Intro

I'm not sure why I find myself in a Kiseki analysis writing mood as of late, it's probably something having to do with finally being able to get out my thoughts on paper or something but, while writing my first ever post here, I did backtrack to rethink if I was being a bit too harsh regarding Class 7's development throughout all 4 CS games. What I wanted to cover today was if Gaius/Elliot/Emma/Laura actually have nuance to them or they are as criticized.

Starting off, I'm not exactly a big fan of the whole "develops in bonds, stays the same in story" thing. Nor am I really that much of a believer in crazy gameplay and segregation after the many nutty battles I've played out in Souls games where the mythos concurred with how incredibly difficult the boss was.

That tangent aside, there's four main things that the four I'll be talking about generally get summed up as:

Elliot: Muh music.

Gaius: Muh wind.

Laura: Muh sord.

Emma: The cat's a better character.

So with that, is it really all true? Was there something I was missing? Lets find out. I'll only be going up to CS3 with Elliot and Gaius since there are solid translated events to work with. I can push for CS4 in regards to Laura and Emma but I'll likely be missing a few things.

Elliot

CS1: Elliot starts off as the nice buddy Rean gets along with after the awkward divide in Class 7. Notably, his interests in music and his being at Thors conflict in a way due to a lack of self confidence. This isn't exactly too surprising as the only one who even seems remotely sure of himself is Gaius as far as Class 7 goes at this point and time. Elliot lacks passion and most of his bonding events are heavily factored around his music hobby. Elliot gradually regains passion and confidence however and starts to regard his time at Thors a lot better than at the beginning. Elliot has one great moment here where he fools one of the Kruezan province guards with his wit.

CS2: After going through the Civil War in Erebonia, Elliot decides to want to pursue being a musician after all after the many back and forth conversations he's had about whether he wants to pursue something like that or not. His increase in confidence is also interestingly placed side by side with his increase in desire to be a musician.

CS3: Elliot goes on tour, now 10x more confident than he was in the previous two games. It also helps that he bravely is part of the rescue effort when Rean and the new Class 7 get ambushed by Duvalie and Co. Old Elliot would have some hesitation with doing something like that but new Elliot charges on through with Fie. Despite being a capable fighter, Elliot finally has a concrete goal with music beyond his whole "I love music" schitck from the last games. The goal being to use his music to eventually sooth hearts all over Zemuria. A lofty goal to be sure, if not naive but certainly better than the non-driven Elliot of yore.

Verdict: He is really all about the music, there is some development outside of music or in tandem with his love of music, but its hard to really pin-point something precise and concrete compared to characters such as Randy, Tio, or Agate who have clearly defined story arcs of some kind that don't require perusing bond events to try and stitch together a defined character. To be honest, I kind of wish Elliot did have a moment like those three did. It doesn't have to necessarily be a sad and tragic story beat but something standout would've been nice.

Gaius

Ah, Mr Wind himself. Unlike Elliot, Gaius does have a somewhat more fleshed out backstory with a mystery of sorts that ties into what happens later.

CS1: The one scene I remember the most with Gaius is him blowing off Patrick after Patrick decides to act like a complete monkey following Class 7 beating his gang. Most of Gaius' bond events in comparison to Elliot are fairly chill, focusing on him adjusting to Erebonia and his desire to protect Nord.

CS2: CS2 ramps up Gaius' story with a bit more heat by adding in the background that he was taught by Barkhorn when he was younger. Barkhorn is one of the church's dominions so it sets up for something to happen later down the line with Gaius and adds a mystery of sorts. Gaius begins to extend his patriotism to Erebonia itself after enjoying some time with Rean and Co.

CS3: Gaius has some clearly defined interests here. The past with Barkhorn comes into play as he readily accepts the power of Stigma after Barkhorn bites the dust protecting him. Gaius then undergoes heavy training to be the next dominion in his teacher's steed. With this, Gaius gains a power to protect the things he likes. Along the way, there are a couple of ship-teasing moments with him and Linde, giving an air of something happening outside of Rean's world. It really reminds me of things like Randy and Mireille or Oliver flirting with Schera. Not to mention Gaius does some great diving saves. There is a lot less focus on the wind and more on what he wants to do with his newfound powers.

Verdict: I'll admit, I should've looked more into Gaius than taking the muh wind memes at face value. There's a lot of potential with him than the winds winds and more winds memes. Granted I'm not sure if CS4 pushes the envelope even further for his character development but for now, I think the road up to CS3 for him has a decent enough payoff.

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Laura

The third on this list and the one mostly attributed to bland swordsmanship worship with a dash of chivalry and yet still somehow many people's favorite waifus. We're not here to analyze if Laura's a good waifu though, rather I'm here to see if she is more than a swordsman cut-out.

