Noel Kreiss

Noel Kreiss is a playable character and the deuteragonist in Final Fantasy XIII-2, and a supporting character in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Noel is the last remaining human from 700 years in the future, and has traveled into the past hoping to change his fate. After meeting Lightning by chance, he saves her sister Serah Farron from monsters and accompanies her on her quest to find Lightning and change the future.

In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Noel appears as an adversary for Lightning as she fights to prevent the end of the world approaching in thirteen days.

Appearance and Personality


Noel is a young man with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. He wears a black V-neck top designed with tribal patterns and a pair of angel wings on the back, along with a simple pendant. He wears a leather bracer on his left arm, a ring on his right hand, and wraps his right arm with cord. He wears large blue -style trousers with decorated hems, and low-cut sandal-like leather boots. A green pouch and hunter's knife are attached to his belt in the back, which itself is adorned with small lavender ties made of cloth. Under the angel wings on the back of Noel's top and on his dagger, there are lines of Etro script. The script on his top translates to: Seeker of Miracles at History's End -- Walker of the Realm Unseen, and the text on the dagger reads: Travel the desolate wasteland in search of hope's past.

The sword Noel wields with his right hand has two blades stylized like red flames, while the sword he wields with his left hand is a simple yellow-brown blade similar to a gladius. His two-bladed sword can hold his smaller sword within the hollow metal part of the hilt. The swords combine and form a spear that also functions as a javelin. As well as the motif on his top, the silver blade in the center of Noel's red sword also has angel wings.

Noel presents himself as a cocky, cheerful, confident but soft-spoken person. He is a self-sufficient hunter and a fighter. Due to the effects of a time paradox, Noel suffers from amnesia. Coming from a future where humanity is almost non-existent, he has some trouble with his speech, so he tends to speak in a straightforward manner. He is excited to explore new places and meet new people, and is defined by his determination to protect others, evident by how he is protective towards Serah despite hardly knowing her. He is able to assert himself to others, and remain calm and collected when facing people with provoked anger, such as the members of NORA.

In a similar manner to Lightning, Noel firmly stands by his beliefs and morals. As a remnant from his upbringing, Noel values life and is reluctant to hurt or kill others unless necessary or forced to. This makes him have an intense initial dislike for Snow Villiers. Noel hates him for his brash personality, having his head in the clouds always believing in self-sacrifice, thinking of himself as a hero, and taking off leaving Serah alone to fend for herself.

Downloadable Content Outfits
Noel has five alternate outfits as part of the game's downloadable content: his "Battle Attire" costume was released on January 10th in Japan, February 7th in America and included with Nordic Edition of the game or as part of the pre-order bonus DLC pack—"Fight in Style"—for Europe and Australia; "Spacetime Guardian" was released in February 2012; and "N7 Armor" was released in March 2012 and "Assassin's Creed" was released in April 2012. His "Black Mage" outfit was released in May 2012.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments After


Noel was the second to last child to be born in the Farseer tribe that lived a nomadic existence on the ruined Gran Pulse 200 years after Cocoon came crashing down after its crystal pillar shattered. The event left the world in ruins and warfare that resulted killed the majority of mankind. After Noel's parents died, he was raised by his grandmother.

When Noel was three, the seeress Paddra Nsu-Yeul was born and a man named Caius Ballad arrived in the village. Noel's grandmother explained that Caius was the seeress's Guardian and how Yeul lives away from people so they would not be tempted to use her power of foresight for evil. Despite initially hating him, Noel becomes Caius's student to become the new Guardian for Yeul. Eventually, only three people remain in the Dying World: Noel himself, Yeul, and Caius. After single-handedly killing a Behemoth, Noel is acknowledged by Caius to be strong enough become Yeul's Guardian.

Learning it means he would have to kill Caius and replace him as per ancient Farseer tradition, Noel refuses to go through with it. Noel wants to take Yeul on a journey to find other people so she will not be lonely anymore, but Caius says it is a futile dream. Once learning that if the Heart of Chaos inside of Caius stops beating, the goddess Etro will die, unleashing the chaos of Valhalla and destroying the past, Noel is forced to fight him and is defeated. Caius leaves for Valhalla to go through with his resolve to free Yeul from her fate.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments Before


After Caius's departure, Noel finds Yeul praying at the shrine at the end of her life. The dying Yeul promises a tearful Noel they will meet again before she disintegrates into light. Noel discovers the curse of the seeress is to see the future, but every vision eats away at her life until it kills her. Noel embarks on a journey to find Valhalla, become a warrior worthy to be recognized by Etro, and gain the power of chaos needed to change his fate. When Noel is near death, Etro answers his prayers and opens her gate to him.

