Combat in a Visual Novel (part 3)

Combat in some of the VN’s I’ve played has simply been choice A or choice B, and then later, another choice A or B. If you made choice B then A, for example, you’d be successful and win the combat encounter, but any other combination of choices would doom you to failure and end the game. As I’m designing the combat system for this VN, I’m trying to focus on the same kind of success-through-choice, but as my background artist is finishing the different scenes he’s working on, I need to make some concrete decisions, soon. Some of the backgrounds will be used for combat, and I have yet to completely decide how I’m going to run the combat system in this VN. At first I’d thought a rock-paper-scissors version would work, but it didn’t really fit the circumstances. I worry about putting a totally untested combat system into the game, too, because I remember how many beta tests Solar Echoes went through before the combat system was totally locked down. I’m leaning a lot towards combat decisions that are represented visually. For example, if you chose for your character to be specialized in firearms, then you’ll want to get to cover and start firing at your enemies. If, however, you chose to specialize in melee combat, you may want to run right up to your foes and start using your melee attacks against them. But where are the real choices in this situation?