One RPG that does a really great job of circumventing this is Morrowind. Early in the story there are several natural breaks where the PC is encouraged to do side quests and immurse themselves in the world. Once the main quest gets going it starts to take precedence, but the world ending threat builds slowly at first.
Does the Outer Wilds solution count?
Time sensitive but you can start the time line over at any point?
True and you can do that as many times as you like. But to really get to the ending, you are racing against the clock.
!To be honest, I kind of wish they just hadn't bothered with portraying the ending. They set up such cool lore, and I didn't really need the avant-garde film at the end. A cut to credits would've been fine.!<
That's why i love Metroid so much.
The world doesn't end until you decide it will.
Gaming
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