I agree about the idea of having a time limit at the end. That would be great for elevating the sense of urgency and making everything feel really pressing.
That said, I'm also pretty sure Gold Saucer and everything will stay open. Even in our real world, there have been several declarations that we're in a planetary crisis, but most people keep living on as usual. The time scales are of course different (as in, do we have a week or some decades to change things), but still, there will always be people who for various reasons just want to try to keep things running as they are for as long as they can.