Supreme Techniques Are Personal Development in the Legend of Heroes: Cold Steel Series

The Cold Steel saga of RPGs — released by the developer Falcom across the 2010s — was an grand project, considering the number of individuals and plot points involved. It required the creator a quintet of games to completely flesh out these protagonists. Emma's personal character development is developed in parallel with Cold Steel’s primary plot, but it's via the progressive shift in her skill set that we truly grasp the significance of her inner growth.

Heads-up: The following content features minor spoilers for the central plot of the Cold Steel games.

In Legend of Heroes: Cold Steel, Emma is a regular student, 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 disputes between her peers. Although the character approaches her studies very earnestly, she leads two separate lives. She is in fact a practitioner of magic, a part of the Clan of Witches. Attending the academy is part of her true goal of mentoring Rean Schwarzer, the central character of her class, who is fated to awaken a Divine Knight.

In every Trails game, nearly all playable personas have at least one special technique, a special attack that demands you to have a sufficient quantity of Craft Points to activate. These finishing moves are meant to be your trump card in each battle. S-Crafts are furthermore a way for the developers to depict the evolution characters are undergoing. They can symbolize the development of a character’s fighting style, for example the protagonist's special ability his new technique in Trails of Cold Steel IV, which he unlocks after attaining the designation of Divine Blade. In other cases, like Emma Millstein's, the developers uses ultimate abilities to communicate the internal transformations a individual goes through.

When the war in Erebonia erupts in Trails of Cold Steel I, Emma’s approach to the situation is the naive but logical belief that fighting means striking. The conflict extends to the sequel in the series, where the pair of S-Crafts she has are Lord Albireon and Rain. These two are attack-oriented moves that indiscriminately hit opponents on the field.

After we have the opportunity to see the character Emma once more in Trails of Cold Steel III, we witness a different character. She has completed her studies from Thors, and after practicing with her clan, the protagonist seems to have grasped an crucial truth about her own nature. While she becomes a powerful magic user, the character comprehends that, primarily, Emma is a defender. She is prepared to sacrifice herself to ensure all her friends — but particularly the leader Rean — safe. Her wish to fulfill this responsibility is shown by her S-Craft, which in the third installment changes to Eregion.

When you execute the special move Emma's new skill, Emma summons four semi-transparent arcane structures, and barriers appear joining them and enclosing the combat area. The allies benefiting from this technique gain a few charges of damage immunity, a effect that prevents damage of any kind. She had at no point been a aggressive character, so she transitions to a supportive strategy, reflecting the nurturing demeanor she had invariably shown to her companions.

It’s compelling to see how Nihon Falcom employs a protagonist's powers to enrich the game’s story. RPGs often use written text or cutscenes to show what a persona is thinking. But Emma Millstein demonstrates that including a skill can contribute another layer of insight.