Final Fantasy XIII-2


Noel falls out of Etro's Gate over Valhalla and is saved by Lightning flying on Bahamut just before her aerial battle with Caius as Chaos Bahamut. Recognizing Noel from a vision she had, Lightning tells him to guide Serah to Valhalla and work together with her to change the future. She gives him a moogle named Mog to keep Serah safe and covers Noel's escape. In the process, he loses most of his memories.

Arriving on the Time Gate's meteorite form in New Bodhum in 3 AF, Noel comes to Serah's aid when she is attacked by monsters. Serah tells him she saw Noel with Lightning and Mog in a dream. He tells her he is from 700 years in the future and offers to take her to Lightning. The meteorite is a Time Gate and Noel tells Serah Lightning is waiting on the other side.

The next day, Noel and Serah enter the Time Gate after finding an artefact to activate it, and fly through the Historia Crux. They come out at Bresha Ruins in 5 AF, and are attacked by an invisible giant, Atlas, who retreats further into the ruins. Noel and Serah are taken into custody, but freed by Academy scientist Alyssa Zaidelle, who wants to learn about the gates and paradoxes, but as long as Atlas is around causing trouble, the ruins will be closed off. Noel offers to stop Atlas with Alyssa helping him and Serah as their faraway informant. Noel and Serah resolve the paradox affecting the area by destroying Atlas and the Bresha Ruins are restored to their former glory. After finding an artefact and activating another gate, Serah has a vision and lies to Noel saying it's nothing, although he doesn't believe her.

Noel, Mog, and Serah re-enter the Historia Crux and travel to the Yaschas Massif in 10 AF. The area is darkened by a paradoxical solar eclipse and they meet the Academy leader, a 24-year-old Hope Estheim, who has full knowledge of Noel due to the events at Bresha five years ago.

Hope and Alyssa, who is now Hope's assistant, talk about the Farseers who used to live in the Paddra ruins and a seeress named Yeul who had foretold the nation's destruction. Noel uses one of Hope's tools, an ancient device called the Oracle Drive, and induces a vision of Lightning and the events of the Day of Ragnarok ten years before. The device displays grainy images of Lightning's battle with Caius in Valhalla. Noel and Serah use the artefact given to them by Hope to resolve the paradox affecting the area, and in turn the Oracle Drive.

At Oerba in 200 AF, Noel, Serah and Mog activate the Oracle Drive on the old schoolhouse, producing images of Serah's reunion with Lightning after Cocoon's fall. Noel and Serah are confronted by Caius and Yeul. Noel calls out her name but she tells him she is not his Yeul. Caius explains Yeul does not exist as a single person, and that he has come to punish Serah and Noel for tampering with time. Before Caius can kill Noel, Yeul steps in, saying time has already been changed, and she and Caius leave.

Returning to the Yaschas Massif in 1X AF, Serah and Noel see an alternate reality where the eclipse never occurred and see the now clear images of Lightning in Valhalla, and the Oracle Drive projects images of Caius and Cocoon falling. Noel says in his time the world fell into ruin after Cocoon's fall, but Serah assures it does not have to be that way, and they could prevent Cocoon from falling.

The next Time Gate they enter takes them to the Void Beyond, the realm between Time Gates. As Serah begins to doubt them ever finding her sister, Noel reassures they are one step closer to Lightning with each gate they pass through. After activating the gate in the Bresha Ruins' underground tunnels, Noel gets concerned for Serah and asks if she is having more visions, but she lies to him again.

At the Sunleth Waterscape in 300 AF, they witness Miniflan appear out of nowhere in a phenomenon caused by a paradox. Serah has another vision and runs off frantic. Noel follows her and they find Serah's fiancé Snow being attacked by a Royal Ripeness. Noel tells Snow he will handle things but Snow shoves him aside and the three of them fight the monster together. In a joint effort, they defeat Royal Ripeness, but the Miniflan reform the monster and the party retreats at Noel's insistence.

