At Microsoft's Build conference in a video presentation you can watch above, Square Enix debuted its DirectX 12-powered "WITCH CHAPTER 0 [cry]" demo, which was introduced by Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata.

It seems to be an expansion of the work begun by the company's Agni's Philosophy demo, which debuted in 2012. Both demos were created using the company's Luminous Studio game engine.

The demo shows not only the latest in the company's facial animation techniques, but continues the tradition of the studio's debut of impressive realtime graphics as a showpiece for new graphics technologies.

(Who can forget its 1999 PlayStation 2 tech demo, which you can see in this video, or its Final Fantasy VII demo for the PlayStation 3?)

It's particularly interesting in that WITCH CHAPTER 0 [cry] was manipulated in real-time on stage at the event, as you can see above.

The demo was created in partnership with Nvidia, which has put up an official post on the topic.

For more on working with DirectX 12, read our interview with Oxide Games' Dan Baker, who's been using the tech in the developing of the upcoming Ashes of the Singularity.