Noel Kreiss

a character

Noel Kreiss is a playable character from Final Fantasy XIII-2. He is a mysterious man who saves Serah Farron from monsters. He accompanies Serah on her quest to find her sister Lightning. He wields multiple weapons in battle.

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, a simple pendant, a metal vambrace (bracer) on his left arm, large blue pants similar 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 on the same side stylized like red flames, while the sword he wields in his left backhanded is a simple yellow-brown blade similar to a gladius.

As seen in the E3 trailer, Noel shows a cocky and confident side when introducing himself to Serah. When she asks him what he wants, he gives his answer in a straightforward manner. Noel also appears to be very protective of Serah, as he challenges monsters to first go through him to get to her, and shows concern towards her condition during their battle against Paradox Alpha "Atlas". Director Motomu Toriyama describes Noel as "having a different type of chivalry from Snow, being a self-sufficient hunter, and being like a country boy visiting the city for the first time," referencing his first time on Cocoon.

Story
When Serah's village is attacked by monsters, Noel 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.

Serah mentions at one point during their visit to Bresha Ruins that it is Noel's first time on Cocoon.

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.

Battle
Noel has been seen fighting alongside Serah with multiple weapons. 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

 * Interestingly, Noel shares certain characteristics with Oerba Yun Fang in the ways that he has a straight-forward cocky personality and wears tribal clothing with a similar color palette. In the E3 2011 demo, it was said that his weapon, also similar to Fang's, will be (albeit later in the game) able to transform into a spear. Additionally, just as Fang was protective over Vanille, Noel is protective of Serah.

Noel Kreiss