What would you do to win a war? That’s the question a group of teenagers finds themselves asking when they wake up in a school. Under attack from invaders, they must survive 100 days before they can go home. But when nefarious forces hamper their efforts, lines are crossed just to keep everyone alive. The students must decide what outcomes are worth fighting for while solving several mysteries along the way.
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is a story-rich adventure game from Too Kyo games that tests your planning ability. The replayability and variety of endings piques your interest and keeps you occupied. However, the game also takes a lot of time to complete. Some content could also benefit from additional content or elaboration. But despite the daunting length, The Hundred Line provides a special story that you are glad to finish.
The story follows Takumi Sumino, an ordinary Japanese high school student. As he is walking home with his friend Karua, invaders attack the neighborhood. After Takumi somehow gains the strength to fight them off, he passes out and awakens in a school. Together with other students, he is told he must fight invaders on humanity’s behalf for 100 days. Most of the story is told through the visual novel format along with still images and cutscenes. Several mysteries are quickly established to hook you in, keeping you on your toes as the truth is slowly revealed. This helps maintain your curiosity as you learn the truth, keeping you glued to the narrative. Thanks to the large amount of endings, you have great replayability that lets you learn something new about the story.
The replayability is The Hundred Line’s greatest strength since it makes you wonder what’s around the corner. With 100 endings, you have several opportunities to see how your choices impact the game. Each ending path provides opportunities for further character development, giving everyone a chance to shine. By the time you reach the end, you gain an in-depth appreciation of the story that helps you understand the game’s themes.
However, the amount of content is a double-edged sword. You can easily take just about 100 hours to complete the first 100 days, then another 100 for the other endings. Most of the ending routes begin to blur and seem similar after a while, especially because of the combat. While viewing everything helps your understanding of the story, it also means going through lots of repetitive content. After 50 endings, the shine wears off and it becomes a routine. This makes it less likely that players continue playing because they don’t see an end. You either play infrequently and take breaks or play through everything as fast as you can. While you can get a good experience with a few ending routes, you don’t know what you get without a guide. This means going through several routes without the full picture and feeling frustration since there’s more content to get through.
Turn-based combat is the second part of The Hundred Line where the objective is to defend a barrier generator. Other objectives involve defeating enemies or bosses depending on the story. You control characters on a grid and everyone takes an action depending on the number of Action Points available. Enemies take their turn once you are done and this repeats until you win or lose.
Each character has a unique ability that empowers them during combat. They can also access powerful special moves after accumulating enough Voltage through their actions. One of the interesting parts about combat is that characters are encouraged to fall in combat as you can use special moves once your health is low enough at the cost of a character’s life. Survivors also gain additional Voltage with their actions when someone falls in combat. This turns the usual strategic caution on its head. While you still cannot act with reckless abandon, riskier strategies are now more feasible than in other games. Suddenly sacrifices stop holding you back and become legitimate strategic maneuvers. It’s a great way to experiment while detaching yourself from characters, knowing they always return in the next battle. This isn’t a gimmick either as your battles genuinely become easier when you stop worrying about casualties.
Every character also gets a chance to shine on the battlefield, especially if you invest in their upgrades. While everyone develops their favorites overtime, you can use any combination of characters to win the day. This allows a variety of strategies to become feasible as you discover new combinations. There is no single strategy that lets you win, giving you creative freedom to decide how you want to resolve a battle.
However, the lack of enemy variations in combat quickly becomes stale. You can skip battles that you have previously completed but this happens for a majority of battles. It feels like battles become troublesome annoyances instead of intense conflicts. As the game goes on, this feeling compounds, making you yearn for more unique battles. Those battles are few but are the most memorable, making the others feel like wasted opportunities.
During the game’s breaks, you have a chance to give gifts to teammates, explore, or upgrade abilities. These are nice intermissions that help you connect with other characters and boost your subject grades that lead to further upgrades. While they are nice and humorous in their own way, there isn’t much to do. This often leads to Free Time becoming pointless later on after you have completed everything.
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- takes you on a great adventure with lots of content to explore. Combat is engaging and every character gets a chance to shine. However, the game length is considerably long and all parts of it begin to wear on you towards the end. It’s definitely a unique way of telling a story with 100 endings but looping through all of them is not easy. Prepare for the long haul if you want to get the most out of this game.
Victor reviewed The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- on PC with his own bought copy.
