Noctis Lucis Caelum

a character from a game

Noctis Lucis Caelum is the playable character and main protagonist of Final Fantasy XV. He is the Crown Prince and heir to the kingdom of Lucis, the last kingdom to have control over a crystal. Noctis defends his kingdom from marauders and barbarians who seek to conquer the city and claim the crystal by force. Due to an accident in his childhood, Noctis can see the "light," and has the power to foresee a person's death.

Appearance
Noctis is a svelte young man standing at 176cm (5'9) with spiky black hair and blue eyes that can glow red. He wears a black jacket with skull-motif buttons and sequenced details on pockets. He keeps it unzipped and the tag on the zipper also has a small skull. Underneath he wears a steel gray shirt with skull prints. Noctis wears black cropped trousers and black buckled boots with red soles. He wears a black motorcycle glovelet on his left hand. It is suggested that he is an attractive young man as Aranea referred to him as a "pretty boy" upon first meeting him.

Alternate outfits
Noctis will have alternate outfits available. A suit is available as DLC, and a casual outfit was shown in the gameplay demonstration released during Gamescom 2016: a white t-shirt and a black ballcap. Noctis was first seen wearing a suit for a cut Final Fantasy Versus XIII scene, but it appears that in Final Fantasy XV he will be wearing the suit designed for King Regis instead,

Personality
Noctis is shy, but tries to hide it by "acting cool". According to former director Tetsuya Nomura, Noctis will not have the "Cloud-like" personality, but he will be a new type of character for the series, one which Nomura had wanted to try out for a long time. Nomura said Noctis will have a strong and distinctive personality, rather than being silent and gloomy. In a Dengeki interview, Nomura explained Noctis is an ordinary young man who acts tough because he feels it is his duty to protect his kingdom and its citizens. As a result, he sometimes acts rashly or overestimates his strength.

Noctis is said to have a rebellious attitude, disliking the strict rules of his kingdom and acting as he pleases, sometimes getting his friends into trouble. Despite this, Noctis is protective of his friends. Three young men accompany Noctis: Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto; their relationship resembles that of the kyodai (brothers) and shatei (little brothers) in the Yakuza hierarchy. The four are later joined by the Captain of the Royal Guard, Cor Leonis, who has little patience for their antics.

Noctis's royal upbringing is said to shine through, as reflected in his body language, poise, and posture in contrast to his team. According to Hajime Tabata who took on the directorial role from Nomura, one of his defining aspects is his "sense of ennui". A quirk of his is is that he regularly dozes off, and in Episode Duscae his companions have trouble waking him up: this is present from his early childhood, but whether it is the result of insomnia or related to his mystical gifts is unknown.

Hajime Tabata has described Noctis's relationship with his father thusly:

Noctis has been described as a complex character who has dealt with a lot of emotional turmoil as his mother died when he was young and his father had to cater to the demands of the kingdom leaving Noctis feeling alone. Nevertheless he is not bitter over it, accepting that sacrifices had to be made. Noctis is still trying to figure out who he is, and struggles articulating his feelings. He keeps a lot bottled up, especially with confronting how he feels about his childhood friend Luna.

Story
Noctis is the son of King Regis and his unnamed mother, being the crown prince of Lucis and thus being heir to the Caelum line. When he was an infant, Noctis and his mother were the victims of a monster attack: his mother died, while Noctis was gravely injured, but was saved from death by Regis and his attendees.

As depicted in Platinum Demo – Final Fantasy XV, Noctis went into a coma and retreated into a dream world where he came under the protection of Carbuncle, an Archaean who guides him through his dreamscape and helps him fend off attacks from an unknown force attempting to keep him from waking up. During his time recovering, he spends time with the young Lunafreya Nox Fleuret: while their time together is short, they bond and forge secret promises. When Regis returns to Lucis with Noctis, he discovers too late that both Noctis and Lunafreya have been "chosen by the stars" for a greater purpose, laying a further burden upon the young boy.

When a king of Lucis dies, their wisdom is passed to the next generation and thus the royal line lives on. The family heirloom, the Ring of the Lucii, contains the accumulated powers of the previous kings of Lucis and is inherited by the person next in line for the throne. The summoned swords both Noctis and Regis can wield are also inherited from each previous king. The king of Lucis is doomed to age prematurely due to their life energy being needed to power the barrier around Lucis. Regis is subject to this, appearing much older than his actual age of around 50 years, so he is conflicted about whether to put such a burden on Noctis.

Despite being royalty, Noctis attended a regular school where he befriended a boy named Prompto, whom Luna had advised to seek Noctis's friendship as he hadn't mingled much with others.

