Noel Kreiss

a character from a game

Noel Kreiss is a playable character and the main male protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII-2. He is the last remaining human from 700 years into the future, and has traveled 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 designed with tribal patterns and a pair of angel wings on the back, along with a simple pendant. On his left arm is a metal bracer, while his right arm is wrapped with cord while he wears a ring on his right hand. He wears large blue -style pants with decorated hems, and low-cut sandal-like leather shoes. 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 shirt and on his dagger, there are lines of Etro script.

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 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.

Being a former student under Caius Ballad, Noel is a self-sufficient hunter and fighter. He presents himself as a cocky, cheerful, confident but soft-spoken person. Due to the effects of a time paradox, Noel suffers from memory problems. Coming from a future where humanity was almost non-existent, he has some trouble with his speech, so he tends to speak in a straightforward yet fragmented manner, but he is always excited to go to new places and meet new people.

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. After meeting Snow, Noel is quick to berate him for always believing himself to be "the hero," and apparently abandoning Serah and letting down on his promise to find Lightning for her.

He is also able of easily asserting himself to others, and is seemingly able to remain calm and collected when facing people with provoked anger such as the members of NORA. However, as a possible remnant from his time period, Noel shows strong disdain towards how easily humans can die.

Story
Noel falls out of the sky over Valhalla, and is saved by Lightning. She asks him to find Serah and sends him through time with a mysterious meteor and a gift for Serah. 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. After taking care of the monsters, Noel tells Serah that Mog is her new 'lucky charm' and gift from Lightning.

Noel says that Lightning is waiting for her and offers to take Serah to her, but ends up in an argument with Gadot as the rest of NORA watches before Serah comes to his defense. Noel shows Serah and NORA the crystal meteor that crashed earlier is actually a time gate, which he says Lightning is waiting on the other side. The next day, Serah uncovers the Artefact needed to use the time gate. Then Noel reveals to her that he is the last human alive in his time, and how he wishes to change that.

They enter the time gate and fly through the Historia Crux, with Noel explaining to Serah that it's the crossroads of the time continuum. They come out into the Bresha Ruins at 5AF, 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 and Serah are promptly taken into custody by PSICOM, but are soon freed by Academy scientist, Alyssa Zaidelle. He explains to Alyssa that as long as Atlas is around causing trouble, the Ruins will be closed off and she will not be able to get any answers concerning paradoxes. Noel, Serah and Mog volunteer to stop Atlas with Alyssa helping them as their faraway informant.

At one point, they witness a defeated monster become a crystal. Mog says it is now under their control, causing Noel to remember Lightning having an army of monsters in battle with her. They go into the underground tunnels to find a machine that Alyssa claims is capable of controlling Atlas. Standing before a time gate, Noel gets concerned for Serah and asks her if she is having visions again. Upon finding the device, however, Atlas's hand appears and pulls them into the Temporal Rift. Solving the anomaly activates the machine, causing it to weaken Atlas, enabling Noel and Serah to defeat him.

He and Serah eventually travel to the Yaschas Massif at 10AF, where they are saved by a 24-year-old Hope Estheim while battling a giant Gogmagog. Soon, Noel looks into the sky and asks if someone can see him there as Serah, Mog, Hope and his assistant, Alyssa, look on in confusion. 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 and prevent Cocoon from falling. At one point, Noel uses one of Hope's devices called the Oracle Drive, and has a vision of Lightning in Valhalla.

In the PS3 "Promise" trailer, he and Serah are confronted by Caius and his companion Yeul in Oerba. Caius tells them that they will pay for their crimes with blood. Then Yeul appears behind them saying that she has seen them. After he and Serah are saved by Snow Villiers in the Sunleth Waterscape at 300AF, Noel furiously yells at him, accusing him of never truly saving anyone or thinking about the things he does to the people he is supposed to protect. Snow tells him that he has been looking after Serah in his absence.

At one point, the party encounters a giant Enlil. Snow tries to get its attention and Noel cautiously tells him not to encourage the creature to attack them. After Snow gets Enlil's "permission" to ride on its back, Noel warns him that Enlil can swallow him whole, but Snow disregards Noel's warning and jumps onto Enlil's back with Serah, Noel and Mog following suit.

In the Xbox 360 "Despair" trailer, people in Academia mysteriously transform into Cie'th as Noel, Mog, and Serah watch. Caius appears behind them, calling them enemies as they are 'contradictions' in the timeline, giving him enough reason to kill them. Noel is shown holding Yeul in his arms after she faints as Serah frets that their actions ultimately made the fate awaiting Yeul unavoidable. In Augusta Tower, Noel learns from Yeul that Caius is immortal and retains memory of all timeline events.

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. In a barren area of Valhalla, an overcome Noel kneeling on the ground is stabbed in the back by Caius, and falls as Chaos emerges from his body.

In the New Adventures trailer, they emerge from a paradox and find themselves in what appears to be New Bodhum, now converted into a wasteland, and Noel calls it similar to his own era. On the beach, Lightning emerges from a paradox before them, and says they are in a future that she could not save. After Lightning explains everything to them, Serah asks her if they will be together again when the fight is over. Lightning says "One thing at a time, Serah", and leaves as Noel watches.

Then he, Mog, and Serah and Hope ride on PSICOM warmechs through Valhalla trying to catch Caius.

In Battle
Noel fights with two swords as his weapons, which he can combine them into a spear to jab enemies, and throw it like a javelin. Noel also has the ability to capture and tame monsters, who then fight alongside him and Serah on their journey.

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".

Musical Themes
Noel will have an eponymous leitmotif, titled "Noel's Theme", composed by Naoshi Mizuta.

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, who was originally designed as a male character, 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.
 * 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.