Starting cities: initial storyline quests 1-15 Can they be played?

[Niwashi]

I mean sure I can roll and alt, but I'd only play it to get through those storylines really.

At least the different part is all isolated to the beginning of the game.

Levels 1-15 are all different quests (equivalent in gameplay execution, as Enkidoh mentioned, but different in the stories that are going on). Then the next few quests have just some slight dialog differences (mostly amounting to which NPCs will greet you as an old friend and which greet you as a stranger they've heard good reports about). And then there's a level 17 quest that will have different NPCs involved depending on where you started and which NPCs you met there. But then that's it and it's the same story from there on.

It would be different if the starting-city differences extended further into the game, requiring a more lengthy commitment to an alt in order to see them, but 17 levels worth isn't too bad for getting to see the other cities' storylines.