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The Cold Steel collection of role-playing games — released by the developer Falcom throughout the 2010s — was an ambitious project, accounting for the multitude of individuals and storylines featured. It needed the creator several games to fully develop these cast members. Emma Millstein's character development is developed in tandem with the series' central narrative, but it's through the subtle change in her powers that we truly grasp the extent of her personal transformation.

Warning: Our discussion features minor spoilers for the primary narrative of the Cold Steel series.

In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Emma Millstein is a typical student, similar to the rest of the students of Thors Academy's Class Seven. As the representative, she's approachable to each person and works to avert any disputes between her classmates. Although Emma approaches her studies really seriously, she lives a double life. She is in fact a sorceress, a member of the Hexen Clan. Attending Thors is part of her underlying objective of mentoring Rean Schwarzer, the central character of her class, who is destined to unleash a powerful mech.

In every Trails game, nearly all playable personas have at least one ultimate ability, a special attack that needs you to have a sufficient quantity of skill points to activate. These ultimate abilities are meant to be your key advantage in all fights. These ultimate skills are also a method for the game to depict the changes the cast are undergoing. They can symbolize the development of a character’s technique, such as Rean Schwarzer’s S-Craft Breaking Dawn in Cold Steel 4, which he gains after earning the title of master swordsman. In other cases, like the witch Emma's, the developers employs S-Crafts to express the emotional changes a persona undergoes.

When the conflict in the empire begins in the first game, the character's reaction to the situation is the naive but logical notion that combat means striking. The war spills over to the second game in the series, where the pair of S-Crafts she possesses are her first S-Craft and Rain. These two are offensive techniques that affect every foes on the arena.

After we have the opportunity to meet Emma again again in the third game, we see a transformed girl. She has moved on from the academy, and after training with her witch community, the protagonist seems to have understood an important truth about her own nature. Although she evolves into a formidable magic user, the character understands that, above all else, Emma is a protector. She is willing to give up her own safety to ensure the group — but particularly Rean — secure. Her desire to fulfill this responsibility is subtly indicated by her special ability, which in Trails of Cold Steel III becomes Eregion.

When you activate the special move Emma's new skill, Emma calls forth a quartet of translucent magical towers, and barriers form joining them and enclosing the field of battle. The allies affected by this technique receive a few charges of Absolute Reflect, a effect that prevents injury of every form. Emma had at no point been a belligerent person, so she moves to a protective approach, reflecting the caring attitude she had invariably extended to her friends.

It’s fascinating to witness how Nihon Falcom employs a character’s abilities to enrich the game’s story. Role-playing games often rely on storytelling or cutscenes to show what a protagonist is thinking. But this character shows that right down to a ability can provide another layer of meaning.