When gore and blood meet strategy, “The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy” is the game that should come to mind. It’s beyond anything that the gaming world has seen before, and brings a whole new era with it.
“The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy” is a turn-based tactical role-playing game (TRPG) with visual novel elements made by Too Kyo Games and Media Vision. The game costs 60 USD, but has a free demo available on Steam, which is essentially a desktop app store for games. It’s one of the most anticipated games of the year due to the history of its creators.
Too Kyo Games was formed by Kazutaka Kodaka, the creator of the Danganronpa series, and Kotaro Uchikoshi, the creator of the Infinity series.
Kodaka’s most popular games without a doubt are from the Danganronpa series. These are games consisting of 16 high school students who are trapped in a school with only one way to escape: to kill a fellow classmate. This game series originally took off with the first game’s release, “Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.” Following this would come the main trilogy of games, “Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair” and “New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.” These games have their story presented in a visual novel style with some parts of the game taking place in a mock trial. All of these games mentioned are not recommended for young teens due to the sheer violence and explicit language used, so do check these out with that in mind.
Uchikoshi’s Infinity series is also a visual novel-style game. It follows a romance-based story with a tad bit of science fiction sprinkled in, at least with the earlier games. By the third game, it started to focus more on its science fiction element. Each game follows a different main protagonist with a different objective and story.
Media Vision is another design company that was founded by Paul Jain and Tim Bratton in 1990. They are behind some IP-based games, as well as the Valkyria and Shining series.
“The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy” welcomes its players with a visually stunning and fully animated introduction to the story. The first few seconds introduce the game’s gory nature, showcasing a burning world with blood splattered all over the scene. It then cuts to a much more seemingly normal world, introducing the main character, Takumi.
Takumi finds himself in an abandoned school, which is where the real game starts. This is when he meets a strange translucent white squishy character. He’s told the end of his normal, everyday life is coming to an end. Soon, a monster appears and the players are introduced to the combat system as the world is quickly falling apart.
The combat system is both grid and turn-based. Every character has their own unique kit related to their character traits. Each side of the battle is allotted a certain number of actions they can use per turn; however, this amount can be increased by defeating stronger opponents during a battle. Alongside this, there is a voltage meter which, when filled, allows a character to use a special move.
“The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy” is overall an enjoyable experience with a new take on the TRPG genre. It doesn’t hold back with its bloody nature and even embraces it. The story is great and the visuals are stunning. The game is just a great experience, and deserves your play.
With the game’s success in such a short amount of time, people have to wonder if other games will follow in its footsteps. Will we be seeing more despair-inducing games where your favorite characters are constantly at risk of being taken out of the living cast? While it’s possible, it’s certainly a risky move for most games that are trying to either sell a character to you through unlocking them in-game or through merchandise. Killing off characters mostly removes the possibility of expanding on that character through future story, and ergo eliminates advertising that character to the player even more.