At age 20, Noctis, as the heir to the Lucian throne, sets forth from his homeland to formalize the union of states through his marriage to Lady Lunafreya of the imperial province of Tenebrae. Accompanying Noctis are his friends—Ignis, his royal advisor; Gladiolus, his bodyguard; and Prompto, his friend from high school. The four head toward Altissia to meet with Luna, for Noctis to marry her to solidify relations between their countries as a political union despite their childhood friendship and Noctis' complicated feelings for her.

On their way across Leide, Regalia, Regis's car the party is using, breaks down, forcing the party to push it to the nearest service station, where they meet Cindy and her grandfather Cid. Cid recognizes Noctis due to his resemblance to Regis, and assures them the car can be fixed, but it will take time, leaving the party stranded for the time being. Cindy handles the repairs, and the player is left to choose the means of coming up with the money for them. Once the repairs are paid for, the party heads to the port town of Galdin Quay, where they hope to take a ferry to Altissia. However, the ferry is not running.

The party soon learns that Niflheim attacked the Lucian capital of Insomnia. Both Noctis and his father are reported dead alongside Lunafreya. They turn back immediately, but a blockade prevents them from reaching the city. They instead find a high vantage point to see the city from a distance, and receive a call from Cor as to the actual state of affairs. With little recourse, and Noctis' duty to his country, the party resumes their trip to Altissia in hopes that Luna escaped and headed there.

Gameplay
Noctis can unlock 29 abilities. He wields a variety of weapons including swords, greatswords, and spears, though his primary weapon is the Engine Blade, a falchion fashioned with a motorcycle engine at the hilt and can be further upgraded. His other weapons include Avenger, Blood Sword, Partisan, Wyvern Lance, and Zweihander, and he can wield guns. Noctis can summon his weapons into the air around him and wield them by hand or telekinesis. These powers can only be used by members of the royal family and the High Council, and his eyes change from blue to red when he invokes them.

Noctis can use any weapon type in the game, and can wield multiple different weapons in a single battle thanks to his special ability. When not equipping a weapon, he is able to evade enemy attacks. The game has two types of evade, automatic and a dodge roll.

While in the story Noctis is the only character to use magic, the gameplay is adjusted so the supporting party members can also use it. Noctis's spells appear to home in on his current target and can be used to attack from a distance; he launches Fire as a fast-moving projectile and Thunder will cause lightning to strike his opponent.

Noctis can use his weapons in teleporting him to the location where the weapon landed. This can be used to dodge an attack or to execute one. This ability was first hinted at in earlier cinematic trailers when Noctis was shown throwing one of his weapons a great distance, then reappearing where it landed seconds later, weapon in hand. Noctis will be the only party member with the ability to warp. Noctis can also use teleportation to dodge his enemies' attacks.

Armiger Arsenal, Noctis's "Limit Break", summons a barrier of weapons to surround him. With the Knightsguard ability (obtained after obtaining a certain "royal arm"), by pressing the guard button at the right time after taking a hit, Noctis will immediately recover from the attack, and regain all the HP he lost from the hit. It can be used while in the middle of executing attacks.

Noctis has a special ability called "Spiral Thrust". The Spiral Thrust is one of the abilities the spear weapon will carry as its main attack. It is triggered by pressing a specific button. Parries can be executed by correct timing, although there is a risk if it fails. Noctis can also use Drain Blade with his Blood Sword, Full Thrust with the Partisan, Dragoon Jump with the Wyvern Lance, and Tempest with the Zweihander.

Noctis's hidden weapons Cross Shuriken and Hero's Shield can be found in Insomnia.

Musical themes
It has been said that "Stand By Me" is Noctis's way of expressing the feelings of gratitude in his heart he is unable to in words.

In the game, Noctis's theme has a very soft, slow and emotional piece. During the Final Fantasy XV Live at Abbey Road Studios concert Yoko Shimomura described her reason she wrote the piece is because she wants people to feel the emotional resonance in the song.

Creation and development
As with other characters in Final Fantasy XV, Noctis's clothing is designed by Hiromu Takahara, creative director of the Japanese designer clothing label Roen. The suit is worn by Noctis during a deleted Final Fantasy Versus XIII scene in which he talks to Stella Nox Fleuret, and it was the first of Takahara's designs to appear in the game.

Noctis's initial clothing design by Tetsuya Nomura was a placeholder, to be replaced with an ensemble by Roen. Test gameplay footage screened privately at TGS 2009 unveiled Noctis's finalized design, which featured a slightly shorter haircut and clothes designed by Takahara, including a ring worn on his right hand and a motorcycle glove on his left. The ring was stated to play a role in the game. Noctis's Roen-designed outfit was unveiled to the public at Jump Festa 2010 and was seen again in a Famitsu magazine in June 2010.

A physical set of Noctis's clothes was kept in the Square Enix office so the CG team could see them to create the same image for the game. Tetsuya Nomura has commented that this is easier, because previously when he created the characters, the CG team would ask him questions of the clothes' material and other detailed questions that were difficult to define precisely.

