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 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 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. Noel is also defined by his strong determination to protect his loved ones. 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.

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

At one point they visit the Bresha Ruins, and Noel is in awe seeing how Cocoon looks from the inside. 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, 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.

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 machine, 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 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.