He is. I used him most of my normal playthrough, my endgame party ended up being Lugo, Dijkistra and Gigina on the front and Nowa, Lam and Foxiel as the back row. He's a pretty consistent heavy hitter. Once you get access to the boss rush mode your levels skyrocket, I ended up reaching level 65 the first time I used it a little into the last part of the story and I could safely flee most encounters because I was too high leveled. Plus with the leveling system you can pretty much expiriment with any party composition because a few random encounters can bring any low level party member up to par with the rest of the party.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.
Will not change sig until the Tsar is put back in the Russian throne (July 08, 2010)