Close call: Final Fantasy will "probably never" become a first-person shooter, says Toriyama

Between Final Fantasy XIII's extremely linear nature and Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, one might argue that the Final Fantasy franchise and the ancient art of FPS have been getting a little too friendly as of late.

Fear not, however, as Final Fantasy XIII designer and writer Motomu Toriyama told Kotaku that Final Fantasy will "probably never" try its delicate, manicured hand at a gruff, tough first-person shooter.

"Final Fantasy as a series will probably never [adopt] a first person shooter style. The concepts the teams are always working with have the character always on screen and visually trying to make battles look exciting," Toriyama said.

"Maybe a third person shooter style would be a more realistic fit with the Final Fantasy series," he added.

However, he did acknowledge that Final Fantasy XIII in particular owes quite a bit to, among other things, Call of Duty.

"The basic RPG functions are to go into towns, prepare for battle by going to shops, then go out in the field," Toriyama explained. "In that sense, Final Fantasy XIII doesn't have towns or shops—it's more that players are thrown into a story, presented with different situations as they move forward in the field and keep progressing that way."

"In that sense it's more similar to an FPS genre, like Call of Duty," he said. "That's not to say it's an action shooting game at all, so Final Fantasy XIII takes some different aspects of different genres, transcending different types of games."

Of course, Square-speak is a very complex, nuanced language, which we happen to be able to interpret. You see, when the Japanese giant runs its mouth, "no" typically means "yes." So, with that in mind, we've seen right through Square's doubletalk, and here's what we've found:

The Final Fantasy VII remake is coming, and it'll be a first-person shooter that's full of towns. So many towns.