The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy – Looks like a must play for Dunganronpa fans

Dangaronpa Creator Kazutaka Kodaka once told his Twitter followers that he doesn't care if his projects sell well. Instead he prefers to make games that he and others with similar sensibilities enjoy. The fact is that The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy – The twenty-minute anime-style cutscene will begin, suggesting that his ideas on game design haven't changed much since then, though that doesn't mean the upcoming title isn't still full of interesting stuff. New ideas.

Away from the hustle and bustle of the Tokyo Game Show, on the 48th floor of a nearby hotel, about 40 video game journalists and influencers from around the world have gathered to hear Kodaka talk about his new game. At first, he seems a bit nervous, but as the event progresses, he begins to grow in confidence, perhaps inspired by his obvious passion for the project and the audience's positive response. He's eager to share as much as he can with them about his latest creation, but also reluctant to give too much away too soon.

The Hundred Line combines story and strategy RPG elements

First revealed during the Nintendo Direct in June, The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy – is a strategic RPG with adventure game elements. Its story follows Takumi Sumino, a regular teenager living in a domed city known as a Tokyo residential complex. One day after demons suddenly attack the city, a creature named SIREI appears and grants Takumi the power he needs to save those he loves, but awakening this power causes him to lose consciousness. When he finally arrives, he finds himself in a mysterious school with 14 strangers, and together, this rag-tag group of teenagers must fend off the invaders and survive for the next 100 days.

During most of these days, players will be free to explore the titular academy, where they can train or interact with Takumi's classmates. There isn't time to go through them all today, but Kodaka shares some of his favorites. There's Amemiya Darumi: an emotionally unstable girl with “crazy eyes” and a love for death games; and Takemaru Yakushiji: an “old-fashioned Yankee” who rides a motorcycle into battle. Their designs are similar to those found in many Dangaronpa games, so fans of Kodak's earlier work should feel right at home here.

Speaking of Kodak's previous titles, almost half of the voice actors are in The Hundred Line Kodaka has done the job before. This includes fan-favorite Megumi Ogata, who played Makoto Negi and Nagito Komaeda. Dangaronpa series. Kodaka jokes that he and the team wanted to hire Sylvester Stallone to play SIREI, though the actor they ended up with seems equally accomplished. All of the game's main characters are voiced in some capacity and will have multiple interactions available over the course of 100 days, encouraging players to regularly engage with them between battles.

Hundred Line's battle system has many unique mechanics

Wars in the The Hundred Line Are turn-based and take place on a grid, players must defend the tower from numerous waves of attackers before taking on the boss. Each character has their own unique attacks and abilities that are inspired by their personality and some enemies are faster than others, so players need to think carefully about how they spend their AP and how they take down attackers. Kodaka points out that it's also possible to carry over unspent AP to the next turn, so there may be situations where it's better to end a turn quickly rather than fight fruitlessly.

As they perform additional actions, players will build up a special gauge known as a voltage meter, which, once filled, allows them to launch a devastating attack that ends their current turn. Players will also be able to sacrifice characters who are low on health using the “decisive death” mechanic, although there is no way to revive characters in battle, requiring them to think carefully about how and when to use it. Sacrificing a character too early can leave players short-handed later in the fight, while leaving it too long can cause a character to die needlessly.

Although the player's healing options are limited, Takumi has the ability to rewind time, meaning players will be able to replay certain parts of the battle with knowledge of what will happen next. Kodaka describes it as a kind of easy mode, but given how many mechanics are in play and how different all of the game's playable characters behave in combat, mastery The Hundred LineThe battle system will still require a fair amount of strategy with this prior knowledge, especially when it comes to commander fights.

The Hundred Line should appeal to Dunganropa fans

It's clear that a lot of thought has gone into the design of the game's battle system, but Kodaka still sees it The Hundred LineStory as its main selling point. He reveals that there is a heavy emphasis on player agency, with bad decisions both in and out of combat being able to permanently kill certain characters. Although he wasn't able to elaborate further, he did claim that the title is “fundamentally different” from other multi-ending games, with 100 “extremely frustrating endings” available in total. Players don't need to see all of this to understand the story, but there is plenty of additional lore for those who want to.

Based on all the above, it seems reasonable to say The Hundred Line shares more than a few similarities with Dangaronpa series, the most obvious of which is that they both have stories that take place primarily in schools. When asked why this is, Kodaka explains that he prefers to work with teenage protagonists, as they are usually more interesting and find it easier to grow up and mature as the story unfolds. He looks very vague Dangaronpa The comparisons, though, probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given the success of the 2010 series.

Kodaka may not care how well his games sell, but his success seems to have a lot riding on it The Hundred Line. In a recent interview with Famitsu, he revealed that his company took on a fairly large loan to fund the development of the game. Since doing so, they've been able to find a publishing partner in Aniplex, but the fact that Kodaka and his team were willing to go to such extreme lengths to secure funding for the game shows just how much they believe in it. If this is anything to go by, their belief seems justified.