By no fault of their own, visual novels remain a fairly niche video game genre. Part of that niche status rests upon the fact that, no matter how good a visual novel’s story may be — which, coincidentally, in the case of the best games in the genre, is very good indeed — many players are turned off by the proposition of a game with few interactive elements other than scrolling through dialogue boxes. It’s a problem that games like Kazutaka Kodaka’s Danganronpa series and Kotaro Uchikoshi’s Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward (and, later, AI: The Somnium Files) helped address through new additions like mini-games, third-person exploration segments, point-and-click adventure elements, and branching storylines dependent on player choice.
Kodaka and Uchikoshi have now teamed up on The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, and its balance of elements from both creators’ previous works, along with its implementation of turn-based tactical RPG combat and progression, positions The Hundred Line as a game that is perfectly poised to bring genre newcomers over to the world of visual novels. After spending roughly 60 hours with the game and achieving three of its 100 endings, I can confidently attest that The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is perhaps the perfect gateway to the visual novel genre, and an incredibly competent TRPG to boot. I went into The Hundred Line as a fan of turn-based tactics expecting it to check the typical genre boxes I look for, but that it only left me wanting to pick it up again and again to see how its many twists would unfold throughout its gripping sci-fi narrative was just further testament to how well it struck its unique balance of gameplay elements.
To be fair, there are many similarities between The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy and its creators’ previous games (including its featuring the artwork and character designs from Danganronpa‘s Rui Komatsuzaki), but to go in expecting Hundred Line as a pure blend of Danganronpa and AI: The Somnium Files would be doing the game a disservice. Rather, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy takes the best elements of visual novels — namely, some incredibly compelling characters and a story with plenty of shocking revelations, twists, and turns that all feel well-earned — and deftly blends them with a simple yet satisfying take on turn-based tactics that, together, work in concert to help deliver one of the more heartfelt and intriguing narratives in the genre, asking difficult questions about the point in holding out hope and fighting for a world whose fate was decided long ago and introducing players to the incredibly likable class of the Last Defense Academy.
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Compelling Sci-Fi Storytelling and Meaningful Choice Are at the Core of Hundred Line’s Narrative
The driving force behind everything in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is its narrative. But to describe any facet of what makes it so memorable and worthwhile runs the risk of spoiling a story that is best left for one to discover on their own through playing the game. To say that it’s best to go into Hundred Line blind is a bit of an understatement. Thankfully, the general premise, along with some familiarity with what Kodaka and Uchikoshi’s previous works have entailed, sets the stage for what to expect from Hundred Line‘s complex and thought-provoking sci-fi narrative.
You take on the role of Takumi Sakumo, who you quickly learn is one of many humans living in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic shelter simulating the real world. This shelter, the Tokyo Residential Complex, provides its citizens with a peaceful existence, which Sakumo is all too quick to relent, thanks to how it has led to every new day feeling the same as the last. That mundanity and routine are shattered when a group of strange creatures attack the complex and put both Takumi and his childhood best friend Karua in danger. With the aid of a mysterious mascot, Takumi activates a strange latent power known as “Hemoanima” to transform and fend off these invaders. After emerging victorious, though, Takumi faints, only to awaken in a mysterious compound with a group of fellow Hemoanima-gifted teenagers known as the Last Defense Academy. To survive, Takumi and his classmates must fend off the creatures (the “Invaders”) for 100 days, at which point a war-ending weapon will activate, and they’ll be able to return to their normal lives and loved ones in the Tokyo Residential Complex.
While that setup isn’t all that far removed from the “killing game”/Battle Royale-esque plotlines of the Danganronpa games (something which one of Takumi’s classmates frequently and humorously breaks the fourth wall to remind us of), the ways that The Hundred Line spaces out its grand reveals, including a choice to focus on the inter-class dynamic between the Last Defense Academy’s students in the interim, allows for each of the main plot points to hit with the weight of a dump truck. The game’s structure is defined in such a way as to support the steady drip-feed of major reveals and character development, with each new day at the academy (marked by an on-screen counter) paving the way for either new developments between classmates, a shocking story revelation regarding the purpose of the academy and the history of the “Invaders”, or any number of left-field twists and turns that, on multiple occasions, elicited audible gasps during gameplay.
Without delving into spoiler territory, the initial conclusion of the story only serves to set up a post-game that, ironically, feels like where the “real” Hundred Line experience begins, complete with a staggering number of branching story decisions that ultimately lead to any one of the game’s 100 different endings. Of course, those endings and the rising tension that leads to them would have little weight were it not for the game’s characters. Like the protagonists of both the Danganronpa games and AI: The Somnium Files, the Last Defense Academy’s students are genuinely well-written and fleshed-out personalities with backstories, motivations, and even more innocuous likes and interests that, the more you learn about them, the more the stakes of every decision are raised.
