If you story skip before you get your GC membership

[genuine_stranger]

The story skip automatically unlocks some but not all of the blue-quest-unlocked game features. IIRC you'll already have your chocobo but need to do the extra quest for it to join you in battle, and there's a good chance that retainers will be unlocked as well.

Yeah, a ton gets unlocked with a story skip.

To OP:
Look up the official site for story skips and level skips