We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

Being on a time limit to accomplish anything made the game feel very tedious to me, like I had to fight for every inch of progress. A game's pace should be determined by the player, and not artificially lengthened by handholding or time constraints.

While I can understand personally not liking it, are you going as far as saying it's bad design as a rule?

One of the reasons (one of many) I rate Star Control II ahead of Mass Effect, despite the former being vastly more primitive, is that when you're out to save the galaxy from a deadly threat, things are happening as you play, not based on what plot events you've triggered, but on a consistent independent time frame. When you can stop to take 20 shopping trips and 10 sidequests before you make the plot move forward on your own terms, the threat seems a lot less and the whole world seems a lot less real.

I know MM's system is different in that you're going back in time a lot and there's no limit there, but I feel it does help push the idea of a real world you're saving and a threat that you have to react to rather than the other way around.