Wil Knights

Wil Knights (ウィル) is one of the 2 main protagonists in SaGa Frontier 2 the father of Rich.and grandfather of Virgina. His humble beginnings as a digger and frightful battle against the Egg marks a less known part of Sandail's history.

Storyline
Born into a digger family rich in tradition, the death of Wil's parents result in him moving to Westia to live with his aunt and uncle. At the age of 15 Wil leaves Westia to become a famous digger in his own right. He meets up with Cordelia, Narcisse, and Tyler when he tries his first digging attempt in the Ruins of Hahn. After setting out, he soon stumbles across the infamous digger Alexei Sergein and stories of a mysterious Quell called the Egg, which leads him on a personal quest to discover the true story behind his parent's deaths. He travels to Vogelang, the sight of the fateful expedition that found the Egg and learned how the quell had corrupted the Sergein team and how Wil's father Henry used steel to defeat the Egg and take it away to hide it.

Wishing to learn more, Wil and one of his companions infiltrate Alexei's gang to learn more about the Egg and what happened. Alexei easily figures out Wil's ruse and tells him his mother had actually killed his father due to the Egg stealing his Anima. Wil follows Alexei with his aunt Nina and discover that the Egg allows him the ability to control monsters. Unable to defeat the dragons he summoned, Nina sacrifices her lifeforce by using a powerful Anima Spell. Wil then battles Alexei and watches as he falls deep into the mines with the Egg. After coming to terms with his aunt's death, who was like a mother to him, Wil travels to Gruegel where he senses the Egg's dark anima, he quickly realizes that someone found the Quell and it may be once again used for evil.

In the intervening years, Wil helps the local mines dig for anima stones and stops a monster infestation and the eventual collapse of the mines which helps raise his notoriety among Diggers. Realizing he needs to travel outside of Westia to find better scores, Wil and his companions travel to Laubholz where they recruit Patrick and head towards the Grand Valley to reach Weissland, the birthplace of Spell Arts. Due to a massive toll being placed on the bridge, Wil tries to find an alternate route through the foggy valley. He meets a fellow traveler named Labelle who is searching for her brother and the two travel across the valley.

In Weissland, Wil and Labelle finally meet her brother William, a fellow digger with dreams of striking it rich by exploring the dangerous Ice Monolith. The party explores the interior and finds several unique quells, but soon the place starts to mess with their minds and Wil and party blackout. Wil awakens with a unique Quell but wonders how they escaped the room, only for William to hear something calling him and go back in. Willaim is then transformed into the Megalith Beast and chases Wil's party throughout the Megalith until the bridge leading to it collapses.

At 27 he returns from the frozen wastes of Weissland, earning himself the title of "Tycoon Wil". His exploits here become widely known as his greatest achievement and in this time he settles down in Wide and sires an heir named Richard. He then heard rumors that the Egg had resurfaced within an Anima worshiping cult that had started using the Ruins of Hahn as their base. Wil and his team infiltrate the cult to find the person possessing the Egg but find no leads. Their search is soon interrupted when Lord Gustave XIII and his troops arrive with the intent of slaughtering the cult in retaliation of the assassination of his nephew Phillipe II. In the panic, Wil senses the Egg belongs not to any high ranking official of the cult but a lowly servant who summons monsters to get away from the scene.

Not to be deterred, Wil uses his resources to try and find the Egg. He finally gets a lucky break when he learns the Egg belongs to a pirate. Wil starts a rumor of treasure in the City of the Night in order to lure the pirates to the town so Wil can sneak aboard there ship. Narcisse calls Wil out on his recklessness concerning the Egg and wishes no part of the plan since it seems to endanger the locals. Wil then contacts Lord Gustave XIII about the invasion and secures his help in protecting the town while he sneaks onto the ship. While exploring the ship, Wil accidentally damages it and the ship begins to sink into the ocean, desperately, he searches for the owner of the Egg who turns out to be a lowly pirate whose will had been consumed by the Egg. Wil battles the Egg is able to get ahold of it an toss it into the sea but is left on the sinking boat.

It is later confirmed that Wil survived his ordeal somehow and retired to Wide with his family. He is visited by his son Rich, who asks him about the Egg after encountering a small girl named Misty who found it. Wil becomes obsessed and orders his son to tell him where the child is so they can pursue her and destroy the Egg, but Rich sees no reason to fear the Egg and finds Wil's obsession concerning and simply leaves. A few years later, Wil meets the young Diana, who is pregnant with Rich's daughter. After Diana explains that Rich sent her away so he could deal with the The Egg, Wil fears the worst. He names Rich's daughter Virgina, or Ginny for short and helps raise her in Wide.

fifteen years later, Wil is contacted by friends within Jade concerning the Egg's apparent return with a man who has conquered Hahn Nova and claims to be the heir of Gustave. Wil leaves for Thermes unaware that his granddaughter tried to follow him. He soon learns that she has been working as a Digger in the North Lands and travels there to bring her home. She tells him of the fate of Rich and begs to travel with him to stop the Egg. Wil travels to Thermes and meets with Ventarbre, who explains that the Egg has been sighted in possession of the Fake Gustave. Wil travels to Hahn Nova to confirm it, but soon realizes that the Egg has also sensed him as well. Wil and his granddaughter have to fight their way out of the capital and defeat Sargon who has been transformed into a beast called the Fire Lord.

The party travels to the battlefields of South Moundtop to see if the forces of King David and his alliance can defeat the Egg empowered imposter. Despite Fake Gustave's defeat, the Egg is nowhere to be found on the battlefield and Wil expects it fled once it knew the battle was lost. They then follow it to the new Star Megalith that rises in the northern lands and finally battle the Egg to the death. With the Egg finally defeated once and for all, Wil returns to retirement at the age of 86.

Gameplay
Wil starts the game with proficiency in Staff Weapons, as well as Flame, Tree, Stone, and Water elements. Combined with his low HP and WP, it is recommended to build Wil as a mage type character in the game due to his knack with Magic Arts.

Try to use duels to learn as many spell arts as you can, and equip him in ways to take advantage of his four starting elements. Focus on making him a support unit with Spell Arts like Life Water and Stone Armor before branching out into offense spells like Bushfire and Water Hammer. Once stronger staff weapons become available, Wil can start being more of an all-rounder in combat, though it's possible to do so earlier if you raise his ranks with other weapons early enough.Though he starts off rather fragile compared to other characters, Wil's large number of playable missions gives him the opportunity to become one of the games strongest characters if developed well.

LKater in the third generation, Wil will return as a playable party member though he is now in his 80s. This age up will cut his HP and WP regeneration down significantly, but any levels with Spell Arts will remain. At this point, it is best to leave Wil as a pure mage build as his low WP regeneration and hit to his WP and HP scores makes him unsuitable for frontline combat without serious grinding and WP resource management, it's simply easier to build on his Spell Art potential.

Wil also has the distinction of having the most Spell Arts he can spark of any character in the game with only his granddaughter Ginny coming close to him.

Wil works best with supporting or magic focused Roles such as Recover, Heavy Spell, Support, and Leader.

Starting Equipment

 * Sapling Staff
 * Buckler
 * Hat
 * Leather Armor
 * Fur Boots

Trivia

 * The player can determine whom the mother of Rich Knights shall be. If the player does not take Cordelia for the "Infiltrate! Alexei Gang" quest, then she will become his future wife. If the player takes Cordelia, then she will die and Labelle will become Wil's wife. The authors admit that they originally did intend to make Labelle the canonical wife of Wil, but with how little development time Labelle was given in the story, it's no surprise that most fans of the game can only imagine Cordelia to be alongside Wil.