History Main / LimitedMoveArsenal

* Every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game, including most of 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. "Four Move Slot Syndrome" is the term used by competitive players when a Pokémon has an enormous selection of useful moves for support and/or type coverage, but this trope forces the player to sacrifice one part of its kit. It was [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_Ruby_and_Sapphire_beta#Limitations considered during the development]] of ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' to increase the number of moves, but the limit was maintained for the purpose of competitive balance: the more moves a Pokémon has available, the more roles [[ConfusionFu it can potentially fulfill]], but the four-move limit prevents any one 'mon from being too versatile in combat. It also adds another layer of depth, as with a large enough movepool, two Pokémon of the same species and level can function differently from each other, keeping the opponent guessing on how to deal with it with it being too overwhelming.

In video games, this can be hard to simulate. (See also ThemeDeck.)

* ''[[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. Also, you can only equip two guns and melee weapons out of the five or so each you get in the game at a time. [=DMC4=] and the Switch version of [=DMC3=] added the ability to switch Styles and the ability to swap between all weapons on the fly when playing as Dante.

** This is parodied in the webcomic ''WebComic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'' with Mr. Fish the Gyarados. His four moves are Shake, Roll Over, Fetch, and Don't Eat Jared. [[spoiler:He forgets Shake to learn Hyper Beam.]]

* ''VisualNovel/EienNoAselia'' limits each character to three attack skills, three defense skills, and three support skills, each with a limited number of uses between resting. Characters almost always fight in trios, splitting up the roles of attacker, defender and supporter, so that each character only activates one of their skills per encounter.

* ''[[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.

* Every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game, including most of 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. "Four Move Slot Syndrome" is the term used by competitive players when a Pokémon has an enormous selection of useful moves for support and/or type coverage, but this trope forces the player to sacrifice one part of its kit. It was [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_Ruby_and_Sapphire_beta#Limitations considered during the development]] of ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' to increase the number of moves, but the limit was maintained for the purpose of competitive balance: the more moves a Pokémon has available, the more roles [[SchrodingerFu it can potentially fulfill]], but the four-move limit prevents any one 'mon from being too versatile in combat. It also adds another layer of depth, as with a large enough movepool, two Pokémon of the same species and level can function differently from each other, keeping the opponent guessing on how to deal with it with it being too overwhelming.

* Every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game, including most of 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.
** 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 have at once and the number of Pokémon that a player can have with him/her at a time while traveling; while the latter eventually came into fruition with ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee''[[note]]the player now has a laptop that connects to the Pokémon Center PC[[/note]], larger movesets have yet to materialize and probably never will for the reasons below.
** Players nickname the trope "Four Move Slot Syndrome", where a Pokémon has an enormous selection of useful moves for support and/or type coverage, but the game limitations force the player to have to sacrifice one part of its kit. The competitive Pokémon scene shows that this definitely falls under the "too easy" clause. The more moves a Pokémon has available, the more roles [[SchrodingerFu it can potentially fulfill]], but the four-move limit prevents any one 'mon from being too versatile in combat. It also adds another layer of depth, as with a large enough movepool, two Pokémon of the same species and level can function differently from each other, keeping the opponent guessing on how to deal with it.

%% These Zero Context Examples (including unexplained weblinks) have been commented. Do not put them back without adding context.

** In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', each Demon Tamer and demon can have up to three active skills and three passive skills at any one time; skills can be swapped around when not in a battle. Demon Tamers can additionally equip one Auto skill, while demons have Racial skills that cannot be changed or removed.

* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games have this. Each Demon/Persona can only have so many skills, usually 8.

* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
** In most cases, the PlayerCharacter and each of their demons can only know a limited number of skills, and both active and passive skills have to compete for those slots. Upgrades often make it possible to increase the max number of skills available, up to eight.
** ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' allows each character in your party to know up to eight skills at any one time, however outside of combat they can hot-swap those skills with any ones they've learned. It helps, as ''DDS'' deviates from the {{Mons}} formula of most games.
** In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', each Demon Tamer and demon can have up to three active skills and three passive skills at any one time; skills can be swapped around when not in a battle. Demon Tamers can additionally equip one Auto skill, while demons have Racial skills that cannot be changed or removed.

** The competitive Pokémon scene shows that this definitely falls under the "too easy" clause. The more moves a Pokémon has available, the more roles [[SchrodingerFu it can potentially fulfill]], but the four-move limit prevents any one 'mon from being too versatile in combat. It also adds another layer of depth, as with a large enough movepool, two Pokémon of the same species and level can function differently from each other, keeping the opponent guessing on how to deal with it.

Implementations vary. In some games, the player is forced to more or less permanently forget old skills to learn new ones. In others, the skills are simply put away and may be "installed" and "uninstalled" at will [[PowersAsPrograms as if they were computer programs]].