By the time I reached my first ending in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the cohort I had spent the past 100 days getting to know, and the game actually anticipates that in a way that allows you to learn more about the game’s world and overarching plot while also getting to spend more time with these characters. Combine that with the ability to eventually go back and review past branching story choices, and you have a title that incentivizes players who care about the story to explore every possible avenue, which The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy‘s combat makes even more worthwhile, time and time again.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy’s Story Is Backed Up By Rock-Solid Turn-Based Tactics
Playing through Hundred Line as a pure visual novel-style experience could have been a great game all on its own, thanks to the strength of its narrative. That it happens to fold in an accessible TRPG combat sandbox as the main crux of its interactive elements elevates it to something truly special. Takumi and his classmates’ ability to tap into the power of “Hemoanima” allows them to each transform into a unique “Class Armor” and “Class Weapon” befitting their personalities and backstories, which curiously translates to each class member fulfilling a specific TRPG/SRPG archetype. You start with basic classes like a standard warrior/fighter, a thief/ranger with long-range attacks who’s great at dealing AOE damage, a cavalry-type unit who gains buffs from movement and attacking enemies, and a standard berserker who deals devastatingly high damage with an axe at the cost of mobility. But from that initial setup of characters, you’ll eventually gain access to healers, characters who specialize in debuffs, knight-type combatants who excel at drawing enemy aggro and defending the rest of the team, snipers, and more.
Like The Hundred Line‘s steady story progression that draws players deeper and deeper into its narrative, the title’s gameplay is consistently rewarding thanks to new elements and mechanics being introduced at a regular pace that keeps things interesting without ever overwhelming the player. New enemy types come about at certain narrative choke points, boss-type enemies in the Invaders’ ranks, referred to as “Commanders”, begin to more regularly show up, and battles slowly but surely increase in length, complexity, difficulty, and scale. For a TRPG/SRPG veteran, The Hundred Line‘s combat might actually land a little on the easier side, as it favors accessibility, variety, and a satisfyingly quick progression and power curve over all else, but that’s part of what makes it so fun. As someone who has invested hundreds of hours in the genre across a myriad of different franchises and games, I found the relative simplicity and speed of The Hundred Line‘s battles to be very refreshing.
That speed is actually a major boon to any players who wish to grind out encounters, which is made possible through an in-game battle simulator that allows you to quickly accrue Battle Points, or “BP”. Through earning BP, players can regularly upgrade the Last Defense Academy members’ abilities alongside unlocking new ones. Each character has three class-specific abilities, bolstered by passive skills and special, situational abilities that are activated through accruing “Voltage” during battles. Voltage is a key component to success in encounters, generating every time a character attacks or, at a lower rate, when they take damage. Once Voltage reaches 100% or higher (up to a max of 300%), players can trigger any character’s “ultimate” Special Ability. And depending on the enemy units that this Special Ability eliminates, you’ll generate additional action points (AP) to spend in a single turn. With some careful gaming of the system that includes making sure to invest BP in abilities that increase Voltage generation, it’s entirely possible to trigger two or three Special Attacks in a single turn, eliminating vast swaths of enemies or ending an encounter outright.
Interestingly, the ability for fallen characters to revive at the end of a battle wave incentivizes players to go all out on the offensive, including the use of a unique risk/reward mechanic in the “Last Resort” attacks. These attacks are the same as the characters’ ultimate Special Ability attacks, but they can only trigger when a character’s health is critical and cost 0 AP or Voltage to use, at the cost of them dying afterward. In scenarios where the winning condition of a battle is to take down a challenging boss, you can actually use your units as human ammunition in a bid to quickly end the encounter, provided you play the Voltage system and Last Resort mechanic in your favor. Ultimately, while the TRPG battling in The Hundred Line might not have an incredible amount of mechanical depth, the number and variety of systems and tactics that are on display and available to the player strike a careful balance that makes each battle continually fun, fast-paced, and exciting.
