Noel Kreiss

Noel 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 uses multiple weapons, mainly two swords that he wields with both hands.

Appearance and Personality
Noel is a fit young man with unruly brown hair and brown eyes. He wears a black V-neck shirt, a simple pendant, arm armor, large blue pants similar to parachute pants, and low cut leather boots. A green purse and dagger are attached to his belt, which is itself adorned with small purple feathers reminiscent of those of Lightning's mysterious rival. The sword he wields in his right hand has two blades on the same side that are stylized like two red flames, while the sword he wields in his left hand has a more simple yellow-brown blade that he holds backwards.

Noel is skilled in battle, as shown by his use (and possession) of several different types of weapons.

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 Noel accompanies her.

Abilities and Equipment
Noel is proficient in many weapons, but he primarily dual wields two swords. His battle skill is shown by the fact that he initially has twice more HPs than Serah.

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 teaser videos from the 2011 E3 trailer of Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Etymology
"Noel" is a synonym for Christmas. It comes from the French word "Noël", which has the same meaning and which is itself derived from the Latin "natalis" which means "birth".

Trivia

 * Noel backwards is Leon. Whether this is significant or not is unknown.

Gallery
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/RPGCrazied/vlcsnap-2011-06-03-17h44m25s233.png Noel closeup http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4953/86037088.jpg Noel lunging at an enemy.