Square Enix's Luminous designed for RPGs and action RPGs

The gorgeous Luminous Engine Square Enix showed off at E3 is intended to power the next generation of Final Fantasy games, as well as other, action-oriented titles.

Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada gave an interview on the engine in Famitsu, as translated and summarised by Andriasang, in which he confirmed the technology will be jealously guarded.

"We aren't thinking about selling the engine externally," he said.

"There's no mistake that Luminous Studio is an engine made with the view of producing RPGs like the past Final Fantasy games. But not just that - it has a broad reach, from games with high action to games without high action."

Despite this account of the tech's adaptability, Wada said Luminous is planned for specific types of games, much as Crystal Dynamics uses its Crystal engine for action adventure, and IO Interactive uses Glacier for shooters.

However, unlike other engines developed by Square's Japanese studios, Luminous isn't yet attached to any particular projects. The executive hinted that a first title may go into production by the end of the year.

Asked about the state of the Japanese industry compared to the rest of the world, Wada commented that he hoped Square Enix could give the Japanese something to be proud of and mentioned that the publisher is going to take risks on new IPs and games with "backbone" that he himself would like to play.

Check out the Luminous tech demo here.