Noel criticizes Snow for wanting to stay behind and fight, telling him people who do not know when to retreat don't live long, but ultimately decides to put their differences aside and work with him. After finding an artefact to open the gate to the next location, Noel tells Snow not to do anything stupid and wait for him and Serah to return. In the Coliseum, Noel, Serah and Mog encounter the Arbiter of Time, who demands them to leave and gives them a fragment in return for doing so. Noel says Snow is the type of person who likes to act in charge of everyone, charge into danger thinking self-sacrifice will save everyone, but ultimately gets innocent people killed. Noel says that unlike Snow, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality and tells Serah not to compare him to Snow; still believing that Snow up and left her, not caring about who he left behind or hurt.

They return to Sunleth and find another artefact needed to use a second gate. In the Archylte Steppe in ??? AF, Serah and Noel learn the cause of a storm in the area is a dragon sucking Miniflan through its mouth, and figure it's the cause of the anomaly in the Sunleth Waterscape. After Noel and Serah defeat the Faeryl and resolve the anomaly causing Royal Ripeness to continue growing, they return to Sunleth Waterscape and find Snow not waiting for them as he promised, but on the ropes in front of the big flan that has reduced in size.

After defeating the giant flan for good, Noel accuses Snow of never saving anyone or thinking about how he hurts the people he is supposed to protect. Snow tells Noel he has been looking after Serah, and must have protected loved ones back in his own time, but Noel says he couldn't protect them all which is why he is now all alone. Snow entrusts Serah's safety to Noel and vanishes. Noel speculates it is because Snow does not belong in this time and the paradox had been dealt with. Serah noticed a Pulse l'Cie brand on Snow's arm and as she despairs, Noel says Snow may have asked for it for the power to accomplish a mission he could not normally do. He says he hates Snow for it but understands him for it as well.

Back in the Void Beyond, Serah asks Noel about Yeul and if she is also traveling through time. Noel believes the Farseer tribes had a girl with the same appearance and power and the name Yeul was passed down through the generations. When Serah asks how his era will change if they solve all the paradoxes, Noel believes it will be a future where he does not exist but is fine with it since it would be better if his time had never happened.

The trio arrives at the city of Academia in 400 AF, where people are mysteriously transformed into Cie'th. Caius appears and calls them enemies as they are contradictions in the timeline. He says Serah and Noel were killed after learning the forbidden history sealed within a tower two hundred years ago and have now appeared before him alive and well, a paradox in itself. They find Yeul wandering the streets and being attacked by Cie'th. Noel holds the dying Yeul in his arms while Serah frets their actions are making the fate awaiting Yeul unavoidable. Before she dies, Yeul tells them Caius wasn't in the city.

They use the artefact given by Yeul to travel 200 years in the past to the Augusta Tower, where Noel and Serah learn Hope had created a Proto fal'Cie to keep Cocoon airborne without its pillar. Noel confesses he sensed something off about Caius in Academia, and thinks he probably wasn't the real Caius. Noel, Serah and Mog meet an artificial duplicate of Alyssa who tells them of an incident that occurred in the tower 187 years ago at 13 AF: Hope and the real Alyssa were killed as they were in the way of the Proto fal'Cie's A.I., and now that they know the tower's forbidden history, they can never leave.

On the tower's top level, they encounter the Yeul they met in Oerba who gives them an artefact and implores them to protect time. She reveals Caius is immortal and retains memory of all timeline events. She says Lightning disappeared because the future had been changed, and if Serah and Noel solve the paradoxes, the past will return to how Serah remembers it. Yeul tells them the Caius from Academia was a copy made by the Proto fal'Cie Adam, the source of the paradox, and the real Caius is in the tower, then implores they show her a new future. Noel, Mog and Serah enter a battle against Adam, who keeps returning whenever defeated until Serah erases it from existence by scolding Hope out-loud for creating it. Serah has another vision and blacks out but Noel brings her back.

The trio returns to Academia in 4XX AF to find an alternate reality where the city is peaceful and the Proto fal'Cie is gone. They meet up with Hope and Alyssa, who explain how Hope created the plan for the Proto fal'Cie but scrapped it after seeing Serah yelling at him through the Oracle Drive, and he and Alyssa went into the future in a time capsule he invented. They have devised a plan to build a man-made Cocoon made airborne through the use of five Graviton Cores. After finding the cores, Noel and Serah get an artefact from Alyssa.

