Final Fantasy Tech Demo Summoned By Square Enix

Japanese developer Square Enix has released a next-gen video that showcases their illustrious new Luminous Studio engine. The (almost) 4 minute clip – titled Agni’s Philosophy – is a real-time tech demo that shows off exactly what the new engine can do.

Content-wise, it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a Final Fantasy showing, albeit with a few bells and whistles thrown in for good measure. It features a female protagonist (presumably Agni) summoning an, err, summon, from the bowels of a cliff-city. Everything is rendered in incredible detail, and Square seem keen to prove just what the Luminous Studio engine can do.

The video, which has received surprisingly-little official comment from Square Enix, owes production and direction credit to Technical Director Yoshihisha Hashimoto, whose name you may recognise from various Sonic games, (namely Sonic Advance and Sonic Unleashed). A lot of gamers (particularly stalwart Final Fantasy fanboys) may be a little cautious of Hashimoto’s involvement, but reassurance can be found with the presence of Final Fantasy veterans Takeshi Nozue and Akira Iwata (Creative Director and Character Design, respectively). Interestingly enough, Tetsuya Nomura – usually the “main” Character Designer – sees only an auxiliary Character Design Advisor role for the demo.

Square Enix and Final Fantasy were once known for consistently providing the cutting-edge in graphics technology, and with the obvious showiness of this demo, it seems the company is keen to prove it still has what it takes to rub shoulders with the big boys.

Is this Square Enix proving to the world that they’re truly ready for the next-gen, or is it just a flashy attempt at resurrecting a struggling franchise? There are some very excited people here at GLHQ praying it’s the former.




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