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The Cold Steel collection of role-playing games — released by the developer Falcom throughout the 2010s — was an large-scale project, accounting for the multitude of personas and storylines featured. It took the developer several games to completely flesh out these characters. Emma's personal narrative journey is revealed in conjunction with the series' primary plot, but it's by observing the progressive shift in her skill set that we fully understand the significance of her emotional journey.

Note: Our discussion includes some story reveals for the central plot of the Cold Steel franchise.

In Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Emma is a typical young woman, similar to the fellow pupils of the academy's Class VII. As the student leader, she's friendly to each person and works to avert any conflicts between her fellow students. Although the character approaches her studies with great dedication, she lives a double life. She's actually a practitioner of magic, a part of the magical Hexen family. Attending Thors is part of her real mission of assisting Rean Schwarzer, the leader figure of her class, who is destined to awaken a ancient guardian.

In each Trails series title, nearly all playable personas have at least one ultimate ability, a powerful move that demands you to have a sufficient quantity of CP to use. These supreme skills are intended to be your key advantage in every encounter. These ultimate skills are also a mechanism for the game to narrate the transformations characters are experiencing. They can represent the development of a individual's technique, such as the protagonist's ultimate move Breaking Dawn in Trails of Cold Steel IV, which he acquires after attaining the rank of Divine Blade. In different instances, for instance Emma’s, the developers employs special moves to convey the personal growth a individual goes through.

When the conflict in Erebonia starts in the first game, Emma Millstein's reaction to the situation is the idealistic but logical notion that battle means striking. The war extends to the next installment in the saga, where the two special abilities she has are Albireon and Rain. Each are offensive techniques that indiscriminately hit enemies on the arena.

When we have the opportunity to see Emma a second time in Trails of Cold Steel III, we see a transformed young woman. She has moved on from Thors Military Academy, and after training with her witch community, the protagonist seems to have grasped an important insight about herself. Although she grows into a powerful spellcaster, Emma understands that, above all else, she’s a defender. She is ready to sacrifice herself to ensure the group — but most notably Rean — secure. Her goal to take on this responsibility is subtly indicated by her special ability, which in the third installment changes to her new defensive S-Craft.

When you activate the special move Emma's new skill, the character calls forth four semi-transparent arcane structures, and shields appear linking them and surrounding the field of battle. The allies affected by this ability gain several stacks of damage immunity, a buff that prevents damage of every form. The character had not once been a aggressive character, so she transitions to a defensive style, mirroring the caring demeanor she had consistently extended to her friends.

It’s compelling to see how Nihon Falcom utilizes a persona's abilities to enhance the series' narrative. JRPGs typically rely on storytelling or graphics to inform players what a persona is feeling. But Emma demonstrates that including a spell can add an extra dimension of insight.