Luminous Studio surprised many when it made its debut at E3 last year. Developed by Square Enix Japan, the presentation gave us a glimpse at what a next-gen Final Fantasy game could possibly look like. We chatted with Mike Fischer at the trade show, president and CEO of Square Enix, about the company's ambitions with its new engine.

"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 told us when describing the project's genesis after the engine's unveiling. "Having a custom toolset like this is really helpful, because it makes that process a lot more efficient."

Read more: An in-house tool, but no Final Fantasy movie planned »

A hapless man struggles on the floor, only to get a shotgun round blasted to his face. Then, thunderous applause fills the auditorium.

The Last of Us' E3 stage demo was incredibly violent, and any unknowing onlooker might see our industry's reaction to such a demo as off-putting. However, Neil Druckmann, creative director for Naughty Dog's upcoming shooter, argues that there's reason for such brutality. "The violence you see inside this world isn't gratuitous and over-the-top just for the sake of being violent. It's setting a tone. It's setting a reality that Joel and Ellie are having to deal with," Druckmann said. "Everything has to feel tense. Everything has to feel grounded in reality. The reason why we're going for such realistic violence is because we want you to believe that the stakes are high for Ellie and Joel."

Read more: Ellie as a moral compass »