It’s important to remember that supergroups still work and produce excellence. Not everyone is emphatic about Temple of the Dog or The Highwaymen, but they should be because the result is incredible. Did ya’ll forget that ABBA is a supergroup? The point is, when you bring top talent together in a collaboration, what comes out is, more often than not, absurdly interesting. I’ve already done my due diligence in gushing over Uchikoshi Kotaro this year with the releases of Never 7 and Ever 17, and anyone who’s enjoyed Danganronpa was already a fan of creator/director Kodaka Kazutaka (not to mention Rain Code from the previous year). Too Kyo Games might still be the new kid on the block, but their creations so far have been divine. World’s End Club, Rain Code, even the anime franchise Tribe Nine. So, without further ado, we unleash The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy.

The year is…it doesn’t matter. Citizens of Japan are living in underground cities. Again. I think writers have an obsession with moving Tokyo beneath the Earth’s crust because it just keeps happening. Anyways, Takumi is just a kid living and thriving in one of these cities, going through the motions and thinking his life is boring and unchanging. Naturally, this hubris gets his city invaded and, in short order, he gets abducted and placed into a secret school, where he must fight off the invaders and protect the future of humanity. He’s not alone, and his new “classmates” are all the anime tropes you could envision in one classroom. Oh, and their headmaster is a bizarre mascot that’s equal parts adorable and terrifying. Plus, there’s clearly something going on that makes the whole thing suspicious as hell, but would you want it any other way?

Gameplay for The Hundred Line is divided into two sections, one being a bit heavier than the other. The primary gameplay is visual novel adjacent with some interactivity. Takumi will move about the school, which is divided into four levels, and interact with different students and aspects of the school. You often will have choices to make in the morning and in the afternoon that move the story forward in one way or another. You can spend time talking to a student of your choice, which affects your school stats as well as builds your relationship. This becomes more and more essential the further along you move in the game, and, yes, will guide you towards one of several endings. You can also sacrifice both morning and afternoon sessions for an “exploration” style event, which feels like a Mario Party board that can result in your death.

The other game mode is the isometric combat that occurs at rather frequent intervals. You may end up fighting monsters during the aforementioned exploration, or you’ll just fight because, well, that’s why you’re in this school in the first place. The combat is grid style and gives you action points that are yours to use each turn however you’d like. You can have a single character attack multiple times (as long as there’s enemies in range) or spread out attacks across the party. You’ll charge up a shared meter as you kill enemies that, when full, allows a party member to unleash a devastating attack that can turn the tides of battle. Each combat has different objectives, such as defending a single party member or, more often, destroying all enemies.

Personally, I felt like the turn based combat aspect of The Hundred Line is the weakest aspect of the game, which is a shame given how prevalent it is. On the one hand, it’s a nice breakup from the typical approach of visual novels. You do have a chance to mix and match to find the best characters for each encounter (and your own personal play style). Being able to upgrade attacks through found items and the raised stats of talking with classmates incentivizes you to focus on how you engage outside of combat. The attack patterns are clear and you can easily understand how the different damage areas translate into how and why each character attacks. In short, the game is built well into making the combat something natural and expected, especially given the very nature of why you’re here in this mysterious academy.

Yet the combat itself is so…bland. It’s not bad; it has some great animations, a good number of attack vectors depending on who you choose and some interesting ideas about character sacrifice to attain a goal (your damage and attacks can be changed and boosted when a character is “killed”). But there was never anything imperative or risky about the fighting, just expected. If you lose, you can retry with a boost to your overall performance and this, generally, results in a victory. Even larger bosses weren’t an issue. It was fun enough, for certain, but so is doing a couple of rounds of Peggle. It doesn’t mean that I’m looking forward to it every time it happens, it just means it isn’t unbearable when I’m there. When you’ve got great SRPG titles that specifically bring heat in this field (13 Sentinels, anyone?) then “okay” becomes “blase.”

Having said that, this would have been a very different game without the turn based combat. I can say, absolutely, that The Hundred Line would have felt different and possibly unpleasant if the fighting and the sacrifices that come took place in a static position of reading or watching. Being in the trenches and directing your classmates to fight and die takes you off the bleachers and firmly plants you in Ender’s Game. Akihiro Togawa, the Persona veteran who made the combat happen and stick around, should be lauded for seeing that something needed to keep this cohesive. It’s like complaining about the banana in a split from Serendipity3: it’s the weakest element in what’s ultimately the best damn dessert you’ve ever had.

