Noel Kreiss

a character

Noel Kreiss is a playable character and the main male protagonist from Final Fantasy XIII-2. He is a hunter of Pulse, and having lived there all his life, he is unaware of the events that happened in Cocoon. He saves Serah Farron from monsters and accompanies her on her quest to find her sister, Lightning.

Appearance and Personality
Noel is a young man with unruly shoulder-length brown hair and striking blue eyes. He wears a black V-neck shirt with tribal designs as well as an "angel wings" design on the back, a simple pendant, a metal vambrace (bracer) on his left arm, his right arm is wrapped with cord and he wears a ring on his right hand, large blue pants similar in style to parachute pants, and low-cut leather boots. A green pouch and dagger are attached to his belt in the back, which is itself adorned with small lavender ties made of cloth. One of the swords he wields in his right hand has two blades stylized like red flames, while the sword he wields in his left backhanded is a simple yellow-brown blade similar to a gladius. His two-bladed sword is capable of holding his yellow sword on the metal part of the hilt. Both swords are also capable of combining and forming a spear.

As seen in the E3 trailer, Noel shows a cocky and confident side when introducing himself to Serah; when asked about his wants, he answers in a straightforward manner, but he also appears to be protective of Serah. Director Motomu Toriyama describes Noel as being a self-sufficient hunter, and being like a country boy visiting the city for the first time, referencing his first time in Cocoon.

Story
When Serah is attacked by monsters in New Bodhum, Noel appears out of nowhere and saves her. With little time to talk, he hands her one of his weapons for her to defend herself. Later, Serah decides to go search for Lightning, and for reasons unknown, Noel accompanies her.

At one point they visit the Bresha Ruins, and Noel is in awe seeing how Cocoon looks from the inside. Immediately upon arrival, they are attacked by a giant arm. Noel pushes Serah out of the way before it hits them and prepares to fight, but the arm knocks him aside and Serah charges it, with Noel joining her. During the battle, Noel scales up the arm and strikes what he believes to be an invisible giant. Afterward, PSICOM warships fire upon the giant Atlas, causing it to retreat further into the Ruins.

Guided by Alyssa, Noel, Serah and Mog go into the underground tunnels to find a machine capable of controlling Atlas. However, upon finding the machine, Atlas's hand appears and pulls them into a time paradox. Solving the anomaly activates the machine, causing it to weaken Atlas.

Development
As with the other playable characters in Final Fantasy XIII-2, Noel's face was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, while his body and clothes were designed by the rest of the art team. Noel was first revealed in screenshots and a teaser video from the 2011 E3 trailer of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Noel is designed as a newcomer character who knows little about Cocoon and Gran Pulse, because the developers wanted to have Noel in a similar position to a newcomer player to Final Fantasy XIII. Developers also draw several differences between Noel and Snow. Toriyama describes Noel as "having a different type of chivalry from Snow," while Kitase describes Noel as "attractive and stylish," as opposed to Snow being "the tough guy type."

Battle
Noel has been seen fighting alongside Serah with two swords. He has been seen operating in the Commando, Sentinel, and Ravager roles, the main roles of Snow.

Etymology
"Noël" is French for "Christmas", but originates, like other Latin-derived languages forms for the word, from the Latin "Natalis", which means "Birth". In German, "Kreis" means "Circle"; the second "s" may be added purely for pronunciation.

Trivia

 * Noel Kreiss shares certain characteristics with Oerba Yun Fang in the ways that he has a straight-forward cocky personality, wears tribal clothing with a similar color palette and has a red double-bladed weapon. In the E3 2011 demo, it was said that his weapon, also similar to Fang's, will be able to transform into a spear later in the game. However, it has been stated there is no relation between the two characters.