When are you allowed to actually do the sidequests?

[Talesin]

So i got two sidequests in the capital, one from Brigitta and a bounty for a man eating beast.

I managed to get the quest item for the first, but then the main story kicked in again forcing me to leave the capital.

I honestly don't get why the game even said i could do other stuff in the capital when i barely got time to do anything, much less the sidequests that appear.

Is this how the rest of the game is gonna be? Forcing you on a linear progression with short timers to do the main quest or its game over, while pretending you have a choice to do anything else?

And when can i do these sidequests?

[Splinter of Chaos]

Yes, the story is linear, but you will soon discover an ability to travel conveniently to limited locations. (Trying not to spoil things tho)

[Talesin]

Yeah i got it after 2 hours of forced linear progress.

Except i still can't do sidequests cause you are constantly on a timed schedule with only 3 days to do the 10+ things you need to do.
Honestly i fear i will not be able to continue soon since i feel so extremly underleveled at this point.

[Togles]

you got more than enough time to do everything, unless you spent multiple days exploring each dungeon, then you might be short on time at the end.

being underlevelled is more or less intended, they want you to figure out a way to beat stuff without brute forcing by overlevel

[Nibbie]

Time management is a big part of the game (and of the Persona series, which is where the mechanic is from). How you spend your limited time and resources has a big influence on how difficult the game is. The timer varies from event to event, it can be as low as a few days like you have now, and as much as an entire month later on.

As above mentioned, unless you take multiple days to clear every dungeon or level your Royal Virtues as inefficiently as possible, you have plenty of time in the game to do everything. This is a *long* game, you don't need to stress about not getting stuff done early. I'm nearing the end of my first blind run, and I have three weeks left to complete something like four bond ranks and 6 dungeon quests so I'm pretty sure I can do it, and in hindsight there are many things I could have done better to have even more time.