New Luminous Engine

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When Tetsuya Nomura said there wouldn't be any Final Fantasy Versus XIII at Tokyo Game Show, he meant it. The long awaited companion project to Final Fantasy XIII (or maybe Final Fantasy XIII-2?) was nowhere to be found at the show, not even in sneak trailer form.
It seems that Nomura was saving an update on the game for Famitsu. The magazine has an interview with Nomura this week, revealing a few intriguing details.
Here's some of what's surfaced from the magazine so far:
Nomura says that he recently did a walkthrough of the full world map. He also did a check on the game's dungeons and the side paths in the game's towns. He was impressed with how expansive everything is.
When Square Enix announced the development of its "Luminous" next generation engine, some very cruel people joked that maybe Versus would be updated to use it. Actually, the game does use the lightning technology from Luminous, Nomura reveals. However, the game also uses a game specific engine that's specialized for action.
With Versus, Nomura promises a Final Fantasy like you've never seen before.
Nomura also commented on Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, saying the game is 60 to 70 percent complete and due out in Spring 2012.

A short followup on our report from earlier today about Final Fantasy Versus XIII and its use of Square Enix's next generation "Luminous Engine" toolkit.
In an interview with Famitsu, Tetsuya Nomura reveals that Versus XIII's lightning is being redone, and they're using Luminous for this purpose. Luminous is good with lightning, says Nomura. Versus aims for photo realism, so it places greater importance on lighting.
Versus XIII has its own action game-oriented engine. The lightning tech from Luminous is being coupled with this for Versus XIII.
Nomura describes Luminous as an excellent engine that can be used with any game. The Versus XIII engine, on the other hand, is strong in specific areas, but is not a general purpose engine.