Let's see
Thumbs through tombs of history
Thank you gamer, I knew I could rely on you.
As you said - Savin has a point. I don't really envy a lot of porn game developers, because at the end of the day, not every player enters the game with a clear state of mind. There is a group of people that would legit prefer CoC2's story to get even worse just to make having sex easier and more akin to their horny head state where they want Chad Thundercock as MC.
Yet at the same time, this valid viewpoint has been corrupted over the years and is basically used as an excuse for any time players feel dissatisfied with not having agency. I think it happened for two main reasons. The first one is what I said above - a bunch of people with awful requests pretending like they know how to make a story better via making it all about player's power. Second one, is, in my opinion, CoC1 balance being iffy in some moments and letting you have insane power. That's why Savin used Dark Souls as example - not from the lore and story perspective, but from the idea of never being in a position where it's impossible to fail. Afaik, CoC2 is unplayable without companions - going solo will cause you to be defeated because the game isn't balanced around the MC being powerful enough to solo everything and everyone.
However...
COC2 follows exactly the same rule. Almost, if not all, characters provide access to their sex scenes after single question 'whats your name?'. Hookups in the bar for a quick fuck require more talks than this...
This is also correct. So I don't think the whole "Power Fantasy" was about CoC2 not being a game where the world spins around the player - you aren't some all powerful solo hero who can overcome any challenge. And, arguably, it would make the game waaay better in terms of narrative. The issue is... well, the fact that it really seems like the writing is simply not good enough where it feels like MC is practically
an observer who exists to look at cool OCs of the writers who are actual protagonists. Which, once again, I think could work potentially, but requires REALLY good writing an EXACT knowledge of themes and ideas of the story, which CoC2 100% doesn't have and I'd argue could never have had given how many writers it has and how they don't talk to each other judging by some scenes.
To be the devil advocate, I do think most posts on forums where devs mention not being power fantasy are more often than not are responses to less than... reasonable critique from the players who might have even worse ideas as to what the story should be. But at the end of the day - if CoC2 had really good story, we wouldn't even have this conversation. The whole "no power fantasy" wouldn't be seen as a meme, but as a good philosophy to make an actually engaging RPG narrative.
