This is how it plays out:
You create a character, choosing between M & F, the different faces, hair styles and voices (the sound your character makes as he attacks, there's no voice acted dialog)
You start the game as that character in your home, which has a bed (save function) an item box (that stores all your goodies) and a kitchen (where the cats you hire will cook meals for you that serve as buffs for when you go on missions)
From your home you can go out into the town, which has:
A farm (where you can spend special points you've earned from doing missions and retrieving certain items to expand it's features so that it can house gathering spots for herbs, honey, mushrooms, bugs, fishing piers, mining spots etc..)
The armory (where you can buy starting weapons and armor, but more importantly bring various materials you've collected to make bad ass weapons and armor. There are 2 armor classes, Blade master and Gunner, Blade armor is used with Swords, Dual Swords, Great Swords, Tachis(Big katannas,) Lances, Gun Lances, Hammers and Flutes. Gunner is used with Light/Heavy Bowguns and Bows. There is also a big visual difference between Blade and Gunner armor (they are different models not just palette swaps) and there's also a big visual difference between male/female armor. There's literally hundreds of different armor sets in the game, all of which have unique properties that are attached to each piece: Helmet, Chest, Arms, Waist, Legs. As you create different pieces you can browse the list of attribute points it gives towards certain skills, then you can mix and match different pieces from different sets to create unique combinations to give you whatever status you want. And then beyond that, the large majority of armor pieces have slots (1 is most common, 2 in some of the higher quality sets, and 3 in a handful of pieces) which you can attach gems that you get from questing or that you've made from materials you've collected or synthesized. There are tons of different gems that serve to expand the skills of armors. Weapons are also made the same way, you collect the materials needed to create the desired weapon, just about every weapon has multiple stages which require different materials to upgrade along it's path, and just like armors weapons also have slots which you can fit gems into.
The Training Center: (where you can use predetermined sets of weapons and armor to take on special challenge quests that are subject to different rules from normal and pay out with different rewards.)
The Item shop: (Self explanatory)
The Town Elder: (This is where you get offline only quests, which you should do at some pont because there are a couple of monsters/items that are offline only and you need to clear them to get access to the big bad mother****ers in the endgame)
The Town Hall: (This is where you'll get most of your quests from, you choose to enter either the Online or Offline halls, with the only difference being that the offline will not try and access the WiFi functions at all. Here you will participate in various quests that range from the easy gathering of herbs to the seemingly impossible task of slaying giant legendary Dragons. I say seemingly because when you run into your first Wyvern you will get your ass thoroughly kicked, but if you pay attention, learn it's attacks, it's tells, it's movement patterns and it's elemental weaknesses you will be able to craft the right set of armor and the right weapon to fight it with but most importantly you'll learn how to fight it, what combos to use, when to use them, how to evade it's attacks and when to use items without getting blown away. Excellent skill based action game play is the bread and butter of this franchise, learn it, live it, love it and by the endgame you too, could be able to win against Wyverns without taking a single hit.
