I hate cheat codes that fuck with the narrative like that, it ruins immersion. I don't really see why an alternative can't be as simple as saying to him that we've seen how his drugs screw people up, no way are we letting him do that to anyone else; the challenge can just be trying to hypnotise these three assistants of his if he's so confident in their loyalty. Best out of three is better than best out of six anyway, because it's an odd number.
I aggree, it does break the narrative, as the narrative of the parlor is testing the loyalty of the characters (if you bring sam, ash, gou, or damien), or a power fantasy showing that you as the player have already beaten challenges that Quinn can't overcome (if you bring kay, corrupted robin, bay, meph, or the secretary). There's the dynamic that he's testing his methodology (massage vs hypnosis) yes, but he mainly believes that his moral high ground will lead to the people you bring turning to his side.
As I mentioned I'm not satisfied with how the challenge just... Starts, because it necessitates a level of trust between the two of you that hasn't been earned in the narrative, I was mostly hoping that his moral grandstanding and pride would fill the void there by making him read as very transparent in his intentions and lack of experience.
You bring up the people he's messed up but:
- Ophelia was doing mostly fine when you met her, her relationship with her husband wasn't great (they already had separate rooms, he started paying for her massages to "keep her quiet", etc). She's whack levels of horny but she was like that before the parlor, and from how it's described Quinn had to take a break before her treatment was finished. Because he doesn't use hypnosis (the player assumes she was accidentally hypnotized as a side effect during the therapy) he was probably very emphatic that she wait patiently for him to come back and to not indulge herself. She and her room are very clean despite her computer being set up as a gooning station. Her being whacked out isn't something he wanted, and signs point to her state being the way it is because she got the sex before her treatment plan was finished. Quinn arrives back in town and resumes treatment, things go wrong due to events neither he nor you had a full understanding of, but he's entirely willing to undo the snafu he caused and send her home with you to get you out of his hair.
(Note: She does directly state that cumming was dependent on her staying soft, but given all the context I lean on this suggesting that Quinn was trying to ramp down her libido, rather than ramping it up, maybe implying that Quinn is not fond of sex in general? One of his attendants still likes topping, and Ophelia can still become erect, so this is a fuzzy area)
- Bellamy is a nightmare to Quinn but that's entirely unrelated to Quinn saying that his methods are better. Quinn's being self-righteous as he wants to improve people and he's saying he can do that without crossing lines like sex or mind control. If anything Bellamy having so much agency of his own actually makes this point stronger. Yes it's dumb that he's putting faith in Bellamy, but he's making a bad choice to show he's sticking to his (flawed) principles.
- Remy's a non-factor as Quinn implies they've never met, he might not know there's a sexual element at all.
- The 2nd and 3rd challenge introduce Quinn's other attendants, who both seem more composed than Bellamy (though that's a very low bar) and who show no negative side effects from their treatments.
All said, we really only see one example of a person being messed up. The player unknowingly may have been partially at fault, and Quinn's trying to fix it, but that's speculation.
Next, you mention all the people you've helped, the challenge is meant to demonstrate that directly, you can't just say you're better at helping people and expect him to believe it. Quinn has been using his massage techniques like you use your hypnosis to leave people in a suggestible trance, except he doesn't go any farther than that viewing it as robbing people's agency. He lacks the ability to actually influence people and it shows through the challenge results:
These are all the things that are lost by just bypassing the challenge. Quinn wants to show you that your methods are only as strong as those between an addict and dealer, him sending you to his attendants is him believing they can rid you of your less savory characteristics, his real goal is to turn all the people you've 'swindled' to his side by extending a compassionate hand. He absolutely doesn't think it's impossible you can break them, you did it to Ophelia already, he wants the moral victory by freeing the people he thinks you've basically enslaved.
The main reason I went with a cheat code is that if the player hasn't interacted with any of the carnivore cast aside from bellamy and quinn, the option to say "no way are we letting you do this to anyone else" could be read as "skip the boring part and get to the good stuff", but really the stuff that would be skipped are the parts I like the most.
And so the issue is that the "No way" option would have no requirements, and participating in the challenge has many. I want the "no way" option to be the last resort, for if the player hates the idea of their pals being tested too much to even want to bring in Meph. It changes the parlor story's narrative from saying "the player is giving people more than just sex" into "Quinn was overconfident in his attendants"
But there's no real way to add a requirement here that doesn't harm immersion. A cheat code is the most direct way of bypassing the original intent of the game for the sake of a more tailored experience.
Sorry for the very long-winded response, I will still try to do a better workaround later, I very much value your input and wanted to clearly explain my thinking without making you feel judged.