Clever Incorporation of Social Sim Elements Connects The Hundred Line’s Gameplay to Its Gripping Narrative
But that’s not to say that the combat in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is the only interactive element that the game brings to the table. There are actually a surprising number of Persona-style social sim elements present in Hundred Line‘s non-combat sections, which play out during the class’ “Free Time” modes in-between battles and major story segments that eat up an entire 24 hours of the 100-day timeline. Initially, many of Takumi’s classmates at the Last Defense Academy will be reluctant to fight. But as the threat against humanity only continues to loom larger, it becomes apparent that Takumi will have to find a way to convince those who prefer to sit on the sidelines to join the fray, which requires gaining an understanding of their likes, dislikes, motivations, and backstories. This is done partially through simple conversations and spending time with classmates, but it also requires players to invest in two unique mechanics that have both narrative and gameplay payoff: the Gift-O-Matic and Persuasion sequences.
During days when the Last Defense Academy’s students have Free Time, Takumi can occupy himself with activities during both the “Morning” and “Afternoon” segments before settling in for the night. How players choose to spend their time during this window of opportunity is crucial to understanding how to sway reluctant combatants to join the team, learn more about the characters and get invested in the narrative, and improve your allies’ combat prowess. After spending Free Time simply hanging out with a classmate, you’ll learn about their interests, which unlocks special keywords that are capable of being referenced at any time in a “Report Card” viewable from the pause menu. These keywords are essential to understanding how to connect to your classmates, which is done through the creation and gifting of items produced in the academy’s Gift-O-Matic.
The Gift-O-Matic is a machine that can accept materials from the outside world and use them to craft almost anything. You’ll harvest these materials by choosing to explore the outside world surrounding the academy, which plays out as a sort of virtual board game in which Takumi and three allies will move along a grid of spaces, each of which is connected to a certain material type or event. The more you explore, the more items you’ll acquire (aided by bonuses granted to the specific members you choose to take with you on these excursions), after which you’ll be able to take your spoils back and create gifts in the Gift-O-Matic. The closer your bond with your classmates, the more you raise your “Grades” (similar in function to Persona‘s Social Stats), and the more you’ll be able to upgrade and enhance your allies’ combat abilities.
Similarly, you’ll need to use gifts as the proverbial olive branch to gain the trust of your more reluctant classmates, which will eventually give way to the pivotal moments where Takumi will need to convince them to join the fight. During these Persuasion sequences, you’ll use what you’ve learned about a character to provide the ideal responses geared toward persuading them to fight alongside the rest of the cohort, and The Hundred Line thankfully provides a bare minimum penalty for choosing the wrong dialogue choice by allowing a restart from the last correct one. These sequences are well-written and often provide both some levity and insight into a character’s motivations, but they also might be the one element of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy that could’ve been left on the cutting room floor, especially when you consider they only factor in a handful of times and then never show up again in the post-game.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy Is Head of the Class In Both Its Genres
Combining a visual novel with a TRPG/SRPG has been done before (just look at Vanillaware’s underrated 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim), but the precise mixture of elements from each genre is something that previous attempts have struggled with. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy excels as both a visual novel and a TRPG thanks to how it deftly balances elements from each to deliver an experience that is practically tailor-made to draw in fans of one and acclimate them to the other. It’s a phenomenal visual novel with an engrossing story and characters that also acts as a great introduction for players new to the TRPG subgenre, with a beginner-friendly and consistently rewarding combat sandbox. On the other hand, it’s a very solid TRPG that strips its mechanics back to the subgenre’s core elements, all while featuring a story and characters so good that it serves as the perfect bridge to bring newcomers into the world of visual novels.
As someone who has always admired visual novels from the outskirts but has always been hesitant to dive into the genre, it’s a testament to the greatness of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy that I now find myself eager to go back and play through its creators’ previous works. But that won’t be possible until I invest dozens more hours into Hundred Line‘s story in an attempt to unlock and see all 100 endings the game has to offer, which feels practically essential given how much enjoyment there is to be found in both its narrative and its TRPG gameplay.
The initial reveal and playable demo for The Hundred Line gave off the impression that it would be one of 2025’s many titles to watch, and getting the chance to play through the title and finding it hard to identify a single detractor that takes away from the experience only proves that it is indeed a very special game that will no doubt land for anyone who has even a remote interest in what it brings to the table.
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-
10/10
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Gripping sci-fi narrative with plenty of branching paths and endings dependent on player choice
- Compelling and well-written characters that are all too easy to get attached to
- Simple yet satisfying turn-based tactical gameplay with a strong progression loop and power curve
- Gorgeous cel-shaded visuals, excellent sound design, and top-notch voice acting
- Some padding of length that can make it feel like the “real” game doesn’t start until after reaching your first of 100 different endings
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy launches on April 24, 2025, for PC and Nintendo Switch. Game Rant was provided a Nintendo Switch code for this review.
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