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The Trails of Cold Steel series of role-playing games — developed by Nihon Falcom across the 2010s — was an grand undertaking, accounting for the quantity of individuals and events included. It required the studio a quintet of games to completely flesh out these cast members. The character Emma's narrative journey is developed in conjunction with the series' primary plot, but it's via the subtle change in her skill set that we comprehend the extent of her personal transformation.

Heads-up: Our discussion contains some story reveals for the central plot of the Trails of Cold Steel games.

In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Emma is a typical teenager, similar to the rest of the students of Thors Academy's Class VII. As the class president, she's friendly to everyone and works to avert any disputes between her classmates. Although the character treats her academy duties with great dedication, she lives a double life. She's actually a practitioner of magic, a initiate of the Hexen Clan. Attending the academy is a component of her real mission of mentoring Rean Schwarzer, the central character of her class, who is meant to awaken a ancient guardian.

In each Trails series installment, the majority of characters have at least one ultimate ability, a special attack that needs you to have a sufficient quantity of Craft Points to activate. These ultimate abilities are meant to be your ace in every encounter. S-Crafts are furthermore a method for the game to depict the evolution protagonists are going through. They can epitomize the development of a individual's fighting style, for example Rean's special ability Breaking Dawn in the fourth game, which he acquires after attaining the designation of master swordsman. In different instances, such as the witch Emma's, Falcom uses S-Crafts to convey the internal transformations a individual undergoes.

When the war in the nation of Erebonia starts in Trails of Cold Steel I, the character's response to the situation is the naive but understandable idea that battle means engaging offensively. The war continues to the second game in the franchise, where the two S-Crafts she possesses are her first S-Craft and her second S-Craft. Each are damage-dealing skills that indiscriminately hit opponents on the arena.

Once we have the chance to meet Emma a second time in Cold Steel 3, we observe a changed girl. She has moved on from Thors Military Academy, and after honing her skills with her family, the protagonist clearly to have understood an vital insight about herself. Even though she becomes a formidable spellcaster, Emma understands that, most importantly, she’s a guardian. Emma is willing to give up her own safety to protect everyone — but especially Rean Schwarzer — safe. Her desire to occupy this role is subtly indicated by her special ability, which in Cold Steel 3 becomes her new defensive S-Craft.

When you activate the ultimate ability Eregion, she calls forth four glowing magical towers, and barriers form linking them and enclosing the battlefield. The characters benefiting from this ability gain several instances of damage immunity, a status that prevents harm of all types. The character had at no point been a aggressive person, so she transitions to a defensive approach, reflecting the caring attitude she had always extended to her friends.

It’s intriguing to witness how Falcom uses a character’s abilities to complement the series' narrative. RPGs often employ written text or graphics to inform players what a protagonist is experiencing. But Emma Millstein demonstrates that including a spell can contribute an extra dimension of insight.