The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- review

When Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi initially teamed up to found Too Kyo Games, I expected them to go all in on each writers’ brand of insanity. But their actual output has been rather tame overall (outside of the weird “baseball” shenanigans of Tribe Nine). With The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-, it feels like we’re finally seeing the true endgame of their collaboration.

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- sees a group of teens tasked with defending the titular academy, forced to defend it for 100 days as part of the Special Defense Unit. It’s a sudden shift for our protagonist Takumi Sumino, who was once living a mundane life in the Tokyo Residential Complex with his childhood friend, and one that sees the end of his peaceful days.

You follow Takumi during these 100 days as he gets to grips with this mission, the powers that let him fight against the enemies that attack the academy, and his fellow members of the Special Defense Unit.

Outside of his distinct hairstyle (I’m sure Fire Emblem Engage’s Alear would approve), Takumi is generally the straight man to the weird cast that makes up the rest of the Special Defense Unit. From the killing game loving Darumi to the overwhelmingly self-deprecating Shouma, Takumi certainly has a different time ahead of him compared to the simple days of the Residential Complex.

The cast is very Danganronpa, from their designs (featuring Rui Komatsuzaki’s distinct style) to their eccentric personalities. Even without a killing game, you still get the usual drama, conflict, and weird scenarios that you’d expect from Kodaka. It’s a fun time, even if I wish there was more voice acting for key scenes — there are a number of events where only one character gets a voiceline or two, while many have no voice acting at all.

Trying to convey a visual novel’s story without spoiling anything during a review is often quite difficult, but in the case of The Hundred Line, it’s made even more difficult. I will say that if you’re a fan of either writer’s work, you’ll probably enjoy your time here as well. There’ll be some of the usual tropes both writers are a fan of, sometimes played completely straight or twisted in new ways.

If you’ve been following any of the pre-release info, then you’ll likely have heard talk of 100 endings. And while both writers have been known to try and mess with player expectations ahead of launch, this is one area where they’re absolutely serious. The amount of content on offer is quite frankly staggering, even if there are dips in quality here and there.

I called The Hundred Line a visual novel earlier, and while it’s not strictly true, the story is clearly the main focus with all other aspects acting more as set dressing. Fighting invaders takes place on a grid, usually seeing you wiping out waves of enemies before taking on an enemy commander at the end.

Each character has access to a small handful of moves, which you use via a shared action points system similar to Valkyria Chronicles. You can use the same character multiple times in a turn, but their movement range is vastly reduced in an attempt to balance this. As you deal damage and kill invaders, a separate Voltage meter is filled that opens up access to special buffs and powerful finishing blows.

One unique aspect of battles is that having units die is actually encouraged most of the time. Members of the Special Defense Unit can be revived after death, which in gameplay terms means they come back between enemy waves. You also gain lots of Voltage, BP (the currency used for character upgrades), and can even sacrifice low health characters to deal even more damage.

However, The Hundred Line falls into the same trap as Valkyria Chronicles, where using the same character multiple times a turn is usually the best strategy. You’re better off stacking buffs on a singular unit to pump out damage, with this usually allowing you to take out bosses in a single turn without them having a chance to fight back.

Battles also change little over the course of the game. You’ll gain access to more units, but movesets are kept light and there are only a few unique gimmicks thrown in for certain encounters. They never get tedious — the quick pace and relative infrequency of combat makes sure of that — though they don’t feel as integral to the game as something like Class Trials in Danganronpa.

There’s also very little to do outside of story scenes. During days with free time you can spend time with the rest of the cast, or explore outside of the academy to gather materials for upgrades and gifts. Exploration takes the form of a simple boardgame, with some squares featuring events or small scale battles.

What makes free time so odd here is that you get far more of it than in Danganronpa, but it also feels less important. Character upgrades aren’t overly necessary for completing battles, and you don’t get anything worthwhile for bonding with other members of the Special Defense Unit. Even the dialogue during these events generally just repeats things you’ll have already learned about those character during the story.

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- review — Final Thoughts

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is both what you’d expect from a team-up of Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi and something that stands out on its own. There are almost multiple game’s worth of endings to get through, with the story carrying some weaker gameplay aspects. Even if this turns out to be Too Kyo Games’ final release, they’re going out with a bang.

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The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- was reviewed on PC using a code provided by the publisher.

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