The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermDigital term1991

Active Time Battle

Square's hybrid combat system in which each character's gauge fills in real time, and the player must choose actions as turns come up while enemies keep acting. It added urgency to menu-based JRPG battles.

Square's hybrid combat system in which each character's gauge fills in real time, and the player must choose actions as turns come up while enemies keep acting. It added urgency to menu-based JRPG battles.

Origin

Designed by Hiroyuki Ito, reportedly inspired by watching cars of different speeds pass one another in a Formula One race; introduced in Final Fantasy IV (1991).

Quick answers

What does "Active Time Battle" mean?
Square's hybrid combat system in which each character's gauge fills in real time, and the player must choose actions as turns come up while enemies keep acting. It added urgency to menu-based JRPG battles.
Where does the term "Active Time Battle" come from?
Designed by Hiroyuki Ito, reportedly inspired by watching cars of different speeds pass one another in a Formula One race; introduced in Final Fantasy IV (1991).

Nearby in the archive

Square / Square Enix

Developer1986–2003

The Tokyo studio that bet its survival on a game called Final Fantasy, then spent two decades reinventing the Japanese RPG before merging with its great rival Enix in 2003.

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Final Fantasy

Japanese RPG1987

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Japanese RPG1994

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Chrono Trigger

Japanese RPG1995

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Turn-based combat

General term

Combat in which participants act one at a time in a set order, as around a tabletop with Initiative. Standard in early computer RPGs, JRPGs and tactical games, it has enjoyed a revival in games such as Divinity: Original Sin II and Baldur's Gate 3.

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