The contract Square Enix made with Roen when they first started making Final Fantasy Versus XIII contained a number of designs for the game. The designs contracted during that point are still being used for Final Fantasy XV. There are no additional ones, but the ones from before are still in the game. Director Hajime Tabata has explained that black has historically been treated as a special color in Lucis. Thus the attire of the royal family, and those in occupations closely tied to it, wear black.

With the change of name and platform and Tabata taking the reins the game was no longer going to be "the exact same game," as some things had to be re-evaluated to fit the change of circumstances. Tabata has assured the game did not lose its core, and he had sat down with Tetsuya Nomura about the direction of the title to ensure that characters, like Noctis, would be maintained in the best possible way. The art staff wanted to make it easy to distinguish the characters even though they all wear black, and wanted to make them come alive both in technical and artistic ways, and ways to make the characters relatable were discussed endlessly. Developing Noctis was a challenge, and Tabata struggled to like him at first for how "symbolic" or artificial he seemed, and to get into the character Tabata tried to imagine how Noctis was as a child. The discussion on how to make Noctis "come alive" went on until late development.

Noctis was "redesigned" from the Final Fantasy Versus XIII design by Yusuke Naora, the art director of Final Fantasy XIII. His skin texture was enhanced to make him appear more realistic by adding subtle blotches and birth marks. "Screen space" technology was used to depict the skin texture and subcutaneous light penetration. Because of improvements to shadow expression, Noctis's hair ended up casting dark shadows on his face. Naora adjusted the effects to make it harder for shadows to form over his hair. As Noctis and his party had already been revealed, Naora avoided making major changes to their looks, and thus their less-than-realistic hairstyles were preserved. Noctis's character model is built of about 100,000 triangles, 6-8 individual materials and about 600 joints.

In old Tokyo Game Show footage depicting the envisioned opening for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Noctis conversed with Stella about the two of them seeing the "light". Stella explained the legend of Tenebrae, which stated that when a person is able to see the light they receive the powers of the dead from the Goddess Etro. The footage was shown to give people a brief idea of what the characters' personalities are going to be like. This scene did not make it to Final Fantasy XV with the removing of Stella and the change of opening events.

Voice
Noctis is voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki in Japanese, while his younger self is voiced by Miyuki Satō.

He is voiced by Ray Chase as an adult in the English versions of Final Fantasy XV and Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV; in the movie, his younger self is voiced in English by Hyrum Hansen.

After the release of the Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo, many western complained about Noctis's English voice. Director Hajime Tabata responded the team had cut the recording close in terms of the schedule, and after recording the voices were implemented before going straight into testing, so by the time Tabata realized Noctis's voice direction wasn't quite right, it was too late to make changes. Tabata said the team was aware he sounded strange and that his "charm" wasn't coming through and that he sounded too old. He said they had done more takes to make him sound younger, while also bringing out his sense of ennui.

Merchandise
Like Lightning, Sephiroth and Cloud Strife, Noctis has an eau de toilette scent sold by Square Enix Japan, called Final Fantasy ~Noctis~ eau de toilette. It was announced on February 18th, 2013. and released on June 18th, 2013. The bottle is a clear glass bottle filled with pale yellow eau de toilette imprinted with a silver silhouette of Noctis's face. The scent is described to be citrus-oriented with layers. Top: Grapefruit, lemon, orange. Middle: Lavender, pine, rose, lily of the valley. Last: woody, musk.

During Tokyo Game Show in September 2015, Noctis's Play Arts action figure was displayed. A Play Arts Kai action figure of Noctis is included in the Ultimate Collector's Edition of the game.

Gallery

 * Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Etymology
Noctis Lucis Caelum is a Latin phrase that may mean either "Sky of the Night's Light" or "Sky of the Light's Night". Noctis and his father, King Regis, thus share a similar naming theme pertaining light and sky.

Tetsuya Nomura has commented on why he named Noctis as such, juxtaposing him to another one of his favorites, Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series:

Trivia

 * Noctis appears in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a set of two player icons to represent then-titled Final Fantasy Versus XIII, along with Lightning for Final Fantasy XIII and Ace for Final Fantasy Type-0, though these icons can only be obtained through passwords.
 * The promotional image of Noctis sitting on his throne for Final Fantasy Versus XIII mimics a pose of a promotional image of Sora from Kingdom Hearts that was later used on the cover of the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX re-release.
 * In Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae, both Noctis and Prompto hate bugs.
 * Noctis has always disliked vegetables; in the first episode of Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV, he removes the vegetables from his burger and puts them on Ignis's tray.
 * Noctis drinks the Ebony coffee in Brotherhood but in Episode Duscae he doesn't like it. According to director Hajime Tabata, Noctis dislikes coffee, but forces himself to do it to look more mature."