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The Cold Steel collection of RPGs — released by Nihon Falcom throughout the 2010s — was an ambitious endeavor, given the multitude of personas and events featured. It needed the studio a quintet of games to mature these characters. Emma Millstein's narrative journey is developed in conjunction with Cold Steel’s central narrative, but it's via the subtle change in her abilities that we truly grasp the extent of her emotional journey.

Warning: This article includes minor spoilers for the central plot of the Cold Steel series.

In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, the character Emma is a ordinary teenager, just as the other members of Thors Academy's her class. As the student leader, she's kind to everyone and aims to prevent any disagreements between her classmates. Even though the character takes her student life with great dedication, she has a secret identity. In truth, she is a sorceress, a member of the Clan of Witches. Enrolling in the academy is a component of her real mission of mentoring the protagonist Rean, the leader figure of the group, who is destined to awaken a ancient guardian.

In each Trails of Cold Steel installment, most party members have at least one S-Craft, a special attack that demands you to have a sufficient quantity of CP to execute. These ultimate abilities are designed to be your ace in all fights. S-Crafts are also a mechanism for the game to narrate the evolution protagonists are experiencing. They can symbolize the development of a individual's fighting style, such as Rean Schwarzer’s special ability Breaking Dawn in the fourth game, which he gains after reaching the title of master swordsman. In some situations, like the witch Emma's, Nihon Falcom utilizes S-Crafts to express the emotional changes a persona undergoes.

When the conflict in Erebonia erupts in the first game, the character's response to the events is the naive but logical notion that battle means striking. The conflict extends to the second game in the series, where the pair of ultimate skills she wields are her first S-Craft and her second S-Craft. Both are offensive techniques that indiscriminately hit foes on the battlefield.

After we have the opportunity to meet Emma once more in Trails of Cold Steel III, we see a transformed girl. She has graduated from Thors, and after practicing with her witch community, the protagonist seems to have realized an important insight about her own nature. While she evolves into a formidable sorceress, the character realizes that, above all else, she’s a guardian. She is prepared to put others first to protect the group — but most notably Rean — out of harm's way. Her goal to occupy this position is hinted at by her ultimate skill, which in the third installment changes to Palace of Eregion.

When you use the S-Craft Palace of Eregion, the character calls forth several semi-transparent pillars of magic, and magical walls materialize connecting them and surrounding the combat area. The party members benefiting from this technique gain one or two stacks of damage immunity, a buff that prevents harm of all types. She had never been a belligerent individual, so she shifts to a supportive strategy, reflecting the caring demeanor she had always demonstrated to her friends.

It’s intriguing to observe how the developers uses a protagonist's skill set to enrich the series' story. Role-playing games typically rely on dialogue or visuals to show what a character is experiencing. But Emma shows that including a ability can add an extra dimension of insight.