The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

As many of you know, well-known Danganronpa director and screenwriter Kazutaka Kodaka left Spike Chunsoft in 2017 to form his own development studio, Too Kyo Games. And while all the developments they've been a part of so far have always been in collaboration with other teams, there's no doubt that the style and spirit with which they always imbue their games, as well as their character designs, remain true to the original vision. Even in Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, which they worked on with their former Spike colleagues, you can see how much of the Japanese creative is there.

However, the Danganronpa IP is still in the hands of Spike Chunsoft, but that hasn't stopped Too Kyo Games from approaching the formula again with a new story full of feelings, complicated decisions, dark humour and polarising themes, all under a convenient veil of high school shonen anime. The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy is part visual novel, part tactical JPRG, part management game and part tower defence. An impossible mix for almost anyone but them.

The story begins on a perfectly normal day where our protagonist Takumi Surimo has a leisurely breakfast before heading off to high school with his friend Karua. They both live in the Tokyo Residential Complex, an exact copy of the actual Japanese capital except that it is located inside a superstructure that isolates it from the outside. In this city from time to time alarms go off and the whole population must hide in shelters. What is the threat? Well, nobody knows (at least at this early stage of the game), but when Takumi and Karua come out of the shelter they were hiding in, they find the whole city in flames and swarming with murderous monsters that are slaughtering the population. They try to flee, but in the end the monsters surround them, and Karua is on the verge of succumbing to them... And she would have, except that a strange, semi-transparent, gummy-bear-like being wearing a bow tie, cane and brimmed hat tells her that either she sticks a sinister-looking katana she just put in her hands, or those monsters will kill and rape her friend (such as it is), and not in exactly the right order of action. Takumi decides (and this is important) to play along, and by plunging the weapon into her chest she awakens a strange power called "Hemoanima", with which she can deal with the creatures. After a flash, you wake up in a daze in what appears to be a high school classroom, surrounded by other strange and unfamiliar young people who have just been through a similar situation: the Last Defence Academy.

Together with the rest of your "classmates", you learn that Sirei, the being who gave you the weapons, has confined you to the academy with no possibility of escape and has implanted a bomb in each of you, which will explode if you try to run away, harm him or not comply with his orders: The objective is to defend the school for one hundred days, not one more, not one less.

From here, a rather surprising story is established, albeit with many similarities in structure to Kodaka's other choral narratives. Each of the 14 fellow academy members (again, a usual number for the screenwriter's supporting characters) have unique fighting styles and personalities, which we see develop in the interludes between battles. They can all be quickly identified as "anime" character archetypes, such as the cold and calculating girl, the good-hearted scaredy-cat, the shy "diamond in the rough", or the crazy lovers of chaos. Their weight in the narrative is paramount, as only by learning their strengths and weaknesses can we combine them in the squads of four characters we interact with in combat, seeking a balance between speed, strength and stamina.

In combat, a turn is established between our team of defenders and the monsters using AP points. These points can be used up each turn or reserved for the next turn, which is interesting when you're waiting for groups of enemies to approach to attack with a more effective area sweep. The most important thing is to make sure that no group of monsters gets out of control and to charge up enough voltage to use the special ability at the best moment, which is often decisive.

To upgrade the characters and their equipment we will have to obtain materials, which in turn requires leaving the safe area of the academy to farm them. Again, these alone are fairly simple systems in their premise, but when articulated and combined they create a whole that works. Especially since the voice acting work that accompanies the entire story of The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy is fabulous for almost all of its characters. However, I think it's time to raise expectations with Too Kyo Games. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is a remarkable game, but there are certain sections, especially those in between battles, where we move around the academy and socialise, where it felt blander. Still screens are no longer as effective at telling a story, and series like Persona have shown us that you can integrate visual novel mechanics into dynamic sequences. I think it would have gained a lot if they had gone for this change, although I understand that it may be part of the creative team's visual identity. And while the story is good, I couldn't help thinking almost from the first moment that this was some kind of return to the school universe of Danganronpa and that it could have been better distanced from it.

If you liked this team's previous works and tactical games like Fire Emblem, The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy is a recommended choice. However, I'm left with the feeling that it's a good idea that missed an opportunity to be something even more unique.