Thank you guys all for your responses! Just to make a few clarifications, I am published author and will for sure be focusing a lot of energy on the story no matter what. This poll wasn't meant for the purpose of making you guys choose one or the other, but just the thing/s that are MOST important to YOU in a VN. Also, there WILL be music, and the reason it's not on the poll is because that is hands down, unarguably, already going to be a big part of the project .
One more question for those listening, how would you feel about having a game that has three or so playable characters, each one with a fairly broad but different personality type. Each character would be in the same story, but would just be playing it from a different angle. That way your initial play through feels sort of personality-tailored (maybe not) and then you can go back and play through the other perspectives. It might sound weird, but give it an honest thought and tell me what you think!