Well, there's no stakes in CoC II. It's been said a million and one times already, but what the hell is Kas doing that's any worse than everything else in Savarra!? Tollus and the cult are all natives from Savarra, so it's not Kas who was calling the shots with regards to them. I won't event touch on how fucking stupid Tollus's backstory is in Gweyr's quest. You could say she's fucking with portals and could pull in Wraiths, but I feel that's a weak argument given the "gods" of this world and the fact that they all showed up randomly one day, so you know, if Wraiths could rain from the sky at any given moment, who cares!? Kas screwing with people's souls is again a nothingburger. We have a race that literally lack souls, and they seem normal enough, apparently the gods are all happy to watch her experimenting on people too.
The demons we meet aren't even that different or bad compared to other NPCs. In CoC I, every demon you encounter was a threat, or at least, someone you had to keep your guard up. Whether it was Ceraph or Vapula who you could enslave and were terrorizing certain locations. The demons at the factory that were pumping shit into the water of the lake. Zetaz who clearly was a bad guy. For all I hear Savin and Co complaining about Lethice being a bad villian, she at least felt like a villian. They all posed a real threat to the remaining few who weren't corrupted.
It also showed exactly how corruption changes a person and makes them willing to set aside their morals. It wasn't just a switch to make someone dress in goth style and act kinky, it felt like a tangible, irreversable change to someone's personality.
Having a story where someone comes from nothing works when that someone shows a tangible growth. Power wise, do we feel any different from day one? I know in CoC I, we start out alone and practically defenseless in an alien world that's on the brink of falling. By the time you're able to assault Lethice's castle, you've got a thriving settlement filled with people you care about. You've cleared dungeons and built up a coalition to oppose the demons and thwarted their plans. You've learned various skills and perks that made you feel stronger, and enemies you couldn't have taken on earlier now fall to you like chumps. It felt like you've reversed the tides, or at least, took over and made them work in your favor.
Where is this growth in CoC II? I know the meme answer is "It'S nOT a PoWEr fAnTaSy!111!" but being serious for a moment, Savin himself seems to know this on some level. His constant tweaking of the combat system, him saying how if he ever makes another game, it's going to be a visual novel with a story focus. He knows he bit off way more than he can chew.
As much as I love her, romancing Kas has, ironically screwed the narrative. Because you've taken away the big bad, and the only replacment is Tollus, who frankly sucks shit. He's not threatening in the slightest, and he's only allowed to exist because our protagnists are so stupid/incompetent to not just cave his skull in. Kas too. She talks about how she knows he's using her and how his cult is bad and it's like... Just fucking kill him then? What the hell is he going to do to you? What does he provide you that you can't just get otherwise?
Wait it's actually canon that one of the side characters can actually do better at being champ than you? Than why isnt he out there fightning already?
Several side characters, actually. Nakano can have his big shonen glow-up, there's the leader of the mercenaries that's Tyria's chosen fuckboi, I'm almost certainly forgetting a bunch.
I mean hell bro, why didn't the gods all just dogpile Kas the moment she stepped through the portal? Why didn't they zap the shit out of Tollus and his cult? At least in CoC I, Mareth had an excuse that she was being weakened to the point of being on life support from the corruption. That's why she needed the champ in that game's help. The other gods were either dead if I recall or totally indifferent to the people's suffering.