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The Cold Steel collection of RPGs — released by Nihon Falcom during the last decade — was an ambitious project, accounting for the multitude of personas and plot points included. It required the creator five games to completely flesh out these characters. Emma's personal story arc is developed in tandem with Cold Steel’s central narrative, but it's via the gradual evolution in her powers that we fully understand the extent of her personal transformation.

Heads-up: Our discussion features light plot details for the central plot of the Trails of Cold Steel franchise.

In The Legend of Heroes: Cold Steel, the character Emma is a typical student, just as the fellow pupils of Thors Academy's her class. As the representative, she's approachable to everyone and strives to prevent any disputes between her fellow students. While Emma treats her academy duties really seriously, she lives a double life. In truth, she is a practitioner of magic, a part of the Clan of Witches. Enrolling in Thors is one step in her true goal of guiding the protagonist Rean, the key individual of Class VII, who is fated to unleash a ancient guardian.

In all Trails installment, the majority of playable personas have at least one special technique, a special attack that needs you to have a certain level of skill points to use. These finishing moves are meant to be your trump card in all fights. These ultimate skills are additionally a method for the developers to narrate the transformations the cast are experiencing. They can epitomize the development of a character’s combat prowess, such as the protagonist's special ability the skill Breaking Dawn in Trails of Cold Steel IV, which he unlocks after earning the rank of master swordsman. In some situations, for instance the witch Emma's, Nihon Falcom employs S-Crafts to express the emotional changes a character experiences.

When the great war in the nation of Erebonia begins in the first game, Emma’s approach to the situation is the idealistic but logical idea that fighting means attacking. The struggle spills over to the sequel in the series, where the two S-Crafts she possesses are her first S-Craft and her second S-Craft. Each are attack-oriented moves that indiscriminately hit enemies on the field.

After we have the moment to see the character Emma again in the third game, we observe a transformed character. She has completed her studies from the academy, and after practicing with her family, she clearly to have grasped an crucial insight about her own nature. Although she evolves into a formidable sorceress, she understands that, primarily, Emma is a guardian. Emma is ready to put others first to keep everyone — but particularly the leader Rean — out of harm's way. Her goal to take on this role is hinted at by her S-Craft, which in the third installment becomes Eregion.

When you activate the S-Craft Eregion, Emma summons a quartet of translucent pillars of magic, and barriers materialize linking them and surrounding the combat area. The allies affected by this technique obtain a few stacks of Absolute Reflect, a status that blocks damage of any kind. She had not once been a aggressive character, so she moves to a protective style, echoing the protective attitude she had consistently shown to her friends.

It’s compelling to see how Falcom utilizes a persona's powers to complement the game’s plot. JRPGs frequently employ dialogue or visuals to show what a persona is experiencing. But this character proves that even a spell can contribute an extra dimension of meaning.