Regardless of how you feel about Square Enix’s quality as of late, you have to admit they make a pretty game. Final Fantasy XIII is still one of the prettiest games to come out of this generation of hardware. There will come a time, however, when FFXIII is no longer a major showpiece for graphics technology. It seems that Square Enix is doing their part to speed up progress towards that goal.

During E3 2012, Square Enix revealed the company’s next gen game engine. It’s called Luminous Studio and it’s the second next gen engine that’s being shown at E3. Epic Studios is reportedly showing off Unreal Engine 4 as well. The future is here, folks, and Square Enix wants to be part of it.

Square Enix for their part claims that Luminous Studio can display real time graphics on the same level as pre-rendered graphics. You may have noticed that the visuals in games like Final Fantasy XIII looked remarkably similar between both the pre-rendered cinematics and the in-game visuals. Luminous Studio appears to bridge that already tiny gap even more.

To give us an idea of what Luminous Studio can achieve, Square Enix created a demo called Agni’s Philosophy. Square is quick to point out that the video is all in real time with no pre-rendered magic powering anything in the background. If the claims are true, Luminous Studio will definitely give Unreal Engine 4 a run for its money.

Check out the tech demo below and see the technology that may be powering Final Fantasy XV. I think you’ll be impressed.