[spoiler]There's a definite lack of character development but I wouldn't take Emily as an example. I personally liked the fact that you did in fact rescue Emily straight off: I was expecting not to find her, having to chase her captors for half of the game like any other video game would do. Nope! Bam, mission accomplished. After that, although she's not pivotal to the plot of the following missions, she's still an empress-to-be and the game conveyed clearly how important she was. And her character was rather fleshed-out through interactions with Callista and even more through the girl's drawings and attitude that depend on how you play the game.

The character who disappointed me most was Anton Sokolov. I would have liked him to play a more important role after being kidnapped and I felt cheated that I couldn't talk to him after Lady Boyle's Last Party. He's just a tool to advance the plot although he could have been an amazing charcter. The game is slightly too short in that regard.[/spoiler]