Before they leave through a new Time Gate, Hope and Alyssa come to see them off. Promising to meet again in the future, Noel, Serah and Mog enter the Historia Crux. Noel becomes separated from Serah and Mog as a result of Alyssa betraying them, having given them a booby-trapped artefact from Caius. He emerges in the Void Beyond and engages Caius, but is defeated and disappears into a dream world based on his homeworld, reliving the highlights of his past without acknowledging Serah watching and following him.

When Noel is being pulled off the ground toward a light in the sky, Serah grabs hold of his arm and calls out to him and he remembers her. She tells him he was living in a dream and light is restored to the Dying World. Noel tells Serah he has regained some of his memories and that she is at risk of dying since she has the Eyes of Etro like Yeul. Despite this, Serah chooses to continue in their quest since it's what Lightning wants them to do. Activating the Oracle Drive at the Farseers' Relic, Noel gets closure with Yeul and vows to settle things with Caius once learning he is the one causing the paradoxes.

They emerge in what appears to be New Bodhum in 700 AF. The village is a wasteland and on the beach Lightning appears from a portal saying they are in a future she could not save. Lightning says Caius plans to destroy Etro while she sleeps in Valhalla and unleash chaos into the world through an unseen doorway that opens for the souls of the departed. Noel says that would be possible if Cocoon fell. After Serah points out the world would become like Valhalla, Lightning believes it is Caius's plan to create a timeless world. Lightning says that in 500 AF, Caius will attempt to bring down the old Cocoon and Hope's new one in one fell swoop. Mog reveals the final Time Gate and Lightning returns to Valhalla.

Noel, Mog, Serah travel to Academia in 500 AF, the time of the prophecy of Cocoon's fall. As they traverse the city, they hear Yeul's voice telling them not to fight Caius and risk killing Etro. As they approach Academy Headquarters, Caius turns into Chaos Bahamut and attacks. Noel and Serah are saved by Hope's arrival before they board an airship piloted by Sazh Katzroy, and chase after Caius. After fighting Caius, and a wormhole opens in the sky and Caius in his Chaos Bahamut form flies into it.

Noel, Mog, and Serah jump into the wormhole and come out in Valhalla. Odin saves them from their fall before they face off against Caius on the beach. As he clashes with Caius, Noel tries to convince him that Yeul believed in a brighter future and always wanted to be reborn so she could be with him. Caius does not listen and Noel cuts him down. Caius absorbs the surrounding chaos and transforms into Jet Bahamut. Noel tries to cover Serah from its blast, and as they fall into the bottomless abyss beneath Valhalla's waves of chaos, they are saved by Lightning. After Noel and Serah destroy Jet Bahamut, Noel tells Caius he still does not intend to kill him. Then Caius claims have killed Lightning but Noel knows he is lying. Noel disarms Caius when he threatens Serah and prepares to kill him, but stops himself at the last second. However, Caius takes Noel's blade and forces it through his chest, telling him to bear the burden of the eternal paradox.

As Caius's body begins to disappear, Noel laments how Caius had been consumed by sorrow and despair due to watching so many Yeuls die over the centuries, and how he sought to die in Valhalla. Taking Caius's sword, Noel places it as a grave marker, hoping his former friend finally finds peace.

Noel, Serah and Mog leave Valhalla and return to Gran Pulse in 500 AF to find Hope's new Cocoon, Bhunivelze, afloat. After the gate to Valhalla closes, Serah thanks Noel but has another vision and dies in his arms. As Noel, Mog, and Hope mourn for Serah, the world turns dark and Mog weakens as he reveals Etro is no more. Noel remembers Caius's words about the Heart of Chaos, realizing he unknowingly played into Caius's scheme and killed the goddess as Gran Pulse and Bhunivelze are infected by chaos. In time, Gran Pulse and Valhalla merge and form a chain of islands in a Sea of Chaos called Nova Chrysalia.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII


In the five hundred years after the birth of Nova Chrysalia, Noel has become corrupted by the chaos' influence. Feeling responsible for Serah's death and the world's current state, he now suffers from a heavy burden in his heart. Having adopted the moniker of "Shadow Hunter", Noel acts as a vigilante justice fighter and punishes those who do wrong in Luxerion. Noel finds Lightning and suspects her of being an impostor as he thinks Lightning is dead. He follows Lightning through the streets of Luxerion and attacks her, forcing Lightning to battle Noel to release him from his burden. However, because of a prophecy that Lightning would be the one to destroy the world on the final day, Noel believes he is the hero destined to stop her.

