Warning: This article delves into spoiler territory for The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy. If you’ve yet to play the game and want to go in blind, we recommend you come back at another time…
I’m not a fan of tactical RPGs… is what I would have told you before I played The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy. Heck, I’m still not sure I would call myself a ‘fan’ of the genre, necessarily; one game perhaps isn’t enough to sway me that much. The Hundred Line, though..? Yeah, I’m a fan of The Hundred Line.
In fact, it’s easily my Game of the Year so far, and even with the Switch 2 on the horizon, it’s going to take something truly special to usurp its throne. Mitch gave it an ‘Excellent’ 9/10 in our review, but what he didn’t cover – what he couldn’t cover without spoiling anything – is just how ridiculously ambitious Too Kyo Games’ visual novel / tactical RPG hybrid really is.
So, if you’re sensitive about spoilers and want to go into this one completely fresh, consider this your last warning. We’re going in, folks.
Before I waltz headfirst into what is undoubtedly The Big Twist™, I want to first look at the wonderful cast of characters. Much like Danganronpa before it, the entire premise of The Hundred Line — survive and protect your school against invaders over the course of one hundred days — would have crashed and burned were it not for the likes of Takumi Sumino, Darumi Amemiya, Shouma Ginzaki, Nozomi Kirifuji, and the rest of those loveable goofballs.
Character work is truly where directors Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi shine brightest. They managed to make every member of the ‘Special Defense Unit’ completely unique and special in their own way.
Take Tsubasa Kawana, for instance. Whenever she’s placed in a stressful situation, she immediately feels nauseous, and it makes for some wonderful comedic relief. I lost count of the number of times I giggled whenever the story took a dark turn, and the camera switched over to Tsubasa loudly dry heaving.
In addition to the comic relief, however, we also learn a lot about Tsubasa’s background, including her passion for machinery fostered by fixing cars with her grandfather as a child. We get similar deep dives into every character, to the point where we begin to understand the potential causes behind their various quirks. Even total prats like Ima Tsukumo, whose obsessive devotion to his ‘Dear Sister’ Kako proves deeply concerning, gets his own moment of redemption through both his backstory and the way the plot progresses.
By the time I reached the credits, I really didn’t want the game to end. I’d grown to love these characters, and a couple of significant losses actually brought a tear to my eye during the final stages; something that no game before it has accomplished. Couldn’t I just keep going? Just for a bit..?
Well, here’s the thing: it didn’t end.
When you reach the last couple of days in the basic hundred-day timeline, you learn that through powers gained via absorption of your enemies, protagonist Takumi can actually go back in time to day one and re-do the whole thing again. Only this time, you’re free to make significant changes to the story and work your way toward one of a potential hundred different endings. Whoa – hold my beer, Nier Automata!
I know what you’re probably thinking, and no, you don’t have to play through the entire game a hundred times. Effectively, the story can branch off into several different paths, each of which has a number of potential endings, and the game even gives you the ability to jump back to specific days in order to change your decisions and alter the story’s path.
Some endings may be exceedingly short, others a bit lengthier… some good, and some very bad. One might see you become the villain of the story, while another may conclude with the adorably loyal samurai Kyoshika Magadori being devoured by your zombified friends. The variety of avenues is simply absurd, and discovering each one is a joy.
These are just a couple of the more, shall we say, ‘insignificant’ possible endings. I won’t go into those which might actually spoil the overarching plot; even if you’re still with me at this point, I’d like you to enjoy The Hundred Line’s story on your own terms. It’s safe to say, however, that the run through those initial one hundred days could definitely be considered a ‘prologue’, even though it comfortably stands as a compelling story in its own right with a beginning, middle, and end.
So you can definitely stop there and have a grand ol’ time, but if you’re looking for something a bit more ambitious — something that throws the rulebook out of the window — I’d encourage you to keep going and see exactly what The Hundred Line has up its sleeve. It’s simply magnificent.
There are so many reasons why I love this game. I love figuring out what to do during ‘free time’ sessions in which you can either chat to your fellow students, venture out into the world in a board-game-inspired minigame of sorts, or dive straight into a few battle simulations to potentially upgrade your abilities.
The biggest surprise for me, however, was how much I loved the battle system itself. As I mentioned at the start, I’m normally not one for tactical RPGs, but The Hundred Line’s turn-based structure just works so well. I often get overwhelmed when it comes to deciding how to approach tactical gameplay: how do these characters function? Why can’t I move more than two spaces? Just what the heck do I do?
The Hundred Line made it easy, though, and it’s once again thanks to the remarkably unique and diverse cast. Their artistic design makes it easy to distinguish one from another, and it only took a couple of battles until I memorised their strengths and weaknesses, along with how their attacks play out on the field of battle. It got to the point where, after a handful of quiet days full of ‘free time’, the warbling alarm to signify an incoming battle filled me with excitement.
Most of the battles felt doable and I never felt completely helpless against the hordes of invaders, but there were still a few that I managed to botch straight away and lose within just a few minutes. In those instances, the game gives you the option to redo the battle with significant boosts to your manpower, instantly giving you 300% ‘voltage’ (which essentially gives you three uses of your extra-powerful special attacks) and refilling your squad’s health. Is it cheating? Sure, I guess… But it also makes the game significantly more approachable for tactical newcomers like myself.
I adore the Danganronpa series. I think they’re wonderful games that remain just as compelling now as they were back when they first launched, and if it weren’t for Danganronpa, I don’t think The Hundred Line would even exist. I have to be honest with myself, though… The Hundred Line is better. It’s a masterpiece.
Co-director Kazutaka Kodaka has recently confirmed that the game is “selling well”, but I still feel like not enough people are talking about it. I suspect, however, that as the years go by and more people play it through word of mouth, it’ll go down as one of the greatest visual novels of all time. There’s simply nothing else quite like it.
Have you played through The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy yet? What do you make of it? Do you have a favourite character / ending? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.
