Supreme Skills Function as Character Development in the Trails of Cold Steel Series
The Cold Steel series of RPGs — released by Nihon Falcom during the past ten years — was an ambitious project, considering the number of characters and storylines featured. It required the studio five games to fully develop these cast members. Emma Millstein's story arc is revealed in tandem with Cold Steel’s main story, but it's via the subtle change in her powers that we comprehend the depth of her emotional journey.
Heads-up: The following content contains light plot details for the primary narrative of the Trails of Cold Steel games.
In Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Emma is a ordinary teenager, similar to the rest of the students of Thors Military Academy’s Class VII. As the student leader, she's friendly to each person and works to avoid any conflicts between her fellow students. While she takes her student life with great dedication, she has a secret identity. She is in fact a sorceress, a part of the Clan of Witches. Attending the academy is a component of her true goal of guiding Rean, the leader figure of Class VII, who is destined to call forth a Divine Knight.
In each Trails series game, the majority of playable personas have at least one S-Craft, a special attack that needs you to have a minimum amount of Craft Points to activate. These ultimate abilities are meant to be your trump card in every encounter. S-Crafts are additionally a method for the developers to narrate the transformations protagonists are undergoing. They can symbolize the development of a individual's technique, for example Rean's ultimate move the skill Breaking Dawn in Cold Steel 4, which he acquires after attaining the designation of master swordsman. In other cases, for instance the witch Emma's, Falcom employs S-Crafts to communicate the emotional changes a character experiences.
When the great war in Erebonia erupts in Cold Steel, Emma’s reaction to the circumstances is the idealistic but reasonable notion that fighting means striking. The struggle extends to the sequel in the saga, where the pair of special abilities she wields are Albireon and Zodiac Rain. Both are offensive techniques that indiscriminately hit enemies on the field.
When we have the opportunity to see Emma again again in Cold Steel 3, we observe a transformed character. She has moved on from Thors Military Academy, and after training with her witch community, the protagonist clearly to have grasped an important truth about who she is. Although she grows into a powerful spellcaster, she realizes that, above all else, Emma is a defender. She’s prepared to put others first to protect everyone — but particularly the leader Rean — secure. Her goal to take on this role is shown by her ultimate skill, which in Cold Steel 3 becomes Palace of Eregion.
When you execute the special move Palace of Eregion, she summons a quartet of semi-transparent magical towers, and magical walls form linking them and enclosing the combat area. The allies under the influence of this skill obtain several instances of total reflection, a buff that blocks harm of any kind. The character had never been a aggressive character, so she shifts to a protective strategy, mirroring the nurturing look she had always shown to her friends.
It’s fascinating to witness how the developers employs a protagonist's skill set to enrich the game’s story. JRPGs frequently use dialogue or cutscenes to inform players what a character is thinking. But this character demonstrates that including a spell can add an extra dimension of meaning.
