lots of third-person stories that do very well here, even ones with lots of branches and choices, so don't worry about that. And I think since this is a sequel from the POV of a character from your previous stories, the switch in perspective could be a nice way of showing that. To me personally it doesn't make the story have less immersive or anything. I don't particularly like writing in second-person myself but I have done it when adding to a story that was set out that way. I usually go for third-person otherwise since I think it feels more flexible.
Besides personal preference, I would also consider what you want to show from your characters. Also see How do you decide on a POV? It also depends on how what kind of decision-making you want to offer. Also see Outcome Paths vs. Choice Paths If all additional characters know the first character, you could also use 2nd person for the main character and 1st person for the sequels as if the main character (reader) and the sequel character are sitting together years later with the sequel character telling the main character their version of the story. A combination of 2nd and 3rd might work as well if the mentioned storytelling happens by another character who was a friend of the sequel character. In that case, they might put in a lot of wrong information and their own opinion. As they aren't omniscient, they wouldn't know the feelings of the sequel character. Distribution of stories: 1st person: 36% 2nd person: 26% 3rd person: 38% There seem to be differences in the number of likes but they might be related to other effects. (Average number of chapters, preferred POV for certain themes, ...) So I don't think your story will fail just because of choosing the POV other than you can't convey what is essential for your story. (As mentioned in the first link.)
I ran a poll on this once on one of my stories with 1st person POV getting the most votes at close to 50%. The you POV is suppose to put readers in the shoes of the protagonist but it can also leave the main character feeling a little bland in my opinion.
I tend to prefer third person so I can occasionally lean a little into omniscient narration where appropriate. In 1st and 2nd person it's a lot more jarring to state things that the POV character isn't explicitly aware of.
My own thoughts on the matter can be found in a long post here: I'd also agree with gene.sis that the way you write your choices would greatly influence the most appropriate POV, moreso than comparison between stories that share a setting. That said, based on your main post, it sounds like 3rd limited is what you seek. I don't think a change in perspective character should prevent you from using 2nd again, provided you're clear about the character change, but if that remains a concern then I would consider 3rd limited.
Thanks for the input everyone! Second-person feels a little unnatural to me when I write it, so I'll probably go for third since I'm familiar with it. It worries me less than having each new story being in second-person or changing POV. Now I need to do a mild rewrite of my finished chapters and decide how many I want to finish before I begin posting them. I'll probably go until all chapters are done up to the pivotal moment when the paths diverge toward the varied endings.
