Many contemporary video games engage with historical representations. Series like Civilization (1991–present), Assassin’s Creed (2007–present), and Call of Duty
(2003–present) have shown that history is a popular playground for
games. Taking a step away from the historical and towards the
fantastical, Valkyria Chronicles is a Japanese tactical
role-playing game structured around a reframing of World War II,
presenting it as a fictional conflict on an imagined continent. Though
not strictly a historical game, Valkyria Chronicles nevertheless offers a case for examining playful representations of the past. In this article, Valkyria Chronicles
is analyzed through the concept of selective authenticity to see how
the historical connections to World War II in the game are built and
maintained: which elements of the popular memory of the war are
leveraged to create historical authenticity when the game in general
strives towards fantasy. Reading Valkyria Chronicles as a
reflection of history, this article presents the basics of how the
game’s counterfactual narratives and depictions of history connect it to
the established popular metanarrative about World War II, and how the
game also self-reflexively comments on the susceptibility and
malleability of historical facts as they are recorded and reinterpreted.