History Main / TimeKeepsOnTicking

** Another frustration in ''Wild World'' is the lack of a quick way to switch among various tools. Catching certain insects (bees and underground/rock-dwellers like the mole cricket and the pill pug) is annoying and difficult as they run away while you open the menu to grab your net. (The UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube game pauses bugs while some menus are open; ''City Folk'' and ''New Leaf'' let you switch tools with the Control Pad on the Wii Remote and the 3DS, respectively.)

* The 1993 UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} game ''International Rugby Challenge'' was somewhat infamous for receiving a [[https://amr.abime.net/review_932 review score of 2%]] from Magazine/AmigaPower -- one of the problems listed in the review was that the game clock doesn't stop when you pause, so you can win any match simply by scoring a try, pausing, and waiting for the match to end.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'':

* ''VideoGame/YoshisIslandDS'', the TropeNamer, actually mocks the player with this in Time Trial mode, with the message boxes being replaced by taunts saying things like "Lost time!"

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'':

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}: Innocent Sin'' has a bit where you have to defeat a boss, find a certain item and then escape a building before it explodes. This whole thing is on a timer which runs even while the menu's open, and you can't save during it.

* During the big cutscene before the Volgin fight in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', Snake has just set the building up to explode. Volgin goes on a classic Metal Gear villain Motive Rant, but The Sorrow spends much of the cutscene holding up a timer to remind you of how long you have left. If you skip the cutscene, you'll have time from then to defeat Volgin with. In harder difficulty modes, there's a danger of the bomb actually going off during the cutscene and killing you unless you skip it early on.
** Similar happens during the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. Liquid sets up a bomb that goes off in three minutes, then talks about what Snake could spend that time doing, wasting thirty seconds of the time, and giving you just 2:30 to beat him. If you fail and die, then continue, or skip the cutscene, you get the full three minutes.

->''And there's one more important piece of advice for you. So listen up! Time keeps on ticking even as you are reading this message!''

* Generally the case for [[SpeedRun speed runs]] for games which have no "total play time" display and thus must be timed externally (or for games whose "total play time" display includes pausing, menus, and the like). Tool-Assisted Speedruns almost always prioritize external time and aim to avoid wasted frames caused by lag or arbitrary mechanisms. For example, Bowser's fall at the end of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' varies wildly (by TAS standards) in how long it takes, based on exactly how, when, and where he falls. If a published run looks like it's wasting time, what it's really doing is avoiding this trope.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', at one point you have to escape a castle before it explodes. Just when you think you're out, you get ambushed by a boss that insists on talking to you before attacking while the timer is still counting down. If you don't beat the boss before the timer ends, you're done for.
** In any of the Final Fantasy games with timed missions in them, the timer keeps running while you're in the menu screen, although you can stop it by pausing in battle. In fact, the mission timer will usually cover up the total game time in the main menu, just to drive home the point that you had better use items and equip your party ''fast''.
** The timer can be crippling in some re-releases, partly because of extended loading times. Especially on the Playstation releases, where loading a battle can take upwards of 5-7 seconds during which the timer is ''still running'', the previously generous timers are suddenly much more restrictive.
* Before the banquet in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', you are given four minutes to talk to as many soldiers as possible. If you come across Kefka, he gets an extended conversation that uses up 20 seconds minimum. What's more, Kefka ''doesn't'' count as a soldier in the final tally -- the only reason you're allowed to talk to him is as a trap to use up time.
** Also, early in the game you have to stop Ultros from dropping a weight on Celes, which he helpfully states it will take him five minutes to finish moving. Between your party and him is a walkway infested with rats, which trigger unescapable battles when touched. Even with high enough levels (which you really don't want because of the [[LowLevelAdvantage Esper stat bonus you can't gain yet]]) and good equipment, you still have to figure out how to encounter as few enemies as possible to even make it to him.
* When stopping the train in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', the timer elapses while two [=NPCs=] have a long conversation with you. Probably done deliberately, since if you actually take the time to read all of the dialogue in that scene instead of button-mashing through it, there's no way you'll be able to stop the train before the counter reaches 0.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has more than one TimedBoss, with the timer extending a bit before the boss fight. These timers continue while in the party status menu. In case of Ifrit, it also continues through the post-battle info screen and GF naming screen which can be exploited to maximize the initial [=SeeD=] rank. In case of [=BGH251F2=], the timer does pause in cutscenes where the party is on-screen, but not in the off-screen sequences.