Character Profile Series #06: Emily Brinehart

Welcome back to our weekly Character Profile Series! This week, we take a look at Emily Brinehart, the most mysterious, cryptic, and delusional member of the Undead Darlings crew. Let’s examine her basic stats and talk about why they are what they are!

 

 

Basic Stats
Blood type: ???
Height: 5’10” (~178 cm)
Weight: 47 kg (~104 lbs.)

So we added both versions of measurements to height and weight, but to keep being weird we switched which one is in parentheses. Enjoy!
 

Why did we choose to leave Emily’s blood type as question marks? This is tongue-in-cheek nod to how a lot of Japanese-style games present their “mysterious” characters, like blood tests or measuring tapes are somehow ineffective against their brooding, unknown natures. But if you MUST KNOW, we managed to discover that she has the rarest blood type of all, AB-. This means that her key personality traits (based on Japanese blood-type culture) could be the following: she is incredibly critical, and she absolutely has what could be considered a split personality—far more pronounced and obvious than Cici. On the other hand, she can seem very “cool” and collected. Maybe a different kind of “cool” to middle-schoolers, thanks to her severe case of what the Japanese call chuunibyou, which roughly translates to “middle-schooler disease.” I’d call it “childish fantasies of grandeur,” but the rough translation captures its essence so much better—I could go on about my ideals regarding language and word adoption into different cultures, but this is neither the time nor the place.

She’s the tallest one of the group, too. She was even a few inches taller than this at one point; after getting all the bust-ups and UI elements in place, though, the varied heights caused the shortest (Jordan) to get gobbled up by the text box, while the tallest (Emily) had her head clipping past the top of the screen. So we shuffled all the heights to be within a half-foot of one another. This is something that we can fix in future titles, since we now know how many things something as simple as a character’s height can affect!

What about 47 kg? She is as skinny as a stick on a diet. Like, someone get her a chili dog or something. But in all seriousness, her weight accurately reflects part of her backstory and even part of her experience as one of the undead. Life has not been kind to this girl, and she has rarely had the luxury to stuff herself, especially with junk foods. Perhaps this plays a role in her character arc, if Reggie is brave enough to get to know her…

Character Relationships
Pearl = “Hmph.”
Jordan = “Ku, ku, ku…”
Summer = “Mmnnnng…”
Kairi = “Ugh.”
Cici = “Tch!”

We made a basic character relationship chart for everyone in the game, written as the character, so that we could best assign roles in event scenes. Who would say what, who would chime in or be critical of the speaker, et cetera. Such a small effort yields characters who don’t have to voice their motivations or feelings; rather, they come out organically based on the conversation’s topics.

Fun Factoids

• Emily was originally envisioned as the shortest of the group, in part because she carries around a stuffed bear, which she calls Dichroma. We decided to make her tall and spindly like a spider in the end, because it enhances her creep factor and gives her carrying around Dichroma that much more of a visual impact.
• Emily uses Dichroma to speak her thoughts and to deflect criticism. While she acts and claims that Dichroma himself is speaking, she makes no effort to change her voice when Dichroma “speaks,” and gets flustered whenever anyone points this fact out.
• While it’s never directly mentioned in the game, Emily has been one of the undead for longer than anyone else in the group. Because of this, she considers herself one of the “originals” and claims that this serves as proof that she was indeed called upon to be the Queen of the Undead and rule the world.
• She tries to speak in a cryptic, riddle-laden manner, but most of it is absolute nonsense. She will make mention of the Abyss, Cosmic Ones, and other dark creatures whenever she wants to turn her opinion into a fact. However, she seems to be completely aware of her delusions, as she breaks out of them when nobody else is listening and she is alone with someone she trusts…

• Emily joins the party a couple of dungeons later than everyone else. Depending on how you play the game, she may even join with only a few dungeons left to explore! Although, you’d have to grind like crazy to survive the areas that you are meant to explore after the dungeon containing Emily. Besides, she’s totally worth getting as soon as possible (wink, wink)!
• It is almost impossible to get Emily’s ending in your first play-through, unless you really abuse save scumming before every event involving her. Even then, certain events contain choices within choices, so no matter what, you will not be able to collect every possible “point” toward her ending in one game.

Undead Scars
Emily’s scars are apparently hidden from view, and it actually looks like she escaped from any sort of attack. Perhaps this has to do with her claim that she is one of the “originals,” meaning that her infection did not come second-hand from another undead. But if that’s true, then…

Gameplay with Emily
Emily is your frail, ridiculously powerful mage. She cannot take much abuse, and she cannot wield meaningful offensive weapons—mainly knives and shields—but she has access to the most advanced elemental Skills of any character, which when used properly, turns the Skill Link system into an apocalyptic nightmare for enemies.

Since her offensive Skills are so powerful, but her constitution so weak, you can burn through her Skill Point reserves quickly. Having a member who can buff her defense or keep her healed until the most opportune moment is key in making the most use of Emily’s potential. If I had to make a comparison, I’d have to say Bleu (in her Breath of Fire 2 incarnation) is a decent match in terms of growth potential. Emily can’t shed her skin to heal herself, though!

Sub-events with Emily are both high and low in number. Since she joins so late, a lot of sub-events are easily missed because of the number of dungeons you get to explore in the chapter she joins. It may be worth revisiting areas in that chapter if you don’t grab Emily right away… Be sure to keep switching the other two members to improve your chances of finding sub-events!

Thank you so much for reading Emily’s profile, everyone! It’s the holiday season, so you giving us your time to come here is a pretty sweet gift. Ahh, so cheesy, so corny, so cringe. Anyway, Emily is such a fun character to write for, so please give her a chance. Her backstory is pretty sad, too…

That said, next week is a bit of a holiday week, so there will be no Tuesday update or a Saturday Character Profile entry. We’ll be back on January 2^nd when we delve into the man among men, Buck Wampum! Definitely look forward to that; he’s a hoot.