In video games, this can be hard to simulate.

Compare LimitedLoadout and MutuallyExclusivePowerUps where your character's limits are defined by the amount of equipment they can carry on their person. In those cases, they still know how to use said equipment even when they don't have it; with a Limited Move Arsenal, they may still have [[NaturalWeapon the equipment]] but have somehow forgotten how to use it.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Tales|Series}}'' games, starting with ''[[VideoGame/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. Some of the games have late-game items that can double the number of attacks you can equip at a time, with the second set being available by holding down a button.

* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' initially limits you to having one active special move in light and one in shadow. Later the limit is increased to two of both.
* In ''VideoGame/InfiniteUndiscovery'', battle skills are limited to two slots. Even for the (friendly) AI characters who are not restricted by the lack of controller buttons. Magic spells are not limited.

* In ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'', characters have both moves unique to them and others that are available to all but can only be given to one character. As of 4, you can have a character forget a common move so another can learn it.
* Every ''Franchise/{{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.
** 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 have at once and the number of Pokémon that a player can have with him/her at a time while traveling; while the latter eventually came into fruition with ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee''[[note]]the player now has a laptop that connects to the Pokemon Center PC[[/note]], larger movesets have yet to materialize and probably never will for the reasons below.
** The competitive Pokémon scene shows that this definitely falls under the "too easy" clause. The more moves a Pokémon has available, the more roles [[SchrodingerFu it can potentially fulfill]], but the four-move limit prevents any one 'mon from being too versatile in combat. It also adds another layer of depth as with a large enough movepool, two Pokémon of the same species and level can function differently from each other, keeping the opponent guessing on how to deal with it.
** This is parodied in the webcomic ''WebComic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'' with Mr. Fish the Gyarados. His four moves are Shake, Roll Over, Fetch, and Don't Eat Jared. [[spoiler: He forgets Shake to learn Hyper Beam.]]
** ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' goes even further, limiting each mon to only two moves. One must be "charged" by repeatedly using the other, making them effectively a single attack with an irregular damage rate. A later update allowed you to spend a bundle of candy and stardust to unlock a second charge attack, though this comes from the same (usually) small pool of possible attacks as the first one.

-->''Congratulations! Leo forgot "Breathe" and learned "Poop"!

* ''Webcomic/VGCats'': {{Parodied|Trope}} in an RPGMechanicsVerse strip where Leo is [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=240 limited]] to four moves, á la ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', which causes trouble when he needs to go to the bathroom.

Implementations vary. In some games, the player is forced to more or less permanently forget old skills to learn new ones. In others, the skills are simply put away and may be "installed" and "uninstalled" at will, as if they were computer programs.

** 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 ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' and probably never will.
** The competitive Pokémon scene shows that this definitely falls under the "too easy" clause mentioned above. The more moves a Pokémon has available, the more roles [[SchrodingerFu it can potentially fulfill]], but the four-move limit prevents any one 'mon from being too versatile in combat. It also adds another layer of depth as with a large enough movepool, two Pokémon of the same species and level can function differently from each other, keeping the opponent guessing on how to deal with it.

* [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''. There are five colors of magic, and each one represents a philosophy or ideology and thus specializes in particular things. While it is possible to run a deck with all five colors, the result is CoolButInefficient, as the colors of mana you have on table will rarely match the color of the spells you have in hand. Until you get used to the {{metagame}}, it's much wiser to run decks of two colors or even one.

** The competitive Pokémon scene shows that this definitely falls under the "too easy" clause mentioned above. The more moves a Pokémon has available, the more roles [[SchrodingerFu it can potentially fulfill]], but the four-move limit prevents any one 'mon from being too versatile in combat.

* Invoker from ''VideoGame/{{Dota2}}'' is an incredibly versatile hero thanks to his ability to combine his standard abilities into new ones, possessing a whopping 11 active skills, surpassing the 4 skills that almost every other hero has. However, he can only store two at a time, and is restricted from invoking new abilities whenever he wants due to cooldown and mana cost. While this restriction diminishes as he gains levels, having and invoking the right spells at the right time and remembering the combination for his spell is key to playing Invoker successfully.

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

** The first game forces anything that isn't swinging your weapon into the Right-Mouse-Button spell slot. Particularly annoying if you're playing a Sorcerer with a dozen spells to switch between. Carrying a staff with spell charges? That takes up the Spell slot too, even though you probably don't want to use it to hit people. You can HotKey up to 4 skills on the Funtion keys, but you still need to 'click' to actually use them.
** The second game is a bit more lenient, as you can map most non-Passive skills to both the Left-Mouse-Button and RMB. And can HotKey up to 16 skills (with the expansion).