History Main / Takeyourtime

** 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 defining how long a “cycle” is 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.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei[=/=]Franchise/{{Persona}}'':

* ''[[VideoGame/MegaManLegends Mega Man Legends 2]]'': After [[spoiler:Sera]] heads off to [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Elysium]], regardless of how long you take to go after her, when you reach the FinalBoss room she reveals that she had already finished preparing the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Carbon Reinitialization Program]]. However, she decided to wait for Mega Man Trigger to show up because she wanted to personally defeat him first, believing this would resolve her feelings of jealousy over the Master's favoritism towards him.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', the Joker tells you that there are hostages who will be gassed, and you supposedly have two minutes to save them (complete with the Joker counting down). In reality, you can take as long as you need to find a way to save them [[spoiler:though this is because the Joker was bluffing about the bomb]].

A near-ubiquitous video game trope: no matter how urgent the hero's quest is said to be, he can almost always take as much time as desired before confronting the BigBad (or otherwise advancing to the next plot point) to finish {{sidequest}}s, [[CollectionSidequest collect items]], repeatedly stay overnight at the TraumaInn, [[EliteTweak unlock the hidden superpowers]] of his teammates (including [[MagikarpPower any useless ones]]), [[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer waste time on minigames]], or even [[IdleAnimation stand around doing nothing]].

This is because in the vast majority of games, time only passes meaningfully in the gameworld [[EventDrivenClock as the player advances through the story]]. However, in order to progress the story or quest at hand, the player has to [[EventFlag trigger an event]] by [[FollowThePlottedLine going somewhere or doing something specific]], and until they do, time will effectively stand still.

On a smaller scale, even the most pressing, immediate tasks, such as, say, rescuing a fellow character who is dangling off a ledge at five hundred feet in the air, can be done at one's leisure, provided there isn't a [[TimedMission number countdown ticking away on screen]]. Of course, the accompanying cutscene might still depict you [[AlwaysClose arriving just barely in time]] (or [[YouAreTooLate only moments too late]]), and you can expect [=NPC=]s to [[ContinueYourMissionDammit nag you constantly to establish a false sense of urgency]].

Compare with OffstageWaitingRoom and SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer. Contrast StalkedByTheBell, where the game will ''not'' let you take your time and may threaten you in various ways if you take too long, and ContinueYourMissionDammit, where you are constantly reminded of the looming threat. May overlap with TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot and EventDrivenClock, when {{Plot Point}}s determine the passing of time. May be caused by OrcusOnHisThrone.

** 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 make sure your army is well-equipped and well-trained enough to stand a chance against it. For the next several in-game months, you're faced with several moral choices where you can either screw over the people of your kingdom for the sake of adding more money to the Eldritch Abomination Defense Fund, or take money ''out'' of the fund and use it to help the people instead. However, the countdown only changes when you voluntarily trigger the EventFlags, so you can take as long as you want adventuring and even becoming a real-estate mogul, the latter of which will easily earn you enough money to be TheGoodKing and still meet the money goal by the end of the year.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', there comes a point in the main questline when the Enclave are about to take control of a vital piece of technology. You can of course, just say you need a while longer, and nothing will happen (apart from some new random encounters). Finally, you can pop back into the Brotherhood of Steel's Citadel, say you are ready, and emerge again to see the Enclave have set up turrets, mortars and troops everywhere during the two minutes you were inside.

** Furthermore, once you've [[spoiler: stolen the ''Normandy'' and become a fugitive from the Citadel]], you can complete all of the side quests you want that don't involve going back to the Citadel, even though [[spoiler:the trip to Ilos]] (the aforementioned Race Against Time) is supposed to be of the utmost importance. If you do any of the sidequests that involve the Alliance, you'll be contacted by Alliance leaders as normally, even though [[spoiler:you've stolen a prototype Alliance warship and committed mutiny.]]

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' generally plays this trope straight, but near the end of the game [[spoiler: the Collectors invade the Normandy and kidnap the crew]] and you're given the option of starting the final mission immediately and entering the PointOfNoReturn or choosing to wait. You can choose to wait, but you can only do ''one'' mission. More than one, and [[spoiler:half your crew will die in a most horrific fashion]] by the time you get to them. Do more than two sidequests and [[spoiler:only Doctor Chakwas survives]]. Considering that the aforementioned penultimate mission involves the recruitment of a character (thus restricting your time spent with them if you want the GoldenEnding), this is a clear example of why so many consider this trope an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]].

** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' continues to follow this one. Those other Arks? They'll keep. Liam's got a friend in trouble? Jaal's got a family crisis? Hey, why not drive around Eos looking for that mineral sample you said you'd find. No rush, after all.

