Gustaf

Gustaf is a character in SaGa Frontier 2. He is a taciturn fighter who joins Ginny Knights' party. He never discloses who he really is; the son of Phillipe III. This makes Gustaf the designated heir to the throne of Finney. However, the young prince prefers to live a life of adventure. He is Gustave XIII's rightful successor but also a hero in pursuit of the Egg.



Gameplay
Gustaf is an oddity among Ginny's team. He's permanently stuck with two swords in his weapon slots which hinder his versatility and only compounded by his average Sword growth potential. Yet they're two of the strongest swords in the game, can never break, and one of them gives him permanent access to Fire Spell arts. He has the most well-rounded growth potential of any character in the game with above average growth with all magic types, and barring Martial Arts he has strong weapon growth overall. He also has the highest Spell Art Spark potential of any character in the game and is one of two characters who can learn the powerful Soul Hymn Spell Art.

He has no real weaknesses from a statistical point of view, but he's severally handicapped by his niche build. His swords give him a great power boost, but hinder his potential versatility, instead forcing the player to make some tough choices with his other equipment to take advantage of his great spell casting potential. The swords are incredibly powerful, but they may deceive a more careless player into building him as a one-trick pony, a very powerful trick pony, but one that may be ill-equipped for dealing with the end game bosses who are built around prolonging battles and directly attacking LP. This is partly because Gustaf only has average WP Regeneration, which if not monitored properly, will not be able to keep up with him spamming high end Sword Arts.

It's best to understand the real advantage and disadvantage his two weapons bring to the battlefield. The Firebrand has weaker physical damage stats, but has elemental properties that sometimes make it more valuable than Gustave's Steel Sword. Being a Quell also means it doesn't hinder Gustaf's SP Regeneration and magic ability. In fact, its stats are high enough to counter the high magic hindrance steel items give to a character, though only to a point. Gustave's Sword is just as powerful as it was when he used it, and in fact, it's often the best weapon to use if Gustaf is going to use a Sword Art as it has far greater physical damage stats than the Firebrand, but switching to the weapon will also likely mean that Gustaf won't reap his full SP Regen potential. Thus it becomes a bit of a balancing act to know which weapon to use and when.

It's not a bad idea to give Gustaf a good spell selection range and take advantage of his high SP Regeneration, taking note to have him equipped with the Firebrand at these times to maximize the amount restored per round. He's a competent mage who starts with high stats in Fire Magic but can potentially be developed to be an all-rounder. His damage potential is good enough to be useful in battle though it may pale in comparison to Wil or Ginny using one of their prime elemental Spell Arts, it will often still be good enough to help clear a group of random encounters. Giving him support magic can also help him work out a nice strategy where half the team buffs/debuffs while the other goes all out offense. In truth, Gustaf excels at these type of team strategies.

Starting Equipment

 * Flame Sword (prior to "Battle of South Moundtop (1305)")
 * Firebrand (after "Battle of South Moundtop (1305)")
 * Gustaf's Sword
 * Leather Armor
 * Coral Ring
 * Wood Shoes
 * Wind Shell

Trivia

 * Gustaf, along with Kevin, are the only characters who can feasibly learn the spell "Soul Hymn". Even so, there is still only a 2% chance you will learn it per battle against high level enemies.
 * Though he's locked into using swords exclusively, according to his raw stat data, he is actually more proficient with Spears.