Separating narrative from mechanisms is a strong, even bold design choice. As you note, it seems like a lot of games try to merge them or at least make the narrative diegetic to the gameplay, which can be time-consuming or messy just as often as it can work out.
I'm playing through snippets of Persona5 Royal in between other games and while it doesn't neatly divide these halves of the experience, I appreciate that I can play 30-45 minutes of visual novel and then jump into a dungeon/battle experience with a completely different mechanical feel, that puts the preceding narrative on the line in a big way.
Separating narrative from mechanisms is a strong, even bold design choice. As you note, it seems like a lot of games try to merge them or at least make the narrative diegetic to the gameplay, which can be time-consuming or messy just as often as it can work out.
I'm playing through snippets of Persona5 Royal in between other games and while it doesn't neatly divide these halves of the experience, I appreciate that I can play 30-45 minutes of visual novel and then jump into a dungeon/battle experience with a completely different mechanical feel, that puts the preceding narrative on the line in a big way.