I've been playing Persona games recently, having just finished P4G last week or so and beginning P5R on Monday.
Is it just me, or is P5R's beginning slower and more staggered than P4G's? I mean, sure, P4 also has a somewhat slow beginning, but at least it doesn't have as many false-starts at dungeon exploration as P5 does.
In P4G, the first several days build up the town of Inaba and introduce the first few main characters - Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, "King Moron"/Morooka, Dojima, Nanako, Teddie, etc. - along with the Midnight Channel, murders, and kidnapping. The first TV World exploration is short, but already feels action-packed as that's both Yu's Awakening and the fight against Shadow Yosuke, back-to-back; the next real exploration is after Yukiko's kidnapping, and while there's a single 'false start' (because of Shadow Chie), the second try is the real deal.
In P5R, there's several false starts at Kamoshida's Palace, due to you having to escape from there the first time (after accidentally activating the Meta-Nav and ending up there), then Ryuji wants to go back to see how the slave cognitions are treated (at the end of which he Awakens), then there's a third 'false start' because Ann stubbornly enters despite being kicked out only to be captured (ugh, stupid girl). Only *then* are you introduced to Palace prep with Takemi's meds and Iwai's weapon store (in two different days), then allowed to tackle Kamoshida's Palace for real.
And all that's not mentioning the rather boring investigation into volleyball abuse and stuff. There's also a lot more tutorials to go through, than in P4G - weaknesses, ambushes, gun usage, all-out attacks, gaining items/money/new Personas through negotiation, etc. All of these have separate tutorials in P5, whereas they don't in P4, which just helps the earlier game feel more streamlined.
I'm not saying that P5R isn't far better than P4G overall in terms of gameplay, art direction, and overall style, just that the newer game's introduction is slower.