History Main / LimitedMoveArsenal

* ''{{Diablo}}'' presents a somewhat annoying case, in that one can only have two skills ready at any one time. For passive skills like Paladin auras, this makes sense, but for normal attacks and spells it's very limiting. The game also lets one assign skills to quick keys, but these only ready skills, actually activating them requires a press of the slot's button.

** Junichi Masuda, game director and one of the composers for the ''Pokémon'' games, [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_Ruby_and_Sapphire_beta#Limitations once stated that during the development]] of ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', two things brought under consideration were potentially changing the number of moves that a Pokémon can learn and the number of Pokémon that a player can have with him/her at a time while traveling; however, none of these have been altered as of [[PokemonBlackAndWhite Generation V]].
* You can only have 20 skills on any given character or item in PhantomBrave.To learn more, you need to have a Witch remove older ones beforehand.

** Then again, some of the franchise's avert this trope completely. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' allow every character to learn and equip every skill (with few exceptions), though X does allow one to equip only four abilities each for offense and defence.

* ''[[GaiaOnline zOMG]]'': the player can only equip 8 rings at a time.

* [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Devil May Cry 3]] allows Dante to use one of six Styles, sets of secondary actions used with the Circle button, including extra moves with his melee weapons or guns, evasive maneuvers, the ability to parry attacks and release the built-up energy, summoning a phantom that a second player can control, or slowing down time for everything but himself. The problem is that only one of these Styles can be used at a time, and you can only switch Styles at a pedestal where you use Orbs to buy items. [=DMC4=] added the ability to switch Styles on the fly when playing as Dante.

* The SDGundam G Generation series of games limited characters to four attacks up until ''G Generation Spirits'', at which point the number jumped to six.

* The ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' games

* Every ''{{Pokemon}}'' game, including the spin-offs, limits each of your Pokémon to four moves at a time. Whenever one of them already has four moves and is preparing to learn another, you have to choose which move your Pokémon should forget, or just cancel learning the move.

* ''ShinMegamiTensei'' games have this. Each Demon/Persona can only have so many skills.

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** Also some skills can only be learned if the user is either S-type (strike) or T-Type (tech). Even if Genis knows Spark Wave he has to forget it to know Thunder Blade.

* The ''StarOcean'' games

* ''DevilSurvivor'' for humans limits the human character to a set number of spells/skills and support abilities, and you can only have one of any given ability between all of them. Demons are type 2.

<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

** Specifically (if you've got all the campagins), your skill inventory contains what you've learned of the average of 90 skills of your primary and secondary professions that you've bought, plus what you've captured of the ~25 elite skills for each profession, plus up to ~50 reputation-based PvE only skills. And to make your choices larger, you can learn to change your secondary profession at will. You can equip: '''eight skills'''. Including only one elite and no more than three PvE.

* ''DevilSurvivor'', at least for humans. Demons are type 2.

* ''DevilSurvivor'' limits the human character to a set number of spells/skills and support abilities, and you can only have one of any given ability between all up to four of them.

* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' is type 1 for melee. You can change the skills mid battle, but unlike spells (where the entire list can be activated via menu) you can only activate melee techs from a shortcut.

** [[TalesSeries The Tales games]], starting with [[TalesOfPhantasia Phantasia]] have the main character equip four skills to use in battle among the dozens of techniques they learn. With the combo command item, they can use any of these by inputting a series of fighting game-style commands.

* [[DevilMayCry Devil May Cry 3]] allows Dante to use one of six Styles, sets of secondary actions used with the Circle button, including extra moves with his melee weapons or guns, evasive maneuvers, the ability to parry attacks and release the built-up energy, summoning a phantom that a second player can control, or slowing down time for everything but himself. The problem is that only one of these Styles can be used at a time, and you can only switch Styles at a pedestal where you use Orbs to buy items. [=DMC4=] added the ability to switch Styles on the fly when playing as Dante.

* ''FinalFantasyTactics'', ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', and ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2''. Each job has a set ability, and you can set a second ability (either items or another job's set ability), a reactive ability, and a passive ability. Alchemists can equip both Items ''and'' a second job set, though the Items are locked in place and can't be exchanged for a third job set.

* ''FinalFantasyV'', with a system that probably formed the basis for the one in ''FinalFantasyTactics''.
* ''FinalFantasyIX'', with regards to passive skills.

* ''TheWorldEndsWithYou''.

* ''FinalFantasy'' does this a lot. In addition to the above ''[[FinalFantasyI I]]'' and ''[[FinalFantasyIII III]]'' had limited spell slots (III three also restricting thing based on job), ''[[FinalFantasyVII VII]]'' tied abilities to items (which in turn had slots dependent on equipment), ''[[FinalFantasyVIII VIII]]'' has limited command and passive slots (the abilities themselves gained from type 2 summons), and ''[[FinalFantasyX2 X-2]]'' only lets you use the abilities of any one dresssphere at a time (with the ones you can switch to limited by plate you equip). Yeah, this is kind of ''FinalFantasy'''s CharacteristicTrope.
** Then again, some of the franchise's avert this trope completely. FinalFantasyX and FinalFantasyXII allow every character to learn and equip every skill (with few exceptions), though X does allow one to equip only four abilities each for offense and defence.

* ''Monster Rancher 3''

* FinalFantasyII limits each character's magic spells to a certain number.

** Junichi Masuda, game director and one of the composers for the ''Pokémon'' games, [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_Ruby_and_Sapphire_beta#Limitations once stated that during the development]] of ''PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', two things brought under consideration were potentially changing the number of moves that a Pokémon can learn and the number of Pokémon that a player can have with him/her at a time while traveling; however, none of these have been altered as of [[PokemonBlackAndWhite Generation V]].

* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' is also type 2 as most moves/spells come in pairs and you can only know one of them at a time (for example, Genis's Thunder Blade and Spark Wave) depending on you exsphere configuration. (barring glitches).

* Every ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' game, including the spin-offs, limits each of your Pokemon to four moves at a time. Whenever one of them already has four moves and is preparing to learn another, you have to choose which move your Pokemon should forget, or just cancel learning the move.

* ''SagaFrontier'' and ''SagaFrontier2''.

* ''FinalFantasyTactics'', ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', and ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2''. Each job has a set ability, and you can set a second ability (either items or another job's set ability), a reactive ability, and a passive ability.

* The first two ''PaperMario'' games. You can only equip a limited amount of badges. You can increase the amount with level up bonuses. The first one had a cap of 30 badge points, while the second ignores the cap and still allows you to get bonuses after that.

# Characters have an inventory of skills, out of which they can equip a limited number to be available to them in combat.
# Characters are allowed to know only a limited number of skills at any time. When they learn new skills, they are forced to forget others to make room.

* You were limited to 64 skills per character in BreathOfFire III. Not only that, but you could only have one copy of a skill one one person at a time, and you had to use a rather rare item (which could thankfully be farmed) to transfer skills.

* Referenced in [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=242 this]] VGCats comic.