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.
I think doing this is tougher than it seems. As a design team you need to identify all of your tools (narrative, mechanism) and evaluate a variety of ways in which to surface them. You then have to HOLD to it...and as the product evolves and you find new things, you have to take a step back and re-evaluate.
I think Persona 5 Royal (wonderful game, need to figure out an angle to write about) is a great example. The experiences are vast and broad but fairly delineated. And in the end, they mostly snap together in the middle in a pretty satisfying 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.
I think doing this is tougher than it seems. As a design team you need to identify all of your tools (narrative, mechanism) and evaluate a variety of ways in which to surface them. You then have to HOLD to it...and as the product evolves and you find new things, you have to take a step back and re-evaluate.
I think Persona 5 Royal (wonderful game, need to figure out an angle to write about) is a great example. The experiences are vast and broad but fairly delineated. And in the end, they mostly snap together in the middle in a pretty satisfying way.