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The Trails of Cold Steel collection of JRPGs — published by Nihon Falcom across the last decade — was an ambitious project, accounting for the quantity of individuals and events included. It took the creator a quintet of games to completely flesh out these protagonists. Emma's personal character development is revealed in parallel with Cold Steel’s central narrative, but it's through the gradual evolution in her powers that we comprehend the depth of her personal transformation.

Heads-up: The following content includes light plot details for the main storyline of the Cold Steel franchise.

In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Emma Millstein is a ordinary young woman, similar to the fellow pupils of Thors Military Academy’s Class Seven. As the student leader, she's friendly to each person and strives to prevent any disputes between her fellow students. Even though Emma treats her academy duties with great dedication, she has a secret identity. In truth, she is a witch, a part of the Hexen Clan. Joining the academy is a component of her real mission of assisting the protagonist Rean, the central character of her class, who is fated to awaken a ancient guardian.

In every Trails series title, nearly all characters have at least one S-Craft, a special attack that needs you to have a certain level of skill points to execute. These supreme skills are meant to be your trump card in each battle. Special Crafts are furthermore a mechanism for the developers to depict the evolution the cast are experiencing. They can epitomize the development of a persona's combat prowess, for example Rean's S-Craft the skill Breaking Dawn in the fourth game, which he acquires after reaching the rank of Divine Blade. In some situations, for instance Emma Millstein's, Falcom employs special moves to convey the internal transformations a individual goes through.

When the great war in the nation of Erebonia erupts in Trails of Cold Steel I, the character's response to the situation is the naive but understandable idea that battle means striking. The conflict extends to the second game in the saga, where the two S-Crafts she possesses are Lord Albireon and her second S-Craft. These two are damage-dealing skills that indiscriminately hit foes on the field.

When we have the moment to encounter Emma once more in Cold Steel 3, we witness a different character. She has graduated from Thors, and after practicing with her witch community, Emma clearly to have understood an important truth about herself. While she evolves into a impressive spellcaster, she comprehends that, above all else, she’s a defender. She’s prepared to sacrifice herself to keep everyone — but most notably Rean — out of harm's way. Her goal to occupy this position is shown by her S-Craft, which in Cold Steel 3 transforms into her new defensive S-Craft.

When you execute the ultimate ability Emma's new skill, Emma calls forth four glowing pillars of magic, and shields appear joining them and encircling the combat area. The allies benefiting from this skill receive one or two stacks of Absolute Reflect, a effect that blocks harm of any kind. The character had never been a combative person, so she moves to a defensive strategy, mirroring the protective demeanor she had always demonstrated to her friends.

It’s fascinating to see how the developers utilizes a protagonist's skill set to enrich the series' plot. JRPGs often rely on written text or visuals to inform players what a persona is thinking. But this character demonstrates that including a ability can add an extra dimension of meaning.