In Battle


Noel begins with the Commando, Ravager, and Sentinel roles. He majors as Commando and Synergist, and is a good Medic. Noel also makes a good Sentinel for his high health stat. He is not as proficient as a Saboteur and he learns only a few spells for that role. Noel's Full ATB Skill is Meteor Javelin, a Commando ability that hits the enemy multiple times, but clears the chain gauge. The ability is thus best used when the enemy is about to recover from stagger.

Weapons
Noel fights with two swords, which he can combine into a spear to jab enemies, and throw it like a javelin. In Noel's memories, it is revealed he chose to fight with two swords because he couldn't best Caius with a single blade. Some of Noel's swords, Exploda, Rune Tooth, Sargatanas, and The Tower, are references to Zidane Tribal's Thief Swords from Final Fantasy IX.

Creation and Development
As with the other characters in Final Fantasy XIII-2, Noel's face was designed by the character designer Tetsuya Nomura, while his body and clothes were designed by Yusuke Naora. Noel was first revealed in screenshots and a teaser video from the 2011 E3 trailer of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Noel was 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. Naora designed Noel with his profession as a hunter in mind. He gave Noel lightweight clothes and a pouch to store a hunter's knife.

Developers draw several differences between Noel and Snow. The game's director, Motomu Toriyama, describes Noel as "having a different type of chivalry from Snow", while the game's producer, Yoshinori Kitase, describes Noel as "attractive and stylish", as opposed to Snow being "the tough guy type". Comparing him to Lightning, Toriyama calls Noel "a brave young man burdened by a heavy destiny – a different type of a protagonist to Lightning". Yusuke Naora has said he based the colors of Noel's Flame Fossil sword, red and yellow, on those of the original nameless protagonist from Final Fantasy III in Yoshitaka Amano's artwork.

As said by Kitase, Noel was created as a male protagonist with a similar age to Serah as a counterpoint after she was named the main female lead. Noel's appeal as a character comes from him coming from a vastly different environment from Lightning and Serah's, therefore making him "detached from their reality and ignorant of life in Cocoon", and "a protagonist well beyond his years."

Musical Themes
"Noel's Theme", composed by Naoshi Mizuta, is a prominent track in Final Fantasy XIII-2, serving as a base for the main battle theme "The Last Hunter". It has a lyrical version, titled "Noel's Theme ~Last Journey~" among several arrangements.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Noel appears as a summonable Legend in Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade. He is depicted in his default Final Fantasy XIII-2 outfit. His abilities are Aeroga, Ruin, Ruinga, and Meteor Javelin. He is first introduced in the event, Final Fantasy XIII-2 Incursion from Valhalla, in which his abilities and weapons are made usable in order to successfully combat Atlas and Chaos Bahamut. In the Japanese version of the game, the player can access him by purchasing the correct issue of Mobage.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Noel appears in the Japan-exclusive Final Fantasy trading card game published by Square Enix.

Etymology
"Noël" is French for "Christmas", but originates, like other Latin-derived language 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 shares certain characteristics with Oerba Yun Fang, who was originally designed as a male character, in that he has a straight-forward cocky personality, has trouble remembering parts of his past, wears tribal clothing with a similar color palette, has a red double-bladed weapon that can also be used as a spear, and his full ATB skill is performed using a spear.
 * Noel appears on the 500th cover of Dengeki PlayStation magazine with Lightning, Serah, Noctis, Machina Kunagiri, and Rem Tokimiya.
 * In a Live Trigger in New Bodhum 3 AF, Noel proclaims his favorite food is Adamantoise even though they are not present in his home world.
 * One of the scrapped playable character ideas for Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings was a Ninja aegyl who was supposed to be the last survivor of his village. The character was scrapped as the game's co-director, Takanari Ishiyama, felt that there would have been too many playable characters. This character idea may or may not have been reused by Toriyama for Noel Kreiss, considering their similarities (both dual wield weapons and have "wings" on their back, and are last survivors).
 * Noel, along with Caius, does not use the same format for his name like a number of other Pulsians such as Oerba Dia Vanille and Paddra Nsu Yeul. Unlike them, who use the format of first having their village, then clan and personal name, Noel uses the personal name, then family name, like people from Cocoon.