it plays like a solo rpg that happens to have other people milling around in the background for the first good bit so you can just kinda dick around as a cute catgirl or whatever at leisure
oh btw you can see the idols actually doing their thing if you start in ul'dah, still can't do their event quest until escaping the tutorial-thing at 15 but they are there and singing
smoli don't actually even like mmos but that character creator....