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French interview translated by Sol (Ehres).
After the Agni's Philosophy presentation given by Julien Merceron (world tech director at Square Enix) – which gathered a huge crowd at Japan Expo – we were able to ask Merceron about his important responsibilities at the Japanese company. We talked mainly about the technology of future titles in the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series.
FINAL FANTASY DREAM: Hello, Julien. We have the pleasure of asking you some questions for our exclusive interview by JeuxCapt.com and Final Fantasy Dream.
Julien: It's a pleasure to be here.
FFDream: We're interviewing you now right after the Agni's Philosophy – Final Fantasy demonstration, where we saw an absolutely stunning world. What can you tell us about the public reaction?
Julien: The reaction was phenomenal. The demonstration was put up online just after E3 in June. So we have a website where we've had an enormous amount of visitors and the success has been incredible, it's beyond what we expected. Initially we made [Agni's Philosophy] just for ourselves to better understand the direction we wanted to go in for the future of video games, and then it became a public video and it exceeded our expectations. It's amazing.
FFDream: It's true that everyone was very impressed at E3 because we hadn't expected much from Square Enix on the Japanese side of things, and then you surprised us all with the presentation at your E3 booth. Would it not have been easier to show the technical demo in a Sony or Microsoft conference? Didn't you want more exposure?
Julien: No, we really wanted it to be our own work! We're not looking to try and sell a Microsoft or Sony version [of Agni's Philosophy] and besides, we didn't know them [that well]. We knew our work well enough. When the video was put online we really wanted it to be a message from Square Enix more than a message from Sony or Microsoft. Saying this, Sony and Microsoft know what we were working on and we were obviously in close collaboration with both them and Nintendo.
FFDream: Julien Merceron, you are of course French, I think that you know that the majority of Final Fantasy fans started with Final Fantasy VII. It's been 15 years [since the game was released] and there's going to be a version for the PC... are we maybe talking about a [future] remake of Final Fantasy VII?
Julien: (Laughs) It's a game which is very dear to me, too. You can find interviews on the Internet that I've done in the past. For me Final Fantasy VII was one of the best experiences. That said, there have been other past Final Fantasys which were excellent and will continue to be excellent. As for me, I'd really like to play [a remake]. Having said that, there are people in the company who are deciding what they're going to do with the company and what they're going to do with the Final Fantasy franchise which may or may not be a good thing. Personally I'm happy to play around with the new technology and let them make their own decisions but speaking as a fan I'd really like a remake... but that's just me.
FFDream: We can assume that this technology will be used for future Square Enix titles. Do you think that Tetsuya Nomura will be able to use it in Kingdom Hearts III?
Julien: Well, obviously we'll use Luminous Engine in more series than just Final Fantasy. Besides, Crystal Tools, which I was just talking about, is used in only Final Fantasy so far. Because the next Dragon Quest X uses Crystal Tools so do other in-house projects: there's Kingdom Hearts which uses Crystal Tools too so it's clear that Luminous Engine will cover a whole spectrum of series and will be used, I hope, by a lot of teams but there's still a lot of work to be done.
FFDream: When you're the world tech director at Square Enix, what language do you use to communicate? Because I think they have French interpreters in Québec, and obviously Japanese and English interpreters. How does it work?
Julien: I'd say it's mainly English. After all, it helps enormously to speak French, especially in Québec. Now we have two studios in Montreal: Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal where they worked on Deus Ex [Human Revolution], Thief and Hitman, so speaking French is an advantage. It's also an advantage to speak Japanese! The workplace language is English, right up to the level of documentation because there's a lot of departments between the two studios, so we have to choose a common language and nowadays that language is English.
FFDream: Julien Merceron, a final question. At the end of August, the Final Fantasy series will celebrate its 25th birthday. Do you think that we'll see a bit more of Luminous Engine or something like that?
Julien: Oh, yes! There will be more future presentations so keep your eyes peeled!
FFDream: Thank you, Julien Merceron, for this exclusive interview for JeuxCapt.com and Final Fantasy Dream! Thank you so much!
Julien: Thanks, see you later.
