Linear Motion Battle System

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This screenshot from the Tales of Destiny remake for the PS2 displays the simultaneous real-time nature of LMBS.
This screenshot from the Tales of Destiny remake for the PS2 displays the simultaneous real-time nature of LMBS.

The Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS or LiMBS) is a fighting paradigm in Namco-published video games primarily for use in their Tales series of console role-playing games. It is a real-time battle system based on 2-D fighting games such as Street Fighter and The King of Fighters.

Some computer and console RPG games have turn-based battle systems, where the player's characters and the computer enemies take turns to fight, each picking an individual action, such as attacking, casting a spell, or using an item. In most turn-based systems, the player is given time to think about what action to carry out, since the opponent/enemy cannot attack until the player has selected their action. In contrast, LMBS is real-time, so there are no mandatory battle menus for which to issue battle commands from, and the player and opponent are constantly fighting - if the player does not press any buttons and lets the characters sit still, the opponent will continue to use attacks.

In LMBS, the fight is played out on a two-dimensional terrain that usually stretches wider than a single screen width, so the screen can scroll to the left and to the right, depending on where the characters and opponents are relatively located. LMBS contains a pause menu during battle which lets the player select a spell or item. As in some fighting games, it is possible to assign items or combination moves to specific buttons as shortcuts for quick actions.

As opposed to most other turn-based systems where the player control the individual actions of every party member, in LMBS, the player only directly controls one main character. Other characters in the party can be set to passive mode (defend only), active mode and attack (computer controlled), or the player can often force the characters to move or use a spell from the pause menu. For the titles that allow multiplayer, the other party characters can be controlled by other human players.

[edit] Variations

  • Tales of Innocence (Nintendo DS) - Dimension Stride Linear Motion Battle System (DS-LMBS)
  • Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) - Evolved Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System (EFR-LMBS)


Although it is not the Linear Motion Battle System, the Summon Night: Swordcraft Story sub-series of Game Boy Advance games developed by Flight-Plan use a very similar 2D fighting system.


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