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Hugo Gilchrist
Hugo Gilchrist
Information
Appearance Tales of Destiny
Hometown Darilsheid
Age 42
Race Er'ther
Occupation President of Oberon Corporation
Weapon Swordian Berselius
Japanese Voice Actor Kenji Utsumi
Character Designer Mutsumi Inomata

Hugo Gilchrist (ヒューゴ・ジルクリスト Hyuugo Jirukurisuto?) is the primary antagonist during the second part of Tales of Destiny. He is the President of the Oberon Corporation and serves as one of the closest advisers to the King of Seinegald. Hugo is also the father of both Leon Magnus and Rutee Katrea, and he wields the Swordian Berselius, which had been possessed by the spirit of Kronos, the leader of the Aetherians during the Aeth'er Wars.

History[]

Hugo Gilchrist (ToAsteria)

Artwork for Tales of Asteria.

Prior to the beginning of the story, Hugo was married to Chris Katrea, and had two children, Rutee and Emilio. However, this would change when his company unearthed the Swordian Berselius. Upon retrieving it, Hugo's mind would be attacked by the personality stored within the weapon, Kronos. Kronos corrupted Hugo's mind from within, reducing his self-control until it was completely broken when Hugo killed his wife. With his last breath of humanity, Hugo sent Rutee away, in the hopes that she would be spared. Unfortunately, by the time it was Emilio's turn, it was already too late. Hugo's darker side had won.

The relationship between father and son was permanently destroyed, and replaced with that of a master and a slave. He hired a maid, Marian Fustel, to care for Emilio, now known as "Leon Magnus". Since Marian resembles Leon's mother, Hugo uses her as a persistent reminder of what cruel acts he is capable of. Leon merely accepts the situation and performs as Hugo demands.

Most incidents that occur through the course of the story were carefully planned and instigated by Hugo, showing his skill for implanting deviant ideas into others' minds as he leads on Lydon Bernhardt to pursue his mad goals using the Eye of Atamoni.

Later, when Kronos completely takes over Hugo's body and trans-mutates it into his original form with the power of the Eye of Atamoni, Hugo's consciousness remains long enough to hold Kronos back and prevent him from killing Rutee, simultaneously activating a mechanism which detached Belcrant from the Aethersphere so that Rutee and her friends could escape. Following this, Hugo's will is completely subsumed by Kronos.

Appearance and Personality[]

Hugo Sprite (ToD PS2)

Hugo maintains a professional appearance, always wearing formal business clothes and glasses. People recognize him as a handsome man with shoulder-length black hair and a goatee. Prior to obtaining Swordian Berselius, Hugo was a caring father and loving husband, and when he started to feel the dark influence emanating from the weapon, he resisted as much as he could, forcing Rutee out of the household to survive on her own in fear of her safety.

After the loss of his wife and daughter, Hugo was completely helpless against Kronos's manipulation, forcibly altering his personality into a cold, calculating tyrant with no regard for connection, familial or otherwise. In public, he commands the respect of those around him, to the point that his employees would even sacrifice their lives for him without hesitation. But this outward personality hides the more subtle nature of cruelty, as one who enjoys manipulating people around him to perform acts that lead to their downfall, whether it benefits him or not. This new Hugo is particularly sadistic toward Leon, venting any frustration towards him whenever they are not in public view, so that he could still maintain his composure while conducting business or fulfilling his other duties, as well as forcing him to participate in his plans with the threat of harming Marian if he were to disobey his orders.

Fighting Style[]

Hugo Gilchrist (ToD PSX)

Hugo is a very capable melee fighter with rapid mobility and decent physical prowess. In the original PlayStation version of Tales of Destiny, Hugo has two normal attack options which had been passed on to his two children as artes, Snipe Air and Snipe Roar/Flying Dragon. He also has the ability to teleport across the battlefield using an arte named Mystic Shadow. Through the power of Berselius, he is a potent spellcaster with various powerful spells of different elements, most notably Divine Power, a spell which combines damage from each of the four cardinal elements.

Hugo (ToD PS2)

As part of the PlayStation 2 remake of the game, Hugo's abilities were significantly modified, granting him with a wider array of physical attacks and magic while removing Divine Power from his movelist. Among these new artes, Hugo gains Turbulence as a melee-based application of the more familiar spell, granting the same teleporting ability as Mystic Shadow from the original game, and Archangel, a spell that creates a shining field of floating feathers which encompasses a large area, damaging all enemies with a radial surge of light. He can use a dark-elemental variation of Infernal Torrent named Onyx Flare, which can be extended into Regret Rose, allowing him to launch projectiles which encircle his enemy to damage him or her from behind, reducing the target's physical defense.

Hugo Gilchrist (ToCE)

Artwork for Tales of Card Evolve.

Most notably, whenever Hugo starts to cast a spell, a field of energy surrounds him, staggering and damaging all enemies within range, providing him with protection from melee attacks to enable the completion of his spells without being interrupted. Upon achieving Damage Break, Hugo immediately casts Ambivalence, which calls down lightning upon a circular glyph, which then inverts the lightning as an upward burst of negative energy.

Trivia[]

  • During the beginning of the story in the PlayStation 2 remake, Hugo publically gives Leon a "gift", perfectly aware of how awkward such a gift might be for Leon due to his sadistic sense of humor. This gift is a Matsutake mushroom, known for its particularly phallic shape. The mushroom can be equipped as one of Leon's off-hand daggers, to be used as a weapon during battle.


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