The Cold Steel collection of role-playing games — released by the developer Falcom throughout the past ten years — was an ambitious project, given the number of characters and plot points featured. It required the studio several games to fully develop these characters. Emma Millstein's story arc is revealed in conjunction with the series' primary plot, but it's via the subtle change in her powers that we truly grasp the extent of her inner growth.
Warning: Our discussion contains minor spoilers for the main storyline of the Cold Steel franchise.
In The Legend of Heroes: Cold Steel, Emma is a ordinary student, like the fellow pupils of the academy's Class Seven. As the student leader, she's kind to all and strives to prevent any disputes between her classmates. Although the character treats her academy duties with great dedication, she has a secret identity. She's actually a witch, a initiate of the Hexen Clan. Joining Thors is one step in her underlying objective of assisting Rean, the key individual of her class, who is meant to unleash a ancient guardian.
In each Trails game, nearly all characters have at least one S-Craft, a special attack that demands you to have a minimum amount of CP to execute. These ultimate abilities are designed to be your ace in all fights. Special Crafts are furthermore a mechanism for the game to depict the evolution protagonists are experiencing. They can represent the advancement of a character’s combat prowess, like Rean Schwarzer’s ultimate move the skill Breaking Dawn in the fourth game, which he gains after reaching the designation of Divine Blade. In different instances, for instance Emma’s, Nihon Falcom employs S-Crafts to communicate the internal transformations a individual goes through.
When the war in the nation of Erebonia erupts in Trails of Cold Steel I, the character's reaction to the situation is the naive but reasonable idea that fighting means attacking. The struggle extends to the second game in the saga, where the two special abilities she possesses are Lord Albireon and Rain. Both are damage-dealing skills that affect every enemies on the arena.
After we have the opportunity to see Emma a second time in Trails of Cold Steel III, we witness a changed girl. She has moved on from Thors Military Academy, and after practicing with her family, she seems to have realized an important revelation about herself. Although she grows into a formidable magic user, Emma understands that, above all else, she’s a guardian. She’s willing to put others first to ensure all her friends — but especially Rean — safe. Her goal to take on this role is subtly indicated by her ultimate skill, which in Trails of Cold Steel III becomes Palace of Eregion.
When you execute the S-Craft Eregion, she calls forth several semi-transparent pillars of magic, and magical walls appear linking them and encircling the battlefield. The party members affected by this skill gain a few charges of total reflection, a buff that blocks injury of any kind. She had not once been a aggressive character, so she shifts to a protective strategy, echoing the nurturing attitude she had invariably shown to her companions.
It’s fascinating to witness how Nihon Falcom uses a protagonist's skill set to enhance the series' narrative. Role-playing games often employ storytelling or visuals to show what a character is feeling. But this character shows that right down to a spell can contribute another layer of insight.
