Radiant Historia

History, Time and the Past in Radiant Historia

The document analyzes how the Japanese role-playing game Radiant Historia (2010, 2017) explores themes of history, time, and the past, arguing that it functions as a historiographical game.

• Radiant Historia, a Japanese RPG released for the Nintendo DS in 2010 and reissued as Perfect Chronology for the 3DS in 2017, is argued to be a historiographical game rather than merely a time-travel narrative.
• The paper contends that the game's non-historical premise frees it to engage with questions of history, time and the past more openly than conventionally historical games, which are constrained by player expectations about accuracy and 'facts'.
• The central claim is that playing Radiant Historia constitutes an act of writing history, since much of the gameplay involves reconfiguring events toward outcomes the player finds acceptable.