Noel Kreiss

a character

Noel Kreiss is a playable character and the main male protagonist from Final Fantasy XIII-2. He is a traveler from the future who is the last remaining human of his time, and he travels into the past hoping to change that fate. 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 sandal-like leather boots. A green pouch and hunter's knife 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 that also functions as a javelin.

As seen in the E3 trailer, Noel shows a cocky and confident side when introducing himself to Serah; when asked about his desires, he answers in a straightforward manner. 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. Noel is also defined by his strong determination to protect his loved ones, evident by how he appears to be strongly protective towards Serah despite just meeting her. As seen in the PAX trailer, though telling Serah not to accept death so easily during their introduction, Noel shows some disdain towards how easily humans can die. Due to the effects of a time paradox, Noel suffers from memory problems and his speech is also affected, but coming from a future where humanity is almost non-existent, he is always excited to meet new people.

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, Noel reveals to Serah that he has met Lightning and that she is waiting for her. He offers to take Serah to Lightning, but ends up in an argument with Gadot as the rest of NORA watches before Serah decides to accept Noel's offer. He soon reveals to Serah that he is the last human alive in his time, and how he wishes to change that. He and Serah eventually travel to the Yaschas Massif, where they are saved by Hope Estheim while battling a Gogmagog.

At one point, they go to the Bresha Ruins two years in the future, and Noel is in awe seeing how Cocoon looks from the inside for the first time. However, 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. 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.

Noel explains to Alyssa that as long as Atlas is around causing trouble, the Ruins will be closed off and he and Serah will not be able to get answers concerning Lightning's whereabouts. With Alyssa as their faraway informant, Noel, Serah and Mog go into the underground tunnels to find a machine that Alyssa claims is capable of controlling Atlas. However, upon finding the device, Atlas's hand appears and pulls them into a time paradox. Solving the anomaly activates the machine, causing it to weaken Atlas, enabling Noel and Serah to defeat him.

In the PS3 TGS 2011 trailer, Noel says that Mog is Serah's new 'lucky charm,' and that Mog is a gift from Lightning. He and Serah are confronted by Caius and his companion Yeul in Oerba, with the former telling him that he will pay for his crimes with blood. Noel shows Serah the crystal meteor that crashes near New Bodhum is actually a time gate, which he says Lightning waits on the other side. After he and Serah are saved by Snow in the Sunleth Waterscape, Noel furiously shouts at him, accusing him of never truly saving anyone or thinking about the things he does to the people he is supposed to protect. In the Yaschas Massif, Noel tells Serah that in his time, the world fell into ruin after the fall of Cocoon. Serah assures him that it does not have to be that way, and they could change the future. On the beach of a destroyed New Bodhum, Lightning emerges from a paradox before them, and says they are in a future that she could not save.

In the Xbox TGS trailer, Noel tells Serah his life story. In a city, people mysteriously transform into Cie'th as they watch. Caius appears behind them, calling them enemies as they are 'contradictions' to the timeline, giving him enough reason to kill them. Noel assures Serah that they're closer to Lightning with each time gate they pass through. He and Serah are seen facing off against Caius in Valhalla. Noel learns from Yeul that Caius is immortal, and retains memory of all timeline events. Noel is shown holding Yeul in his arms after she faints as Serah frets that their actions ultimately made the fate awaiting Noel unavoidable. In a barren area, an already-overcome Noel is stabbed in the back by Caius, and falls to the ground bleeding as Chaos emerges from his body.

In Battle
Noel fights with two swords as his weapons. He can combine them into a spear to jab enemies, and throw it like a javelin. He has been seen operating in the Commando, Sentinel, and Ravager roles, the main roles of Snow.

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 Yusuke Naora. 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." Comparing him to Lightning, Toriyama calls Noel, "a brave young man burdened by a heavy destiny – a different type of a protagonist to Lightning."

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.
 * Under the angel wings on the back of Noel's shirt and on his dagger, there are lines of Etro script.
 * Noel appears on the 500th cover of Dengeki Playstation magazine with Lightning, Serah, Noctis, Machina Kunagiri, and Rem Tokimiya.
 * Yusuke Naora said that he based the colors of Noel's swords, red and yellow, on those of the original nameless protagonist from Final Fantasy III in Yoshitaka Amano's artwork.
 * Aside from the angel wings on his shirt, the silver blade in the center of Noel's red sword also has angel wings.