The post-Danganronpa era of games from Kazutaka Kodaka and Too Kyo Games has certainly been interesting so far, with the likes of World’s End Club and Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE. These games take aspects and themes of Danganronpa and fuse them with brand-new ideas, and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is another game that follows this same trend. However, out of all the games, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy may be the most ambitious title out of the bunch. Curiously, it’s also the game that seems to borrow the most from Danganronpa itself, including the visual novel elements that helped create that franchise’s identity. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is a unique and compelling beast of a strategy RPG, and I seriously love it.
From the get-go, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy wastes no time introducing a bizarre setting that only Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi could write. Enter Takumi Sumino, a teenager living in the Tokyo Residential Complex, which is a massive underground complex where every day is peaceful and nothing bad ever happens. The facade of a normal teenage life shatters completely when a strange lifeform Sirei warns Takumi that may come. Of course, such a massive complex can only exist due to the dangers that lurk outside of it, and that day certainly comes for Takumi and his childhood friend Karua. As oddly shaped monsters turn the populous into fodder, Sirei gives Takumi the opportunity to save Karua from danger: stabbing himself in the chest with a strange knife that grants him strange powers.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is the Strategy RPG I Never Knew I Needed
Takumi is presented with the choice of stabbing himself or not, but you will most likely want to pick the former and see just how crazy this game becomes. The knife given by Sirei is actually an Hemoanima infuser, which transforms the user’s blood with a mutated type of blood that provides supernatural abilities, armor, and weapons. At this moment, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy introduces what Hemoanima is capable of from a gameplay standpoint, with Takumi now wielding a katana that can slice through enemies with ease.
This is a strategy RPG, so Takumi and future allies are presented on a grid where they can move, use Specialist skills and special abilities under unique conditions, or defend. It’s the standard affair for strategy RPGs, but there’s so much more here past the tutorial and introductory portions of the game. A simple gameplay system can feel very fun and rewarding when its backed by flashy moves and a diverse roster of characters, akin to Fire Emblem but with hope and despair talk thrown in. It’s very fun and engaging, and with story sequences thrown in, it always feels like there’s a lot at stake during battle.
Straight away, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy aesthetically feels in tune with its predecessors, thanks to the artwork and character designs by Rui Komatsuzaki and a stellar soundtrack by Masafumi Takada. The overall premise of the game and the contrasting themes of hope and despair are quite prevalent. The visual novel and Danganronpa elements come into play when Takumi and 14 other students get drafted into the Special Defense Unit and whisked away to Last Defense Academy for the next 100 days.
There, Takumi and the students learn that they’re humanity’s last hope against the strange monsters—the Invaders that attacked Tokyo. The school, which is “protected” by mysterious Undying Flames that can’t be put out, is set up similarly to Hope’s Peak Academy, with many rooms that have vital functions for the students, who are stuck there to defend it from monsters that make their way past the flames.
Simple and Effective
As I mentioned briefly, the gameplay systems of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy are very simple. At Last Defense Academy, the main story progresses with dialogue presented in a visual novel format, similarly to Danganronpa. The simplistic approach stretches into combat, and you can play the free The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy demo to experience it for yourself. It’s a standard strategy RPG system where the party is placed on a grid with the task of defeating all enemies on the field and/or protecting a device that forms a barrier around the school from the monsters.
Each character has Specialist Skills and Passive Skills that can be used or activated on the field, respectively, thanks to Hemoanima. There’s also Action Points, movement stats, fatigue after a move, status effects, and Voltage to consider. Action Points determine the number of moves that can be performed, and Voltage builds up with attacks and moves performed on enemies, along with enemy defeats. Once Voltage reaches 100%, characters can perform a unique, wide-reaching skill that allows them to take out many enemies at once. A similar skill can be performed when the character’s health is low, but the skill will result in their death. Fortunately, death is only temporary for the students of Last Defense Academy, and you will explore why in the story itself.
At Last Defense Academy, there are free time segments between major story beats, allowing Takumi to level up his Grades, or social stats, by spending time with the other students. There are various facilities that can help Takumi and the party grow stronger or earn useful weapons and items. More of the school becomes accessible during the course of the game, and you’ll even gain access to a tabletop-like activity called Expedition, allowing the party to grind outside the Undying Flames to earn EXP and loot.
That being said, simplicity doesn’t make The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy an easy RPG. Characters can be punished quickly by enemy commanders and groups of weaker enemies. Before you know it, multiple party members can be taken out if you’re not too careful around bosses. Positioning and properly managing fatigue and Voltage are vital factors to consider that can make the game a fun challenge.
The Student Body and Its Story
If you played Danganronpa, then you know exactly what to expect with the cast of characters in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. They all have very unique and eccentric personalities that make them lovable or detestable, but that’s certainly what the game is going for. The initial cast itself is brilliant and develops quite well over the course of the many battles and days ahead of them.
For example, Darumi Amemiya is the most denpa-inspired character of the game with her strange quirks and fascination with death games, and Eito Aotsuki is the socially awkward but calm and friendly character who has some traits of being a leader when it matters. In short, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy checks off all the boxes in terms of the characters that a typical Danganronpa cast would have, and that’s not bad or surprising for returning fans.
You’ll also meet other characters aside from the initial Last Defense Academy students that Takumi meets on the first day. That did subvert my expectations in a positive way, since Danganronpa games don’t typically introduce all-new characters as the story progresses. Without delving into spoilers, I can say that the characters Takumi and the crew encounter over the course of the game are very interesting and “flip the script” on you, for lack of a better term. The story does a great job of presenting inexplicable mysteries and following it up with answers in very impactful ways as well. I wish I could speak more about the story in particular, as I feel it’s arguably the most ambitious part of the game itself.
The “Hundred” in Hundred Line
Once more, there are 100 days to play through in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, and it’s quite eventful from start to finish, even with free days thrown in there. There’s so much to the world and story of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy that makes it intriguing, interesting, and at times, shocking. It feels like a complete experience by the credits roll, or so I thought.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy isn’t over after the first end credits roll, so you will definitely want to play more after that. As Kodaka stated before, there are multiple endings that feel valid and true in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. Without delving into spoilers, it’s worth noting that the first playthrough is fixed for all players. Afterward, it’s possible to pursue those other endings and discover more of what the story offers. Your playtime can certainly balloon at this point, since there’s so much replay value.
The Final Verdict on The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy brings everything I mainly look for in a strategy RPG: fun and hilarious characters, an engaging narrative that brings forth all sorts of emotions, and a combat system that’s easy to pick up and play while offering a decent amount of challenge. The 100-day structure of the game is easy to follow and engaging, with slower free time segments that build up anticipation toward major story reveals and moments, which I thoroughly enjoy.
Moreover, the game is basically running flawlessly and vibrantly on Nintendo Switch, since it was developed with this platform in mind. I don’t have much criticism to draw toward the localization, but I will admit that I wanted more voice acting throughout the game’s story. There’s plenty of voice acting, but it sort of falls into the trap that the Trails series has, where there are moments that I wish were fully voice-acted. I do understand that there’s a ton of text in this game, however.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is neck and neck with Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE as my favorite games from Kodaka, and it’s certainly up there with some of Uchikoshi’s best works as well. This game raises the bar in terms of quality in releases from Too Kyo Games, and I hope it can serve as a launchpad for even more RPGs from the studio.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy will launch on April 24 for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam worldwide.
Disclaimer: XSEED Games provided a Nintendo Switch copy of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy to Final Weapon for review purposes.