*** A bizarrely in-game version has the party preparing to board a ship in Argentum when their boarding passes are stolen. You end up chasing those responsible all the way to ''Gormott'', then return to Argentum with the ship still waiting. This one gets answered if you dig through the menus to check the (completely useless) item description: they're tickets for a regular ferry service with no expiry date.

** The DLC mission "Bring Down The Sky" tells you repeatedly that you only have a few hours to save Terra Nova. You can take all the time you like to start the mission, and all the time you like to complete it once started, provided you don't start the mission that triggers the end of the game.

Compare with OffstageWaitingRoom and SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer. Contrast StalkedByTheBell, where the game will ''not'' let you take your time and may threaten you in various ways if you take too long, and ContinueYourMissionDammit, where you are constantly reminded of the looming threat. May overlap with TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot. May be caused by OrcusOnHisThrone.

** When you destroy the welding points on the superfreighter, you can chill on the boat until the sun burns out, but it will never sink with you on it.

Compare with OffstageWaitingRoom and SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer. Contrast StalkedByTheBell, where the game will ''not'' let you take your time and may threaten you in various ways if you take too long, and FinishYourMissionDammit, where you are constantly reminded of the looming threat. May overlap with TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot. May be caused by OrcusOnHisThrone.

Compare with OffstageWaitingRoom and SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer. Contrast StalkedByTheBell, where the game will ''not'' let you take your time and may threaten you in various ways if you take too long. May overlap with TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot. May be caused by OrcusOnHisThrone.

* Near the end of ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'', the villain proclaims that an alien of godlike power will lay waste to the world in seven days. Given that the game is set before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and that you're moving between different locations in Europe, you can spend about a year's worth of time on the different subquests without the week running out.
** The sequel, ''Shadow Hearts: Covenant'', does the same damn thing: The BigBad explicitly mentioned that TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon will ring a 108 times before unleashing its powers. Yet, most players would leave the dungeon to do sidequests. In fact, many sidequests aren't available ''at all'' until you've entered and left the final dungeon.

*** A bizarrely in-game version has the party preparing to board a ship in Argentum when their boarding passes are stolen. You end up chasing those responsible all the way to ''Gormott'', then return to Argentum with the ship still waiting.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'':
** The main plot of the game revolves around trying to find the Lifehold Core's location before its power source runs down. However, the power level only decreases as the story progresses, meaning you can spend the time between chapters doing whatever you want.
** In general, none of the quests have time limits for their objectives, which is reasonable for objectives like "collect five flowers", and somewhat less reasonable when the objective is "protect this person from being devoured by a ravenous beast". It's almost inevitable that you'll get distracted by something and leave an NPC stranded out in the middle of a desert or jungle for the in-game equivalent of several weeks, only to return later and find them still waiting for you, none the worse for wear. The most egregious example occurs during a Chapter 6 story mission: you can strand Tatsu in the middle of Dead Man's Gulch (an area full of creatures that attack any living organism) for an indefinite period of time and he'll be fine, even though he has no combat ability.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'':
** This game has similar issues in that almost no quests or story events have time limits, meaning you can feel free to spend a few days playing Tora's ''Tiger! Tiger!'' video game if you want. That kid stranded in the tree by a bunch of monsters can just sit tight. It's especially egregious when [[spoiler:you're trapped inside a sinking Titan and everything inside is going to die in approximately three hours unless you stop it, but no matter how many hours pass while inside that Titan, doom never comes. Worse, [[SpeedRun speedrunner]] research has shown that even if you ''did'' drop everything to save the Titan like you're supposed to, it's simply not possible to make it to the next waypoint [[InUniverseGameClock within three in-game hours,]] even with [[SequenceBreaking massive shortcuts that are only survivable using exploits.]] The record as of this writing is about six hours.]]
** A bizarrely in-game version has the party preparing to board a ship in Argentum when their boarding passes are stolen. You end up chasing those responsible all the way to ''Gormott'', then return to Argentum with the ship still waiting.
* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', the entire party (and most of the cast) are born from PeopleJars at age 10 and [[YourDaysAreNumbered given only an additional 10 years]] (called terms) before they die of accelerated aging. Mio, the oldest of the main party, is on her last term and explains in a cutscene that she only has about three months left. In grand ''Xenoblade'' tradition, though, you can sidequest and skip time as much as you want, as Mio's death timer only increments as you advance the main story. [[spoiler: And just to [[PlayerPunch twist the knife,]] at one point in that main story, TheDragon keeps the party locked up to deliberately waste whatever time Mio has left and [[ForcedToWatch force Noah to watch her die,]] so even if you ''did'' SpeedRun the game as if in-game time counted, it would be AllForNothing, anyway.]]

