Quick question about free playing..

[StanleyPain]

I searched around and couldn't quite find the answer to this, so my apologies if it's been covered but:

Is there a way to simply play open levels like in the original PSO without having to go by the story WITHOUT having to be online? I'm a little confused on what the difference is between getting in WiFi and playing "alone" or "Free play", apart from that I noticed online is significantly harder than story mode.

But is there an offline open mode?

[xSHiNOx]

playing "alone" is playing alone. you are online playing by yourself waiting for friends to show up. free play is to play with random people in case none of your friends show up.

if you dont play and beat story mode, you only have access to 3 stages and the normal difficulty. offline open mode is after you beat story mode