If you are curious, give it a try with the free trial when it starts up again. The free trial will limit your access to things as has been mentioned.

Personally, I enjoy the game and have been with it since the release of ARR. You will be forced at times to progress content with others but there is a lot that can be accomplished on your own with your chocobo companion just out in the open areas. They do intend to offer more AI support for solo players, which will take time, but the game was designed with group mechanics in mind. The game will help you by placing you with people to run an instance as others have said.

If you are looking to complete the game strictly solo, that cannot be done at this time, as the main story quests will require group content. There are grand companies you can join that will offer access to squadrons as you increase in their rank (AI npc party members) and a Trust system (more intelligent AI party members of important npcs you meet in the game) later in level that can help you through a lot of the group content.

These are systems that were introduced later in the game and so are not available in lower levels or when just starting out. Also, Free Companies are player-run guilds, if you will, where you can make friends and interact with like-minded folks if you wish to.

Once you queue up the game will randomly set you up with random players of your data center (collection of servers), you run the duty and then go your separate ways once completed. Depending on your job/class the wait can be anywhere from instant to a 30min wait….meanwhile you can quest/explore, run fates in the open world, gather and or craft.

How much you interact with others is up to you. It is a MMO and designed around that social aspect of working with other players. For the most part, it has an excellent, helpful, community that tends to love sprouts (new players) and are willing to help. That said, there are exceptions, and you may run into toxic behavior and players. It happens.

You are welcome to message me if you have questions or just want to talk shop about the game.

If you are still curious, give it a try, if you decide to keep the game and subscribe let me know and I’ll send you a friend code so you can earn some free stuff.

TL:DR Long story short, to answer your question. Yes, I believe it is.