Even if you didn’t enjoy the fighting, this is all balanced by the storytelling aspect of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. Takumi’s rise and fall within the game as he grapples with his new existence, the lives that he must protect and the truth about where he exists hits the right chords of shock and relatability.  It’s unprecedented that two titans of their respective fields – emotionally shocking and manipulative games – can work together, and it quickly becomes apparent that the threads and concepts are woven together in an effortless, seamless way.

While I never would have thought that we’d have someone like Nigou, an oddball mascot, delivering impassioned lines, you can’t deny the way that it all works together to bring a storyline that’s both heavy and hokey in the same breath. To have choices that feel benign reveal themselves to be cataclysmic in repercussions never loses its edge.

From my perspective, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy seems to have a lot of pressure on it from the very beginning, and I mean that in the best way. At the helm of this warship we have two people who are brilliant in their own niches for how to move plot forward, craft brilliant twists and make characters empathetic and memorable. Having said that, each of them does so in a very different direction. Kodaka often makes characters who are seemingly unhinged and desperate, making rash and impulsive decisions under the guise of trying to be cool and collected, resulting in devastating outcomes. You can really see his influence shine through in the faux-psychotic character of Darumi and the Tsukumo twins. Comparatively, Uchikoshi’s brand of rug-pulling and nerve pounding allow The Hundred Line to devolve in a way that’s both appropriate and wildly unsettling.

The overall result is something that might sit differently depending on which camp you’re most invested in. If you’re a Rain Code or Danganronpa fan first, the sheer length of the game’s one hundred days (or possibly more) can feel arduous, even with the first eighteen days feeling pretty banal in the overall. If you’re someone who likes the overlong approach of Zero Time Dilemma, then the breakneck pacing and crass conversations might put you off. With World’s End Club, everything was blunted so no one was left outside, and the product was good, but not a true representation of what could be. This is two virtuosos delivering what they do best, back-to-back solos with full acknowledgement of the other but refusing to sacrifice what they, themselves, bring to the table. The end result is so very elongated, but without the sense of being bloated.

All of this is further enhanced by the visual and aural aspect. Firstly, it was a solid choice to have the OG designer of Danganronpa craft the cast of The Hundred Line. All the characters are especially memorable in their different quirks, from Shouma’s meek countenance to the muscular and jovial form of Moko. The way that the eyes and expressions are crafted are instantly recognizable and let people live within the world that Kodaka envisions (and Komatsuzaki Rui crates), and the iconographical way the characters react and move is omnipresent. While the environments don’t change a lot initially, you get a good amount of variety the further you delve into the storyline, though it isn’t until things go completely off the rails that you start to see an even stronger variety.

Lastly, the audio. You need to know when to hold and when to fold when it comes to voicing everything, and I’m grateful that not every single line of dialogue is fully voiced. Sometimes you just want an errant sound to affirm who is talking, followed by text to read and the works of Takada Masafumi to accentuate the message with music, both electronic and orchestral. There’s a really good reason that Too Kyo Games wanted Takada to be a part of their founding members: he’s got an ear for atmospheric, critical sound, and the delivery hits in a way that makes the overall experience something profound and elevated, like knowing the difference between a good and a great meal. He’s the best damn chef in the restaurant, and the presentation cannot be denied.

I lost my mind with 13 Sentinels back in the day, and my time with The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy was similar. It’s clever, engrossing, and it breaks up the reading with the right level of engagement and action. While the two have some overlap, they are very different, and the shock and horror of The Hundred Line make it a Too Kyo game through and through. The multiple endings and possibilities to save or damn any number of people is a temptation to explore to the furthest reaches of hell and back, and you simply must entertain those thoughts. You can lose yourself in this world, but only force of will and a desire to save those most important with you will guide the player home. Don’t run away now. It’s time to protect those who are most dear.

Graphics: 9.0 Brilliant character design and world building. The animations are top notch and visceral as they are shocking. I had a blast with each new character and baddie reveal, and I never got bored of the world around Takumi.	Gameplay: 7.0 When you’re in the thick of things – making decisions, talking to characters, getting painfully bad news – I adored the game. The combat is good, but it’s just not that exciting. The only “challenge” was picking up after dying and possibly being penalized later on, but that’s a different problem.
Sound: 10 Top notch voice performances from every single entity within the game. The audio shaping of the world – from tragic exposition to quirky moments of humanity – made this feel genuine and scintillating. It’s a master class in sound brought to life, and I’m here for it.	Fun Factor: 10 It took me so damn long to finish this game, and I don’t regret a moment of it. More time to examine my choices, my decisions and how to make the world work out for everyone involved was the best use of my time. It’s sincerely that good.
Final Verdict: 9.0

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is available now on Nintendo Switch and PC.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy was provided by the publisher.