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The Cold Steel series of JRPGs — published by the developer Falcom during the past ten years — was an grand project, given the quantity of characters and storylines featured. It took the creator five games to mature these cast members. The character Emma's narrative journey is revealed in conjunction with the series' primary plot, but it's via the progressive shift in her skill set that we fully understand the extent of her emotional journey.

Warning: The following content contains some story reveals for the main storyline of the Cold Steel franchise.

In Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Emma Millstein is a typical student, similar to the fellow pupils of the academy's Class Seven. As the class president, she's kind to each person and aims to prevent any disagreements between her fellow students. While Emma takes her student life really seriously, she has a secret identity. In truth, she is a practitioner of magic, a part of the Clan of Witches. Enrolling in the academy is part of her real mission of assisting Rean, the key individual of Class VII, who is meant to unleash a Divine Knight.

In all Trails series title, the majority of characters have at least one special technique, a unique skill that needs you to have a sufficient quantity of skill points to execute. These finishing moves are designed to be your trump card in every encounter. These ultimate skills are furthermore a way for the game to narrate the changes characters are going through. They can epitomize the refinement of a character’s fighting style, like Rean's ultimate move Breaking Dawn in Trails of Cold Steel IV, which he unlocks after reaching the designation of master swordsman. In other cases, such as Emma Millstein's, Nihon Falcom utilizes S-Crafts to convey the personal growth a character goes through.

When the conflict in the nation of Erebonia erupts in Cold Steel, Emma Millstein's approach to the events is the naive but understandable idea that fighting means engaging offensively. The war continues to the next installment in the series, where the two S-Crafts she possesses are Lord Albireon and Zodiac Rain. Both are damage-dealing skills that indiscriminately hit enemies on the field.

After we have the moment to encounter Emma again once more in Cold Steel 3, we observe a different character. She has graduated from Thors Military Academy, and after honing her skills with her witch community, Emma seems to have understood an crucial insight about herself. Even though she evolves into a formidable spellcaster, she realizes that, above all else, she’s a defender. She is ready to put others first to protect the group — but most notably Rean Schwarzer — secure. Her desire to fulfill this role is hinted at by her S-Craft, which in Trails of Cold Steel III changes to Palace of Eregion.

When you use the ultimate ability Eregion, Emma calls forth a quartet of translucent pillars of magic, and magical walls appear connecting them and encircling the field of battle. The allies benefiting from this technique receive one or two charges of Absolute Reflect, a effect that negates harm of any kind. The character had at no point been a aggressive character, so she transitions to a supportive approach, echoing the caring look she had consistently shown to her friends.

It’s compelling to observe how Falcom uses a protagonist's powers to enrich the game’s plot. Role-playing games often rely on storytelling or visuals to inform players what a protagonist is experiencing. But Emma Millstein shows that including a spell can add an extra dimension of meaning.