Active Time Battle

[2] Active Time Battle has been noted by critics as a revolutionary step in the genre as well as a defining aspect of the series' Super Nintendo and PlayStation era games and of Final Fantasy as a whole.

[1] In an interview, designer Takashi Tokita stated that the initial version of Active Time Battle simply had characters attacking based on who had the fastest speed.

He argued that RPG battles could not be captivating unless they either had an additional strategic layer, such as positional manipulation in Radiant Historia, or a means to keep the player active akin to ATB, calling "standing in a single line trading attacks" an outdated system.

He noted that "ATB obliges you to think of party members as individuals, dancing to their own beats", stating his opinion that it was "an appropriate development, given the increasing elaborateness of Final Fantasy's writing".

[8] The company continued to make spin-offs that utilized Active Time Battle in a more traditional form, such as World of Final Fantasy.