History Main / OverlyGenerousTimeLimit

** Averted for his battle in ''[[UpdatesRerelease Royal]]'', where it's noticeably harder in that he sends out increasingly harder waves of robots instead. If you don't wipe them out in a set number of turns, they will flee and he will summon the same wave until you do, which can shave off precious time. And if you're not sufficiently prepared, especially when [[spoiler:Cognitive Haru]] pitches in, and then [[spoiler:self-destructs to potentially wipe your team]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5NQdVRBnu8 you can end up cutting it close with just less than a minute to spare]].

* The SNES strategy game ''Liberty or Death'' starts in the year 1775. If neither the American nor British forces claim a final victory by the time King George III dies in 1820 (45 years after the game starts), the game automatically ends [[InstantWinCondition in victory for America]].

* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIV'' has a time limit of one day, as in 24 hours. As the game is much shorter than that ''and'' restoring a saved game also restores the clock, players are unlikely to ever notice there ''is'' a time limit. A certain event advances time to nightfall because otherwise you'd have to idle for 10 - 11 hours to reach night.
* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' technically has a time limit, but it is ''eight hours'' and a midgame event will cancel it. Again, restoring an earlier save also restores the clock. The game doesn't even tell the player that there's a time limit, so you'd basically need to open the source code to find out. Specifically, the game starts at 10 PM, and if the main character is still a virgin at 6 AM, he'll kill himself.

In some games, using an Overly Generous Time Limit may be a way of circumventing a potential integer overflow, where the timer could roll over and cause issues.

* ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'': One puzzle involves Guybrush getting thrown in the ocean with a heavy weight tied to his leg, and you have to figure out how to escape before he drowns. You have 10 full minutes (it's a CallBack to an earlier joke where Guybrush bragged that he could hold his breath for 10 minutes), and the puzzle is easy enough to solve much sooner.

* ''VideoGame/Shenmue'' and its sequel give the player time limits of a few in-game months (late November until mid-April in the first game, and until the end of June in the second). Aside from [[ThatOneLevel the infamous stealth segment in the first game]], there isn't a lot of pressure to rush through the game, giving the player time aplenty to explore and enjoy themselves.

So you don't want to put the pressure of a normal TimedMission on the player; however, on the other hand, you don't want the player to be able to [[TakeYourTime take their sweet, sweet time]] on a mission that is supposed to be urgent or you otherwise don't want a player taking forever on. You could [[ContinueYourMissionDammit constantly nag the player to continue]], or you could implement an Overly Generous Time Limit - a time limit so generous that even regular conservative play will leave you with quite a bit of time to spare, and only extremely deliberate slow play will cause the player to run out of time.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Shadow's "Deep Jungle" level has a time limit of ten minutes. Even taking the time to explore and find all of the secrets - some of which a player only has to find once - it's likely that a player will reach the Goal Ring with more than half of the allotted time remaining.

* Most of the timed missions in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' were of this variety. The limits were in real time, starting from the moment you accepted the mission, but barring one endgame-level mission that was intended to be impossible, they tended to be in the one-to-two hour range, more than enough time to fully explore the site and take out everything there.

[[folder:MMORPGs]]
* Most of the timed missions in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' were of this variety. The limits were In real time, starting from the moment you accepted the mission, but barring one endgame-level mission that was intended to be impossible, they tended to be in the one-to-two hour range, more than enough time to fully explore the site and take out everything there.

* In the final Nod mission of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'', you are given a little more than three hours to position three ICBM launchers on the map in order to destroy GDI's orbital command station before it can locate and destroy the World Altering Missile.. Taking your time to build a force large enough to completely wipe out the highly defended GDI base - which isn't a mission requirement - and placing the ICBM launchers at your leisure afterwards takes an hour at most.

** In ''Advance Wars: Dual Strike", an early mission gives the player a (real world) half hour to complete a mission, even though the game is turn-based. Even a novice is unlikely to take more than 5 minutes to complete the mission.

** In ''Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'', on the mission ''Lin's Gambit'', you are given a 40-day (turn) time limit to capture the opposing HQ or wipe out all enemies before Greyfield is able to shoot nukes to wipe you out. The meta-ranking of the game starts penalizing you for slow play after turn 12.

''VideoGame/{{Minesweeper}}'' has a timer. When it reaches 999, well... to quote the RealTrailerFakeMovie:

* In ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'', on the mission ''Lin's Gambit'', you are given a 40-day time limit to capture the opposing HQ or wipe out all enemies before Greyfield is able to shoot nukes to wipe you out. The metaranking of the game starts penalizing you for slow play after turn 12.

* VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}, mostly thanks to technical limitations, has a hard-coded limit of 13 in-game years before the game suddenly throws a "The End" screen at you and brings you to the main menu. Completing the game's quests and generally doing everything there is to do in the game usually takes about 4 in-game years at most.

So you don't want to put the pressure of a normal TimedMission on the player; however, on the other hand, you don't want the player to be able to [[TakeYourTime take their sweet, sweet time]] on a mission that is supposed to be urgent or you otherwise don't want a player taking forever on. You could [[ContinueYourMissionDammit constantly nag the player to continue]], or you could implement a Token Time Limit - a time limit so generous that even regular conservative play will leave you with quite a bit of time to spare, and only extremely deliberate slow play will cause the player to run out of time.

In some games, using an overly generous time limit may be a way of circumventing a potential integer overflow, where the timer could roll over and cause issues.