Ketchup: FFDream (& JeuxCapt.com)
---x---
After the Agni's Philosophy presentation given by Julien Merceron (world tech director at Square Enix) – which gathered a huge crowd at Japan Expo – we were able to ask Merceron about his important responsibilities at the Japanese company. We talked mainly about the technology of future titles in the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series.
FINAL FANTASY DREAM: Hello, Julien. We have the pleasure of asking you some questions for our exclusive interview by JeuxCapt.com and Final Fantasy Dream.
Julien: It's a pleasure to be here.
FFDream: We're interviewing you now right after the Agni's Philosophy – Final Fantasy demonstration, where we saw an absolutely stunning world. What can you tell us about the public reaction?
Julien: The reaction was phenomenal. The demonstration was put up online just after E3 in June. So we have a website where we've had an enormous amount of visitors and the success has been incredible, it's beyond what we expected. Initially we made [Agni's Philosophy] just for ourselves to better understand the direction we wanted to go in for the future of video games, and then it became a public video and it exceeded our expectations. It's amazing.
FFDream: It's true that everyone was very impressed at E3 because we hadn't expected much from Square Enix on the Japanese side of things, and then you surprised us all with the presentation at your E3 booth. Would it not have been easier to show the technical demo in a Sony or Microsoft conference? Didn't you want more exposure?
Julien: No, we really wanted it to be our own work! We're not looking to try and sell a Microsoft or Sony version [of Agni's Philosophy] and besides, we didn't know them [that well]. We knew our work well enough. When the video was put online we really wanted it to be a message from Square Enix more than a message from Sony or Microsoft. Saying this, Sony and Microsoft know what we were working on and we were obviously in close collaboration with both them and Nintendo.
FFDream: Julien Merceron, you are of course French, I think that you know that the majority of Final Fantasy fans started with Final Fantasy VII. It's been 15 years [since the game was released] and there's going to be a version for the PC... are we maybe talking about a [future] remake of Final Fantasy VII?
Julien: (Laughs) It's a game which is very dear to me, too. You can find interviews on the Internet that I've done in the past. For me Final Fantasy VII was one of the best experiences. That said, there have been other past Final Fantasys which were excellent and will continue to be excellent. As for me, I'd really like to play [a remake]. Having said that, there are people in the company who are deciding what they're going to do with the company and what they're going to do with the Final Fantasy franchise which may or may not be a good thing. Personally I'm happy to play around with the new technology and let them make their own decisions but speaking as a fan I'd really like a remake... but that's just me.
FFDream: We can assume that this technology will be used for future Square Enix titles. Do you think that Tetsuya Nomura will be able to use it in Kingdom Hearts III?
Julien: Well, obviously we'll use Luminous Engine in more series than just Final Fantasy. Besides, Crystal Tools, which I was just talking about, is used in only Final Fantasy so far. Because the next Dragon Quest X uses Crystal Tools so do other in-house projects: there's Kingdom Hearts which uses Crystal Tools too so it's clear that Luminous Engine will cover a whole spectrum of series and will be used, I hope, by a lot of teams but there's still a lot of work to be done.
FFDream: When you're the world tech director at Square Enix, what language do you use to communicate? Because I think they have French interpreters in Québec, and obviously Japanese and English interpreters. How does it work?
Julien: I'd say it's mainly English. After all, it helps enormously to speak French, especially in Québec. Now we have two studios in Montreal: Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal where they worked on Deus Ex [Human Revolution], Thief and Hitman, so speaking French is an advantage. It's also an advantage to speak Japanese! The workplace language is English, right up to the level of documentation because there's a lot of departments between the two studios, so we have to choose a common language and nowadays that language is English.
FFDream: Julien Merceron, a final question. At the end of August, the Final Fantasy series will celebrate its 25th birthday. Do you think that we'll see a bit more of Luminous Engine or something like that?
Julien: Oh, yes! There will be more future presentations so keep your eyes peeled!
FFDream: Thank you, Julien Merceron, for this exclusive interview for JeuxCapt.com and Final Fantasy Dream! Thank you so much!
Julien: Thanks, see you later.
Ketchup: FFDream (& JeuxCapt.com)
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