This contains mild spoilers for characters that are introduced later in the show
Every person who plays RPGs will recognize that there are a few things that are staples of the genre, and more than that they are requirements for a game to truly feel like an RPG. From the fairly consistent classes to the leveling systems and the quests that range from epic to tedious, certain things always exist in an RPG. However, due to the different medium of story telling those characteristics are not always clear in anime, usually, they exist under the surface since they are still valuable for story telling, but not explicitly. Arifureta turns that on its head, as watching this show is exactly like watching an RPG play out in front of the viewer.
This is especially impressive because it accomplishes this without have the explicit gimmick of the characters being in a videogame themselves, they're living their real lives in the real world, more or less. Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest tells the story of Hajime Nagumo as he journeys through a foreign world that a god summoned him to, with his ultimate goal being to get back home. Along the way, he helps others with their problems, deals with devastating betrayals, gathers a party around himself, and gains power. He also has the unwanted pressure of a quest that he has no desire to complete thrust upon him at nearly every turn simply because of his power.
The Party
When Hajime is originally summoned from Japan into Tortus he comes with not only his classmates but their teacher. Each one is granted a certain type of power, and he receives the synergist's power. Though others in his class received skills such as hero, priest, duelist and more. Each of these roles is played exactly as one would expect from an RPG. The Synergist is primarily a support class that struggles greatly in combat. The Duelist is able to deal a lot of localized damage but is unable to take any. The Hero is hot-headed and extremely powerful, but attacks slowly and is easily out-strategized.
This party is not the only party that Hajime works with throughout the show. After he is forcibly ejected from his original party, he goes on his own journey and gathers friends to his side to aid him in that endeavor. First, he meets and names Yue, a vampire mage, then he meets Shea, a Beastman bunny who takes on the role of tank. He also accepts, begrudgingly, Tio a Dragonborn mage into his party as well as a few others. This second party is both smaller and less balanced than the original party, but in any RPG at the lower levels, a party has to be more balanced than at the higher ones.
Leveling and Power
Hajime starts the series objectively low in power, this is explained as it being difficult for him to level up since his skills aren’t well suited for combat which is the easiest way to gain experience. His peers who have dueling or hero powers are significantly higher level than himself.
However, when he is alone deep in the abyss he is forced to fare on his own and takes to consuming the monsters that he defeats for nourishment. This allows him to not only level very quickly, but changes his powers and morphology into something more hybrid than human. By the end of the first labyrinth his class, while still technically synergist, would probably be considered artificer.
Quests
Prior to his fall, Hajime has the same goal as his classmates. This original quest was given to them by the leader of the religious group who first found the summoned heroes. They are to beat the Oculus labyrinth and discover how to defeat the demons once and for all.
However after his betrayal, Hajime’s priorities shift, and now his only personal quest is to return home and leave this world behind. To do so he must not only beat the Oculus labyrinth himself, but every other labyrinth in Tortus as well. Main quest with stages? In order to add each member of his party to his group, he must first complete a mission personal to them; save Yue, help Shea’s family, break the spell on Tio. Optional side quests? Additionally, in order to be able to travel around the world freely he must complete certain tasks for various nobles and guild masters. Unlockable areas?
Character Design
One look at Hajime’s transformation after his fall into the abyss and it looks like a regular boy designed his ideal character and then became him. The previously bland and boring human now is dramatic, charismatic, taller, stronger, and effortlessly attracts a harem of women. Shea is so cliche as a video game character design its almost satire. She even makes comments about her own bust that make it clear it's not intended to be taken seriously when she initially meets Yue. The armor given to her by Hajime is so stereotypical that searching female video game armor will result in hundreds of nearly identical choices. The fact that two of the members of his party are familiarly called Dragonborn can’t be ignored either.
Arifureta is an RPG animated into a television show, and it has everything an avid gamer would want to see. At times, art style ignored, it almost feels like watching a live stream of someone playing a game. Unlike shows like Sword Art Online it isn’t technically an anime about a game, but an anime that is done in the style of games. This makes it uniquely engaging and definitely interesting to watch.