[[folder:Hack N Slash]]

[[folder:Simulation Games]]

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney - Justice For All'', Phoenix mentions it takes two hours each way to travel between the city and Kurain Village by train, which means he could only go back and forth 6 times within a 24 hour period, but hey, take your time.

** This game has similar issues in that almost no quests or story events have time limits, meaning you can feel free to spend a few days playing Tora's ''Tiger! Tiger!'' video game if you want. That kid stranded in the tree by a bunch of monsters can just sit tight. It's especially egregious when [[spoiler:you're trapped inside a sinking Titan and everything inside is going to die in exactly three hours unless you stop it, but no matter how many hours pass while inside that Titan, doom never comes. Worse, [[SpeedRun speedrunner]] research has shown that even if you ''did'' drop everything to save the Titan like you're supposed to, it's simply not possible to make it to the next waypoint [[InUniverseGameClock within three in-game hours,]] even with [[SequenceBreaking massive shortcuts that are only survivable using exploits.]] The record as of this writing is about six hours.]]

** Perhaps the most obvious examples of this trope are when Combine soldiers were coming and you have to set up a perimeter with turrets. You can take as much time as you want doing this, and in fact the first time around you can even pile up junk in front of entrances to keep the Combine out completely, but the Combine only start coming once the last turret has been placed.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Grandia 1}}'', at one point Feena is about to be forcefully married. If the monsters in the secret passage leading into the church hurt you too much, you can go have a meal and sleep at a TraumaInn as many times as you want, and still come [[BigDamnHeroes arrive just in time to stop the wedding]].

** This happens in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' as well:

** The final level in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', being a CallBack to the first game, has no timer but it is indeed timed, as laggers will find themselves tumbling into space.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}''[='s=] first level, there's a part where you're trying to activate a missile launcher before a Covenant cruiser can destroy your ship, but you can take all the time you want to get there. At the end of the level, you are supposed to run to the escape pods before your ship gets torn apart by a gravity well, but again, it's not actually timed. [[spoiler:Besides, you end up [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption not being able to make it to the pods anyways]].]]

* Starting midway through the second act, ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' sets a vague time limit on the player by stating that the Enrichment Center is going to explode in "a few hours". You can take as much time as you want getting to the third act, after which it's implied that a minimum of twelve hours of game time have elapsed since the start of the second. Again you can take your time getting to the FinalBoss encounter. When you get there, you're explicitly given six minutes until the nuclear meltdown, and there is a time limit to the battle, even if it [[MagicCountdown expands somewhat]] in actual execution. However, between the resolution of the battle and the action that triggers the final cutscene, you can literally wait forever, with explosions going off, debris falling around you, and the AI characters screaming at you to [[ContinueYourMissionDammit finish before everything falls apart]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', the shaman in your village give you warnings when you take too long getting the G.E.C.K, but nothing actually happens to the village until you do get it. There's a timed mission in the 2nd game which you ''have'' to complete in several in-game days, however, or you fail.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', there comes a point in the main questline when the Enclave are about to take control of a vital piece of technology. You can of course, just say you need a while longer, and nothing will happen (apart from some new random encounters). Finally, you can pop back into the Brotherhood of Steel's Citadel, say you are ready, and emerge again to see the Enclave have set up turrets, mortars and troops everywhere during the two minutes you were inside.

* The majority of quests in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' have this, but the Minutemen Radiant quests (helping settlements deal with raiders/super mutants/ghouls/kidnappers) and settlement defense objectives will fail if you don't complete them in time.

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': Despite [[spoiler: having a chip in your head that's trying to overwrite your brain]], and a narrative which insists that it's quite urgent for you to solve this problem, the game presents you with a wide-open city full of side quests and other diversions for you to explore, including mercenary missions for various "Fixers" that have nothing to do with getting you out of your predicament.
** Somewhat explained in that the time it will take for the problem to unfold is initially given as several weeks, and at the end of the game expanded to six months, so whilst the problem is urgent, it is not imminent within the timeframe of the game.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' has similar issues in that almost no quests or story events have time limits, meaning you can feel free to spend a few days playing Tora's ''Tiger! Tiger!'' video game if you want. That kid stranded in the tree by a bunch of monsters can just sit tight. It's especially egregious when [[spoiler:you're trapped inside a sinking Titan and everything inside is going to die in exactly three hours unless you stop it, but no matter how many hours pass while inside that Titan, doom never comes. Worse, [[SpeedRun speedrunner]] research has shown that even if you ''did'' drop everything to save the Titan like you're supposed to, it's simply not possible to make it to the next waypoint [[InUniverseGameClock within three in-game hours,]] even with [[SequenceBreaking massive shortcuts that are only survivable using exploits.]] The record as of this writing is about six hours.]]