CS1: I've stated that I think her rivalry with Fie is kind of dumb. As to why, it felt like the writers just threw it in there to pad out the conflicts in class 7. I honestly think there could have been better tie ins to it such as Legram being a victim of a jaeger raid ala Crossbell but it just feels kind of petty that Laura's whole gripe with Fie is in regards to "How dare you hold back?" Outside of that, there is some humor and sincerity in that Laura is trying to learn things outside of swords such as cooking and liking cute plushies.

Even joining the swimming club is a sign of her trying to broaden her horizon. While I think the lead up to her rivalry with Fie is a bit off, the resolution was nice in which she grows to understand Fie and become friends with her. Honestly, I wished they continued this dynamic in CS2 and further on, I would've liked a Fie and Laura show, just like I did with Randy and Tios various banters.

CS2: There's not a whole lot to say here, she goes with Emma after the gang splits up, gets stronger in the interim and has a few expectations to live up to as a result of Victor being absent for some time. The bit with her trying orbal technology and spectacularly sucking at it was cute to say the least. Laura acknowledges that she has a long way to go in her bond events.

CS3: An interesting buildup gets provided now that Victor is suffering the burnout from injuries sustained after fighting McBurn. Laura is now acting master of the Arseid school and has to take up a leading role while her father recoups from his injuries. This later comes to a head when Victor supposedly dies after the courageous blows up, with Laura at a loss as to what to do. I think this would have been the start of Laura going far away from path of the sword memes and beginning to truly inherit the Arseid legacy. I mean, she already got strong enough physically to clash evenly with Duvalie.

CS4: This is what I gathered from the Febuary Night vids I binged, there's likely some gaps then and there. Personally, I think Victor should have stayed dead to give Laura's development an extra weight to it. After all, she's in an extremely vulnerable spot as the one consistent thing in her life is taken away from her. Beforehand, she was somewhat sheltered, which showed when it came to Fie. If we ignore the obligatory part in her bonding event where she shoves Rean against a wall and makes out with him, Laura laying bare about how vulnerable she felt post Courageous and Rean's kidnapping and how enraged at him she was for trying to find a way to commit suicide was great. Granted, all the Rean-centric stuff was...eh, I guess some people like that but I wish it would've stayed focused on her trying to get over her Father's shadow, kinda like Lloyd and Guy.

Verdict: Definitely more than just swords, swords, and more swords by CS3 and 4. Potential a bit hamstrung but the very little people die rule of Kiseki but I can see what some people find in her.

Emma

I'll try to be fair about it but personally, I kinda didn't like the way her story developed regarding the big witch mystery box.

CS1: Emma's a nice girl who's hiding a mystery. I liked how in the bonding that Rean eventually got her guard down enough for her to show some magic off, granted I would've liked that scene to be extended to C7 given how every other classmate gets screen time talking about their past. What most people tell me is that it's supposed to be a grand payoff in CS2 where it gets more relevance, but does it really?

CS2: The skew towards Celine really hurts whatever role Emma was supposed to even have. There were some intriguing scenes such as the hypnotic eyes to slip past the guards in Bareahard or her commenting on McBurn's status but its far in-between Celine giving most of the plot dumps and explanations during the shrines, as well as the beginning portion of the game where Rean and Celine start off extremely rocky but eventually warm up to each other. Wish there was more of a goal for her than just chasing Vita. Even if that was the main goal, there really should've been a more compelling reason to offset just how villainous Vita gets. I'm not asking for star door 15 levels of revelations but...just something to work with here.

CS3: The stuff about the witches starts really rolling in here with Rosalia finally making her grand appearance. I think the lore explanation and witchcraft is evenly split here and balanced a bit better. Emma creates the pendent while Celine helps Rean keep things under control with some training. Its interesting that in the bonding event, Emma regards bringing Vita back as somewhat of a pipe dream for a bit, just like how bringing back Crow turned out to be a pipe dream.

CS4: While I don't particularly like the optional romance mushy stuff, I did find the bond event for Emma very interesting as she ditches the calmness and shows emotions. The confession of guilt over the witch powers not doing much, trying to use a forbidden technique to help Rean out with his ogre problems, and yelling at Rean to consider her after how differently he sees the others. I found it great that she bought up the way he treats Crow. I wish this kinda bled over into the story in regards to Emma getting more heated and passionate about things but alas, there's only so much you can do with bond events.

Verdict: Celine hogs a lot of limelight in CS2, which really hurts Emma's development. It gets a bit more balanced in 3 but then 4 has Celine spend more time with Rean while not giving Emma something clearly defined outside of bond events.

Final thoughts:

These four for me somewhat live up to what people tote them as, but upon closer analysis, there was still some nuances to be found. The ratio to bond based development vs tangible in story development is skewed though. I think the older games had it right in regards to giving characters time to shine but I'm sure many have heard this argument already.

I'll admit after this, I really wanted to look into gameplay vs story segregation in Kiseki since while I am bummed by Class 7's random rescues, I thought there was something to look into as to why people don't really mind the getaways of Sky with the enforcers or how the hopeless battles in Ao worked where you get faked out despite winning but that'll be for another time.