Tales of Arise wins TGA Role Playing Game of The Year 2021

Tales of Arise has been honored by The Game Awards for 'Role Playing Game of The Year' this year.

The Game Awards is one of the most prestigious award ceremonies in the larger gaming industry since its first iteration in 2014. Hosted by Canadian video game journalist Geoff Keighley, TGA is the spiritual successor to Spike Video Game Awards, otherwise known as VGA.

Other than the awards themselves, such a congress of the biggest video game conglomerates also presents a platform for game reveals and major announcements.

After a year of virtual hosting due to the ongoing pandemic of 2020, this year's TGA has returned to its familiar adobe, the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

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TGA 2021 nominates Tales of Arise as the best role-playing game of the year

Compared to 2020, this year has been much more eventful for the role-playing game genre. Major contenders like Pathfinder: Wrath of The Righteous were not nominated at all.

This year, the competition this year was down to five nominees - all announced on November 16, 2021.

• Cyberpunk 2077 - CD Projekt RED (although it was released in 2020, TGA 2020 was hosted on the same day)
• Monster Hunter Rise - Capcom
• Scarlet Nexus - Bandai Namco
• Tales of Arise - Bandai Namco
• Shin Megami Tensei V - Altus/SEGA

Similar to the Final Fantasy series, the Tales series is a long line of JRPGs set in the same world, starting with Tales of Phantasia, released in 1995 for the SNES and later for the Gameboy Advance.

Barring the many Tales spinoffs in genres outside of role-playing games, Tales of Arise is the 17th entry in the series. Like Final Fantasy, Tales games are standalone affairs, meaning that the player need not have experience with previous titles to enjoy Tales of Arise.

Tales of Arise was heralded as a 'soft reboot' of the series, with Bandai Namco dropping the multiplayer element in favor of refining the interactive combat - which takes cues from the fan-favourite Tales of Graces.

Dubbed 'Linear Motion Battle System', the combat stays by its modern JRPG roots while implementing interactivity, like a focus on evasion, and the "Boost Strike" companion combo system.