The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy Review

One of this generation's most underrated video games has to be The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. It blended elements of traditional adventure games and its strong narrative strengths—often associated with visual novels—with tower-defense-style gameplay.

But perhaps its most significant innovations have more to do with letting you choose how much of the story or gameplay you want to take in at any given time—with limits, of course. You constantly think about this kind of design while you explore The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, overseen by Danganronpa's Kazutaka Kodaka and Zero Escape's Kotaro Uchikoshi.

In The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, you play the role of Takumi Sumino, a normal, run-of-the-mill high school student who is unexpectedly conscripted to fight a battle you know nothing about. You are told that you and your classmates are humanity's last hope, and you'll give your all in 100 days of service, after which you're promised a safe return to your homes.

But as with many good mysteries, the identity of these invading forces—and the people responsible for your involvement—lurk behind the scenes, setting up a narrative filled with secrets and surprises galore!

The general gameplay loop of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy has you implicitly starting new chapters, followed by Free Time sections that let you prepare for the next battle, eventually leading to a final struggle featuring a boss. The ensuing story outcome closes out the chapter. This is, of course, a purposeful oversimplification, as wrenches will be thrown in that'll occasionally change things up.

The tower-defense battles are wave-based, with each wave starting and ending. Battles begin by giving you a limited amount of AP to command your party, and you're always given the first turn.

Once you've ended your turn—either by using all of your AP or manually ending it—your enemies will make their move, alternating turns until the battle's win-or-lose conditions are met. During your turn, you control a handful of students, each with unique skills and passives, and the game does an excellent job of laying out their designs.

For example, your initial team includes Takumi, an all-around fighter with good offense and defense; Hiruko, a powerful attacker who gains AP and strength the more she dispatches enemies; Takemaru, a tank whose shield strength depends on how far he travels across the field; and Darumi, a ranged attacker whose abilities change when she becomes Fatigued. Fatigue occurs every time a character takes an action. You can still command Fatigued players, though their movement is heavily impaired.

Given that you'll be attacked by waves of enemies in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, your offensive skills cover a set number of squares, which you can rotate using the Right Stick. Because AP is so limited, you must carefully position your party to avoid being surrounded by massive hordes.

Thankfully, defeating enemies builds up a Voltage meter that, once it hits 100%, allows any party member to unleash a super-damaging special attack with a ridiculous range! The catch-22 is that this special attack puts that character into a Stun state until the end of the next turn, leaving them vulnerable.

Alternatively, you can trigger it when your character's health is low—doing so kills that character for the wave. Special attacks don't consume AP, and the game encourages you to use them strategically and sacrificially. You can also use Voltage to power up a character in various ways, such as increasing their normal attack strength or delaying fatigue.

Ultimately, you find that composing your party and considering each character's strengths and range is one of the most fun parts of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy! Having skills that cover a set number of squares evokes the feeling of preparing for a deadly game of Tetris, choosing which blocks to take with you before battle commences.

The passives and skills match each character's personality so well that you can easily associate appearance, abilities, and behavior. Crafting a strong team makes playing the game fun, despite how the game treats its cast.

The Free Time sections in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy function similarly to both Danganronpa and Persona: you're given several days to prepare for the next battle, with specific activities advancing time and eventually forcing the next day to come. Time moves forward each time you hang out with a classmate bearing a spark icon. You'll want to prioritize these hangouts because they improve Takumi's grades, which are split between five subjects and a few secondary disciplines.

Specific characters in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy boost particular disciplines, making it easy to decide who to spend time with. Grades serve as locks preventing certain weapon upgrades, in addition to the materials you'll need, which you obtain by exploring beyond your home base in a board game-like fashion. Naturally, you can enhance weapons during your free time and participate in VR battles that help level up your party.

While this gameplay style feels fresh, especially given the developers' history, many elements of Danganronpa have made their way into The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. Several opening moments mirror the series, with Darumi even suggesting everyone's in a killing game.

Navigating Free Time sections in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is done side-scrolling like the latter Danganronpa titles. Point-and-click exploratory sequences in your base are reminiscent of investigating in Danganronpa. And, like that series, only major story parts are voice-acted; the rest is heavy reading with no accompanying voice-overs.

The English voice acting in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is average compared to the Danganronpa games. One instance that irked you is when Takumi's nickname "Tah-key" is pronounced "Tacky." It's not horrendous, but remember that only the central story parts are voice-acted—you still have the choice of using the original Japanese voice-overs if you prefer.

Revisiting the 13 Sentinels comparisons: that game designed its story and gameplay separately because players felt fatigued by too much story frontloading each battle. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy tells a mostly linear story, forcing you to adhere to its gameplay loop with little deviation.

If you disliked Triangle Strategy's replayed battles, know you'll replay many of the same fights here, albeit with additional activities during Free Time. Fans of verbose Danganronpa scripts should be used to this and will likely enjoy the new ways of playing despite the familiar themes.

A recurring theme from Danganronpa is how the games treat their cast, casting a shadow over what's happening and forcing reluctant characters into activities they dread. It sometimes feels like the developers take sadistic pleasure in putting characters in awful situations.

If that turns you off, Danganronpa, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy won't change your mind. The games also critique humanity's desire for ultimate comfort, with many characters failing to make the most out of life, akin to the Saw movies if you've seen them. Kazutaka Kodaka's characters are rarely likable, even if you eventually settle on a few favorites.

Criticisms aside—and as a fan of the Danganronpa games—you find that The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy does an excellent job of taking the strengths of both Kodaka and Uchikoshi and tweaking a few things, mainly the gameplay, to deliver something familiar yet fresh.

Out of all their previous experimentations, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is where their talents truly shine, despite the constant need for deaths that could sour some newcomers' tastes. While much of its presentation feels like Danganronpa, its completely new narrative and fun, easy-to-understand strategy systems make it a mystery you'll want to solve!