Square Enix Opens Up About Next-Gen ‘Final Fantasy’ Engine

When last we heard of Luminous Studio, Square Enix Japan was showing off the technology at E3 2012 with a demo called "Agni's Philosophy". Many of us speculated that the engine would be used to power upcoming games developed at Square Enix—notably Final Fantasy 15, should it ever get announced.

Square Enix helped to build up anticipation for whatever it is they're doing with Luminous Studio when the publisher put out a survey asking viewers about their favorite qualities of the demonstration, the most positive of which would make it into a future Final Fantasy title. You can watch the tech demo below. 


Today, the Square Enix's Mike Fischer opened up to Shacknews to talk about the company's ambitions with Luminous Studio.

"Every Final Fantasy game is original. We create a new world with every new number. We need to keep pushing the envelope so that every Final Fantasy game creates a new standard," Fischer said. "Having a custom toolset like this is really helpful, because it makes that process a lot more efficient."

Fisher responded to questions about how the engine would compare to the other engines they have in-house, including IO Interactive's Glacier engine and Crystal Dynamics' Crystal Engine, which powers the upcoming Tomb Raider.

"This is obviously developed by a team that creates these Final Fantasy worlds, that are this amazing blend of technology and magic. It's never a one-size-fits-all solution, and I don't think it ever should be," he said. "You need to have the right engine for the right game. Glacier–one of the key features for that is that it optimizes for these incredible crowd scenes. The Crystal Engine has its own thing going for it."

"This is an in-house tool. We're not building this around a licensing model. It's my hope that this makes teams and creative people around the world excited to work for us because they'll get their hands on some of the best technology in the industry."