History Main / TakeYourTime

** In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', ''VideoGame/Persona4'', and ''VideoGame/Persona5'': other than the overall, game-long time limit to complete them before the game is over, each Social Link character's personal story will only advance when the player sees them, and it's possible to put off seeing them for months at a time. Everything in their personal lives will wait until the player is ready: Kaz can go the better part of a year not getting medical attention for a severe knee injury and still be fine, and one of the Links in ''3'' is ''dying'', yet he always manages to last long enough to max his Link, regardless of how long it takes.

** {{Lampshade h|anging}}ung (along with quite a few other things) by Midna in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess''. Of course, it doesn't matter to her if you delay, because she just wants the {{MacGuffin}}s, and would actually be happy enough to see your world end [[spoiler:at first]]. You can even dawdle around after [[spoiler:Midna gets hit with Lanayru's light]], but there's little reason to, as you can't leave the map in a direction that doesn't take you to Castle Town, or she'll plead with you to hurry to Zelda and you'll automatically turn around.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' famously takes place over two time periods set seven years apart. Interestingly, one of the songs played on the ocarina, the Sun's Song, has the effect of advancing time to the following daybreak or sunset. But no matter how many times it's played, nothing meaningful will ever happen, young Link will never age, etc.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' averts this. In-game time passes consistently and is very important, as certain events will only take place at certain times (i.e. the Curiosity Shop only being open at night) and the moon will crash into the world if you take too long. The game manages to get away with this by allowing you to go back in time to complete events you missed. Likewise, once the Four Giants hold the moon in place and you go inside it, you can take as long as you want since the giants' strength never gives out.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', you rescue Zelda and hide her in a sanctuary, then set out to acquire the necessary {{Plot Coupon}}s to get the Master Sword. No matter how fast you are completing the next three dungeons, you are informed that she was re-kidnapped just before you return. Later when are trying to re-rescue her from [[EvilSorcerer Aghanim]], he will always have her with him and seemingly sacrifice her, no matter how fast you are to complete the dungeon.
** Both played straight and subverted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap''. Before the final fight, Vaati states that when a bell chimes three times it will be too late to save Zelda. The first two always happen at the same time no matter what, but it's subverted when you're fighting three [[EliteMooks Darknuts]] one room away from Vaati. If you take too long, [[NonstandardGameOver the third chime rings]].

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': As in the previous game, you can spend as long as you like getting all your ducks in a row before fighting Ganondorf. The game is both better and worse about this; on the one hand, Link doesn't actually ''know'' where Ganondorf or Zelda are at the start of the game (though the player can still rush the final battle if they know where it is). The main quest takes Link around the map to free the various regions of their Scourges, gathering allies and defeating Ganondorf's plans. On the other hand, [[spoiler:apparently he was just [[OrcusOnHisThrone sitting there waiting the entire time]]. When Link arrives, he finally finishes restoring his old power and fights Link personally, leaving the question of why he didn't just do that before]].

Since this trope is widely recognized, this is occasionally subverted in more recent games by a mission being [[TimedMission time-sensitive]] even if there's no explicit onscreen timer. Players who assume this trope is in effect when told to [[ContinueYourMissionDammit hurry up]] may be shocked to find that the game really ''does'' mean it this time. Periodic reminders that time is running out should be taken as warnings that, unlike with MagicCountdown, you can actually fail if you dawdle too much. If there's an InUniverseGameClock, even an offhand mention of something that won't happen for several days may be a good thing for players to worry about. Even worse is if [[TimeKeepsOnTicking the timer keeps going]] when the player is doing things like pausing, having a menu open, watching a cutscene, or in the most extreme cases, ''not even playing the game at all''.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3'' plays this straight for the most part in that the Galactic Federation is certainly nice to wait on Samus when it comes to her doing the critically essential tasks they assign her in one or two places. It's realistic if you take your time doing it, but they seem perfectly content to let you wander off to entire other planets, collecting missile launcher expansions instead of doing your damn job.

* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': In the final chapter, the [[BigBad Wasp King]] can get within a short walking distance of his goal, yet it is possible to leave the area and do various sidequests with him not advancing until the story is. Regardless of how much time is spent on sidequests, [[spoiler:Team Snakemouth will always encounter the Wasp King just as he gets rid of the barrier around the Everlasting Sapling.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' Earth is being invaded by hordes of demons, and while it's already pretty bad, it won't get any worse if the Slayer slacks on his job. Especially egregious in the finale, where the titanic demon called [[FinalBoss Icon of Sin]] enters the city and... just kinda roams around, and despite the '''multiple''' reminders that "the longer the Icon of Sin remains on Earth, the stronger it becomes", this is not the case, and you can get to it at your convenience and still have the same (admittedly hard) fight.

*** The presence of this trope is in extreme conflict with game's main quest. In fact, the ''tutorial'' ends with the Emperor's assassination and you very much aware of the threat of an [[LegionsOfHell invasion from Oblivion]]. It is heavily implied that time is of the essence as you need to rescue the Emperor's HiddenBackupPrince and recover the {{MacGuffin}} he needs in order to stop the Oblivion Crisis. However, like the other games in the series, you are perfectly free to wander away for hours to complete unrelated sidequests and explore the massive open world as if nothing is wrong.

*** This even works in the player's favor. Dragons will not start randomly appearing until you complete "Dragon Rising", an early quest in the main quest line. So you can do all of the above without having to deal with dragons if you so choose. The irony is that you're told in the beginning of the game to immediately alert the Jarl of Whiterun about dragons being on the loose, but as long as you don't complete "Dragon Rising," you'll never encounter another dragon attack.

* In ''VideoGame/FableI'', the final sequence of missions has the Hero try (unsuccessfully, since YouCantThwartStageOne) to prevent the BigBad from recovering the ArtifactOfDoom that would let him conquer the world. If you want to take care of some {{Sidequest}}s, shopping, fishing trips, or whatnot, you can tell the Guildmaster that you're not ready, in which case he tells you to finish your business and come back when you want to save the world.
** A particularly notorious example in ''VideoGame/FableIII'': After you become King/Queen, you learn that an EldritchAbomination is coming to destroy your kingdom in one year, and you need lots of money to train and equip your army to fight it. For the next several in-game months, you're faced with several moral choices where you must either screw over your citizens for the sake of adding more money to the Eldritch Abomination Defense Fund, or ''spend'' money to help them. However, the countdown only changes when you voluntarily trigger the EventFlags, so you can take as long as you want adventuring and playing the real-estate minigame, the latter of which will easily earn you enough money to be TheGoodKing and still meet your financial needs.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' continues this tradition. The second battle of Hoover Dam is about to happen. Every major faction in the game will be participating. And yet, the battle can be delayed as long as it takes for you to do whatever else you want.
** In fact, you need to finish the four DLC stories before you finish the game since there is no post-game. ''Honest Hearts'' starts with a one-month timeskip on the road to Utah and ends with another one-month timeskip when you return. And since the best time to do the DLC stories is near the end of the main story (when you're at a high level and have decent weapons), the NCR and Legion will be waiting at least two months to finally fight over the Hoover Dam.

** In what's probably the apex of this trope, all of the sidequests except one can be started at any time, left dormant, and then completed after the storyline has been beaten... at which point [[spoiler:''John Marston will have been killed, three years will have passed, and you'll have started playing as his grown son Jack'']]. So it's entirely possible to begin a sidequest [[spoiler:as John and complete it with Jack, with none of the characters noticing that an entirely different person started working for them]].

* Although John Marston of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' implies that he has only a small window of time to collect his former outlaw mates before his family dies a horrible death, you are free to take as long as you need to complete his quest.
** ''Red Dead Redemption'' still has shades of this trope even if you focus entirely on the main plot. Many story characters will end their quests by asking John to meet them somewhere for the next stage of the quest or telling you to go see some other character to start their questline. But generally speaking, you can do these quests in whatever order you please, leading to some awkward pauses in the middle of certain questlines.

** The story of ''VideoGame/SonsOfTheForest'' involves an alien cube that gruesomely mutates everything on the island every “eight cycles,” and the only way to avoid turning into a hideous zombie-thing is to hide inside the cube itself as a sort of panic room. The game conveniently avoids explaining what a “cycle” is, even though everybody else is carrying around countdown clocks, so you can spend as much time screwing around as you like; the bad stuff won’t happen until you’re safely tucked away inside.